Amid the immediate concerns about addressing the credit crisis looms a larger question: how do we build up the American economy? This article explains why the bursting of the housing bubble differs from previous busts and how an energy technology revolution is urgently needed to ensure that America thrives.

It’s pretty clear that drill, baby, drill offers, at best, the relief of a chocolate bar to a mouth full of cavities. While there are many less rotten alternatives to drilling, deciding which alternative(s) to pursue requires a discussion about government’s role in energy policy. Such discussions have no place amid our current election fascination with flag pins, lipstick, elitism, and who has best co-opted the word “change.” So, allow us to offer our top five list.

You can put lipstick on an empty milkshake, but it’s still an empty milkshake.

During her recent homecoming speech in Alaska, Gov. Palin rallied the crowd into an oily frenzy, cheering: “drill, baby, drill”. Sen. McCain, Pres. Bush, and a host of others (Democrats too) have been arguing for increased oil drilling in coastal waters. The hope is that more oil will provide relief from high gasoline prices and dependence on hostile nations like Iran. Right? Hogwash. This article gives five reasons why we should NOT drill, baby, drill.

In the latest case of pre-election pandering, both McCain and Obama have made the miraculous campaign promise of lowering gasoline prices while also cutting US carbon dioxide emissions. Although the strategy might earn them votes come November, it’s time for Americans to realize that we can’t have cheap oil and cut emissions too.

Solar energy is cheap, renewable, clean, and technologically feasible — and we can harvest it in space. Read more here

Calls for action from ex-CEOs, GM striking partnerships with utilities, expansions in battery production, preparation by city governments — this last week has been a beehive of activity as plug-in hybrids are getting closer and closer to mass-market reality.

In a speech delivered on Thursday in Washington DC, Al Gore challenged the nation to generate 100% of its energy with clean and renewable energy by 2018. If successful, his plan would sharply decrease global warming emissions while improving economic security in ten short years. However, the challenges are vast. Below are six of the biggest, technical, economic, and political challenges that will make Gore fail.

Et tu, Arnold? On January 31, 2008, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the prominent California Republican, endorsed John McCain. Just six months later, Schwarzenegger sharply criticized the plan to open new drilling lands as “blowing smoke” at the American people, a plan which McCain and Bush have strongly supported. In an even more surprising move ensured to rile Republican ranks, Schwarzenegger praised Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, for his leadership on climate change.