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Stan Goff: Kerry's "Energy Plan"

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John, John, John...There You Go Again Kerry's "Energy Plan" By STAN GOFF
"Imperialism is the political expression of the accumulation of capital in its competitive struggle for what remains still open of the non-capitalist environment" -Rosa Luxemburg, "The accumulation of capital," 1913 "Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington told delegates tothe Democratic National Convention on Wednesday that John Kerry would help America reduce its dependence on foreign oil if he is elected president. The Democratic senator was tapped to give a brief speech on Kerry's energy policy. Cantwell is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee... Cantwell touted Kerry's support for alternative fuels such as wind energy, which she said willhelp the United States wean itself off foreign oil. She said the development of alternative fuels also could help create jobs... She compared Kerry's commitment to alternative fuel technology to President Kennedy's efforts to land a man on the moon... 'This Massachusetts senator is going to lead our generation of Americans to energy independence,' she said." -Erin Kelly, Gannett News Service,August 12, 2004 ohn Kerry smells environmental blood these days. The Republican's eager biospheric vandalism would alarm even the most phlegmatic observer, and this is a perfect seg for the Kerry strategy-proving he is not George W. Bush. While the Republicans leverage our fears of the menacing Dark Other, the Democrats leverage our fear of Republicans. Now Kerry has engaged the Battle of theBonesmen with a new ally--the eco-capitalists. He has become the proponent of tax subsidies to energy snake-oil salesmen and has eagerly joined the think-tank neocons in ritualized public Saudibashing as part of the "energy independence" delusion. I'm going to repeat a theme here that doesn't get much play elsewhere--Counterpunch's value is that we can speak plainly here and don't have to pretend wesupport capitalism here in order to legitimate ourselves--that our "energy problem" cannot be solved by capitalism. The sooner those of us who want to preserve some semblance of a viable biosphere for future generations understand this, the better. Our environmental and energy crises are caused by capitalism. That's not original, but it is controversial. John Kerry, just as much as George W. Bush, isas full of shit as a Christmas turkey on energy. Still, well-meaning environmentalists will flock to the polls this year to elect this charlatan... because we are afraid. And because we haven't looked closely at capitalism, which is an expansionary system at its very core, and which--in my considered opinion--must be taken apart root and branch, or the planet upon which we all depend will beconverted, as it is being converted right now, into a microtoxified industrial trash heap... under the John Kerries every bit as much as under the George W. Bushes. I'm not a scientist, but I can read and search the internet, as anyone reading this can. Figuring out this energy business is certainly harder than studying for an undergraduate mid-term, but it's not something that requires years ofdisciplined study. A little curiosity and patience will yeild a wealth of information about 'energy,' and can quickly disabuse us of the eco-capitalist swindle. Here is my own admittedly didactic account of what I have discovered. The Warning Shot "Energy... is certainly linked to, or behind almost any international event, crisis. war, military adventure or environmental catastrophe that we are forcedto witness almost any day," points out Andrew McKillop, a founding member of the International Association of Energy Economists, "and which are due either solely or mainly to our urban industrial civilization and fossil energy habit...Attack of New York's Twin Towers can best be thought of as a warning shot. Three airplanes crashed into three nuclear power plants will produce three Chernobyl...