Political Blogging: A One Scene Play

"Eva?" asked the man at the dining room table, newspaper spread in front of him.
"Yes, Jack?" replied his wife, pausing between bites of green salad with maple mustard vinaigrette dressing.
"I've been thinking," he said, his newspaper steady. "We're paying too much for fuel, for the house and for the car, and it's high time we do something about it." He half-folded his paper and ate a forkful of macaroni salad.
She smiled. "Oh, Jack, I've been waiting to hear you say that for years now. Dick's Fuel and Internet Supplies is expensive and overcharges us on almost every bill, and I can't count how many times we've bought a fuel contract with them only for them to declare the contract null and void when prices have gone up because they crossed an 'i' instead of dotting it."
"I know, and it's high time we took back control!"
"So, dear, what are the plans? Are we switching to solar panels and energy efficient light bulbs?" she queried.
"Nah, that's too much work."
"What about a new hybrid car? They have great gas mileage, and I saw-"
Jack cut her off. "Nah, too expensive. I mean, that much for that small a car? Besides, I'm keeping the pickup."
She frowned a little. "Are we weatherproofing the house for the winter? Or getting a better furnace that burns less fuel? You know Eddie's been complaining about his room being cold."
"Aw, the kids just a whiner, Eva. His room's warm enough for me, it should be warm enough for him!"
Her face frosted enough to chill the room a couple of degrees. "Eddie does't feel that way."
He caught her tone and folded down his newspaper, looking a little worried. "Aww, cmon hon, you know I didn't mean anything by that," he protested.
Her face remained hard. "So you say. And back to the point: what do you propose to do about the fuel bills, mister?"
His face changed from worried to all smiles. "Well, remember how when we bought this place the surveyor said there was some coal deep on our property, near the jungle gym and the reflecting pool? I figure it's time we dig that coal up."
"You want to do WHAT?!" she shouted. "Have you gone out of your mind? Eddie plays in the backyard! I sit next to that pool!"
"Yeah, but it's not like it's near my barbeque pit," he said defensively. "Besides, we need to cut the fuel bill."
"You're going to wreck Eddie's backyard for the summer to cut the fuel bill? Just how much coal are we talking about?"
"A few months worth, only it'll take a couple of years to dig it all out. And we won't be able to get any coal out this summer, because the deposit's too deep to reach immediately.
"you're going to wreck Eddie's backyard for *three* summers to cut the fuel bill? You want to wreck his childhood memories to save a few months on the fuel bill?? And this is better than energy-efficient bulbs how again???"


The above is the current Administration's energy policy - keep you and me paying large sums for energy from the Middle East among other places, stop or delay implementation of fuel-efficient technologies, provide big government money to keep those nonrenewable-fuel companies going while barely spending anything for renewables, and to add insult to injury use the prices as an excuse to drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve, which doesn't have enough oil to be more than a drop in the bucket of our energy use.

Even before you look at where the money's going, that's simply not a sound energy policy.