One of the many jokes of all this energy talk is that when the candidates put out their hands and start counting their fingers listing off "wind, solar, nuclear..." they aren't addressing remedying fuel prices/shortages at all. Most oil is used for cars; hardly any of these other energy methods will be used for cars. So the idea of not funding alternative energy because gasoline is cheap again is a misconstrusion.

The way I've heard it presented is that the wind, solar and nuclear power will be used to charge the hydrogen fuel cells. Even if that technology were ready, it doesn't address the carnage issue.

"Police sources said driver Charles Joseph will not face criminal charges."

"No charges expected in accident that left Staten Island woman gravely injured."

"Police said it is unlikely that the SUV's driver will face any criminal charges."

"the victim, a woman, was hit and killed by an SUV. We could find no media reports of the incident."

"Dees and Sullivan died at Beth Israel Medical Center. Neither taxi driver faces criminal charges, police said."

"Bailey wasn't charged with anything and was allowed to drive his truck from the scene an hour later."

These are all different incidents....

How many more times do we have to read "Police sources said driver Charles Joseph will not face criminal charges" ????

Yes, this is one of two major station rehabs (the other is Bleeker/Broadway/Lafayette) approved as part of the 2000-04 MTA Capital Plan.

The goal was to provide free transfers, Jay/Lawrence (so fewer people would have to use all those stairs at 9th and 4th) and uptown 6 to Broadway Lafayette.

Doing that much work, however, requires handicapped access, which massively increases the cost. As over-runs proliferated, the Bleeker/Bwy/Lafayette project was cut but Jay/Lawrence was kept, because of the poor condition of Jay/Lawrence. Then Bleeker/Bwy/Lafayette was cut. Then it might have been put back. Then it was cut.

In any event, everything was delayed to the point where there is no money left and the cost of borrowing has soared. But both projects are designed.

Jay Street:
Does anyone know the deal with the Lawrence street station? No tiles on the walls at all. Is this the only underground station that looks like that?

It's likely that OPEC will establish $100 as the base for oil prices. Not a tax floor, but still a floor.

Of course, letting OPEC do it doesn't fund infrastructure in the U.S. But the silly optimist in me is looking forward to the next inauguration day.

I think there is an outside chance the majority of Americans have learned their lesson, as the ineffectiveness of McCain's gas tax gambit shows. Meanwhile, most pols are plagued by the ghost of the negative reaction to Jimmy Carter's call for sacrifice.

Maybe if we had some legislators who had been in office less than 20 years, we wouldn't have policies based on what happened 30 years ago.

In the meantime, on another blog someone posted a great suggestion. Rather than business suits, legislators should be required to wear NASCAR uniforms complete with decals, so we could identify their sponsors.

We could use the break in gas prices as a lucky opportunity to reorient or priorites towards sustainability. We now actually have a little more wiggle room with making the radical changes we need to accommodate the serious energy challenges we face down the road.

Putting a stiff tax floor on the price of oil would be a great place to start...

Or... we could always keep on partying like it's 1999 and living the fantasy that we don't live in a world with geological limits.

I fear it's is all too depressingly predtictable what Americans will chose...

Obama has pandered around the edges, but I'm hopeful of what he might propose. Less so about what Congress might pass. Indifference to the future and those who will live in it becomes bi-partisan when sacrifices are required in the present. Democrats like to pretend "big corporations" will pay for everything.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27271928/

Long run, we are left with much higher prices with no alternatives, again.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122446199550848849.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_marketplace

And once Americans buy a whole bunch more SUVs, and stop investing in both domestic drilling and alternatives, prices will soar again and crush our economy.

But the Democrats promise Americans cheap oil, and so do the Republicans, because that's what makes life easy in the short run. As long as you aren't a solider in Iraq.