Irony: A Study

Recently Energy Secretary Chu admitted the Administration is fine with high gas prices, because high gas prices provide an incentive for alternative sources of energy.  I then heard a snippet of the President discussing the virtues of algae and that it may be the energy panacea we've been waiting for.  He then added something to the effect of, "This is going to take some time."  At this point, I broke out in laughter, not because of the seemingly out-of-nowhere idea of algae as a substitute for oil, but for the irony in which the Administration now finds itself.

The President has to appear like he has a plan. He understands that it's very difficult – maybe impossible – to win an election with high gas prices. He needs to change the narrative and change the focus (he is the "change President," remember?) to new energy independence using algae wind, and all of the above! 

Let's stick with algae. Let's imagine that all of the physical impediments could miraculously be removed, and algae juice is invented today, and it works; gas stations have no problem pumping the algae juice; automobiles purr like kittens when fueled with the stuff.  Everything is in place, and we could use algae this week, right? 

Wrong. 

Finding the actual solution is the easy part, negotiating Leviathan's labyrinth is much more difficult: forms must be filled out, positions taken, studies commissioned, permissions granted, regulations defined, reports filed, etc.  Oh, and we mustn't forget to add to the catalog of departments: the new Department of Algae, or "DOA" – appropriate acronym I think – so we don't overlook the concerns of the algae lover constituency.

Consider that it is taking over three years to survey the Keystone XL pipeline, and still, it's not good enough. More studies are needed (yes, I know there are politics at play, but that's partly my point). Think about it. It's a pipe and oil goes through it. We've done this before; we know how to make pipes; we know how to pump oil through them; we know how to do it over long distances.  I know that we need to understand the environmental effects, but does it really need to take more time to study than the entire time of our effort in WWII?  Really?

Or, let's take a gander at the progress in New York City at the location of the horrific atrocities on 9/11. It's been almost 10 and half years, and nothing notable is standing. Why? Who knows? Maybe they ran into another zoning law required by the department of something-or-other, or this regulator doesn't agree with that regulator, or maybe the first study of the effects of shade on pavement was incomplete, so there needs to be a study to find out why that study is incomplete.

Can you imagine Jonas Salk discovering a cure for polio now? Our grandchildren might receive its benefits, but those of us currently living will die from the disease long before the cure gets certified to the half-way point of the labyrinth. The labyrinth-ian consequences regarding health care and medicine are much different and not as amusing as algae. Imagine this isn't algae or some pie-in-the-sky fantasy, but the latest proven procedure/cure for insert-your-disease-here that is now entering the labyrinth to be studied, certified, registered, stamped and adopted by the department of insert-your-disease-here and the centurial delay does not just cost dollars and inconvenience, but lives and wellness. 

The fact is we're mummified with bureaucratic red tape to the point that our movement is barely measurable. The Left, with all their good intentions, has placed us in a tomb out of which we can barely climb to make a simple pipeline, not to mention achieve energy independence.

That's the irony. The Big-Government-in-Chief's objective will be stymied by the exact apparatus that he, and people that share his view, put in place. 

I wonder if there will be a study on that.