Well said, David.

You are about to be pounded senseless by competing sets of data arguing that global warming is accelerating, not changing, or like Santa Claus, doesn't exist at all. You will be offered truckloads of contradictory, apple and orange comparisons which sound relevant to non-scientists, but with which it is impossible to reach any meaningful conclusions.

The president certainly made no secret of his desire to wean the country off of imported oil during the election, which means that we have to come up with 20 million barrels a day of crude in energy equivalent or savings somewhere. The problem I have with all of this is the environment is first and foremost an engineering issue. The last time I checked, both parties, even their most radical wings, agreed that the boiling point of water was 100 degrees C, the atomic number of carbon was 6, and the formula for carbon dioxide was CO2. That won't stop politicians from hijacking, emotionalizing, and clouding the issue. At stake is nothing less than the 10% of America's GDP that the energy industry accounts for, and the moving of substantial economic activity out of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana to the East and West coasts. Don't expect this to happen without a knockdown, drag out fight