The automobile industry has been “test driving” vehicles that get 60 to 90 miles per gallon of fuel for more than 25 years. I know, because in 1980 I went to Amherst, Mass., to interview popular economist and people-powered vehicle engineer George Benello for the local alternative weekly. He related some chilling tales about sabotage and submersion by the unholy alliance of the oil, auto and insurance industries committed to keeping fuel consumption high, auto efficiency and safety low.

When the alternative energy movement caught on in the ’70s – fueled by “the oil crisis” but also by anti-nuke fervor and a fascination with technology – the unholy trio mobilized. They systematically undermined the fledgling industries of solar, wind, low-head hydro, rammed earth, alternative fuel production and other technologies being developed by a generation of kids raised to love science who’d morphed into Whole Earth Catalog fans.

Ronald Reagan’s first official act as president was to take Jimmy Carter’s solar electric panels off the White House. (They were purchased by Unity College!) Like George Bush after him, he deep-sixed federal funding for research and development of new energy technologies, and de-railed laws like CAFE mileage standards that encouraged greater efficiency and conservation of resources. Now George II is at the wheel doing the same things.

What if we had continued building the alternative energy path we started to create a quarter of a century ago – one never abandoned by a handful of hearty souls like Richard Komp of Maine Solar Energy Association? Today we could be providing a substantial amount of our electricity as well as our heating and transportation fuels through local and regional generation, without creating a lot of pollution (and in many cases reducing it).

Think of the dollars and the pollution saved, think how geo-politics would have changed. Think of the jobs working in small manufacturing plants, delivering and installing systems, maintaining small wind and hydro motors, etc.! Think how this kind of development meshes with other strategies for creating wealth for Maine’s people without ruining Maine in the process.

Almost 30 years ago I set out to educate myself about energy. I used the interlibrary loan system, Popular Science, audited a couple of courses at UMass (no fee, no credits) and asked questions or just eavesdropped at lit. tables set up at fairs and concerts. It took about a year of my “spare” time, but the great thing about energy is that once you know how it works, you know what makes sense and what doesn’t. You can’t be conned by “experts” (who after all get paid by the industries they talk about).

For example: driving around Maine in an air-conditioned SUV is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Nuclear power is part of the problem, not part of the solution (on waste disposal alone this has always been obvious). Drying clothes in the dryer is part of the problem. Hauling food all over the country is part of the problem. Big box stores are part of the problem. Clogging the air with wood-smoke is part of the problem. Burning any kind of gas is part of the problem.

Thomas Jefferson wrote (I don’t usually haul out the white patriarchy but this is a quote I base my life on): “I know of no better repository for the ultimate powers of the People than the People themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it [control] from them, but to inform their discretion.”

Yes, informing the people is the chief purpose of the communications industry, so hopefully the Bangor Daily News will take its responsibility seriously and devote plenty of space to educating people about energy.

But it’s also our responsibility to go get the information. And then, to use it. Because nobody else is going to do that. Neither government nor industry nor academia is going to lead us away from technologies that make those who own them rich, and toward technologies that cost less to make and maintain, and which use energy that is cheap or free.

We need to talk about energy and work on energy agendas for our communities. We need to change the way we live, individually and collectively, and talk about that. If we do not, the generations that follow us will inherit a ghastly nightmare. To one who has enjoyed so much of the comforts and luxuries of our energy-gobbling society, that’s unacceptable. At the very least, we should do everything in our power-and that’s actually quite a lot – to pay for the feast we have consumed.

We have the opportunity to do much more. We cannot only pay back, we can pay forward. We can bequeath a cleaner, safer, saner world to our grandchildren. The technologies have been there for decades, and they work. Most of them are fairly simple. The resources to make the transition to a renewable energy economy already exist, and most of the changes can be made very rapidly.

There is only one thing lacking-the same thing that was lacking 25 years ago: the will of the People, speaking together to the government that was supposed to be of, by and for US. But that can only happen when we begin to talk with one another, when we take seriously our responsibility to learn and think, to listen and speak up. We have to shed the victim-spectator role and step up.

Step up America, before it’s too late.

Jane Livingston of Veazie is a freelance writer, editor and publicist. Her 1995 Cavalier has gone 130,000 miles; it has no AC and gets 28 mpg.