Independence Day

The upcoming U.S. holiday is usually called "The 4th of July", but its actual name is "Independence Day". Americans celebrate this holiday in remembrance of the country's declaration of independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. I think it's time we started to work toward a new "independence day" for the United States -- independence from reliance on foreign oil coming from areas of the world that are not as friendly, accomodating, or hospitable as Great Britain has become. Who knows? Maybe 200 years after independence from the OPEC nations, the U.S. and those OPEC countries in the middle east may become strong allies and friends once our oil company employees and military personnel have left those nations' sacred soils. The United States declared independence from Great Britain, fought two wars against them, and yet became the world's closest allies. Perhaps the religion-based violence, mistrust, and acrimony directed at the U.S. by the oil producing Middle East will disappear once our filthy infidel feet are off their soil thanks to American ingenuity rallying around energy independence.

I don't need to rehash why wars are fought over oil, or how the American economy is held hostage by the OPEC leaders (a group of people that include some who have not only extorted the American people with the greatest transfer of wealth in human history, but who also wish us harm because of their religious beliefs), or how the average American citizen's life would be changed by a world where American energy is generated by American companies with no reliance on any other government or organization for its lifeblood. Anyone reading this already knows how important it is for Americans to immediately and definitively accelerate an enormous move from oil based energy to American based energy sources, including solar, wind, hydro, and yes, even nuclear.

I'm advocating a ramp-up of the move from oil to American based energy sources. Our government is spending $787 billion of our money for some sort of "recovery". Folks, that's about $200,000 for every unemployed person in the U.S.!!!* (Why didn't they just send checks for $100,000 to every unemployed person. You want to see stimulus? Wait 'til you see the spending that an unemployed person who was making $42,000 a year will do after receiving a check from Uncle Sam for one hundred grand!) Part of this money is set aside for stimulating the build-out of an infrastructure to deliver non-oil energy to Americans. I would NEVER advocate handouts of any sort, but now that the new quasi-socialist government is in place against my wishes, I would like to at least have that spending pointed more at things that will have long-term, lasting economic effect (e.g. American-based energy sources) than for things that will not (e.g. $200M for designing and furnishing the Homeland Security headquarters -- see http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2009/02/19/finding-the-pork-in-the-obama-stimulus-bill.html?PageNr=1).

Stimulus or not, a new generation of companies creating electricity and motive energy from sources other than oil needs to emerge now. It only took about 20 years for big oil to get big, once Henry Ford created the demand. The oil companies of the 1910-1930 period managed to build an ecosystem (ironic term) with exploration, wells, shipping, refineries, distribution, and millions of gasoline pumps located where people could get to them in just 20 years. We keep hearing how today's society moves so much faster. Is it unreasonable to think that the profit motive, the patriotic motive, the very real national defense motive, and all of our modern technology together can create a mass move to American energy independence in 20 years?

For our part, here at WinGreen Marketing Systems, we're devoting all of our efforts to helping clean tech, renewable energy, and smart grid developers, manufacturers, and service providers grow their businesses. We're not engineers. We can't figure out how to turn kelp into electricity. We don't know the first thing about photovoltaics, windmill blade pitch, or geo-thermal generation. What we do know is how to market and sell. Our commitment to the new American Independence Day is to use our years of experience in marketing, databases, online presence, and sales enablement to help the companies who are developing new technologies find new customers and find them fast.

Do you know someone in an early-stage alternative energy company that could use some assistance getting their products sold? We know how to deliver a steady stream of new business prospects, track follow-up progress, and make the marketing and sales process work efficiently. Call Don at 619.818.3533 from the West, or Tom at 610.505.6887 from the East to learn more, or visit us at www.wingreenmarketing.net.



*Economists consider 4% unemployment to be a practical "zero unemployment", as there is always transition in good times and bad, and there are also perpetually unemployable people. The current 8% unemployment is therefore 4% above "zero". With 100 million workers in the U.S., that's 4 million employees and want to work and are able to work, but can't find work. 787 billion divided by 4 million is $196,750 for every worker that is displaced by this recession.