Obama wants immediate action to slash tax breaks for the oil and gas industry and reinvest in clean energy. What are the chances this will happen this decade?

Don't wait for him. Do it for yourself.

I have much respect for Mr. Obama, but his quest is the same as attacking Al Quaeda with a BB gun. The energy industry is firmly entrenched in Congress and at every level of government. What I believe will help the average person like you and me is the internet.

Mr. Obama's desire to slash tax breaks to the oil and gas industry is a noble one, but he will have his hands full convincing these people to reinvest in clean energy technologies when there is plenty of cheap (for them) old energy underfoot.

Imagine the power we would have being independent of others for the basics of life like heat and transportation!

What are the "clean energy" sources he talks about?

• Wind power generation.
• Solar power panels
• Nuclear... (better ask Japan about this one).
• Geothermal.
• Tidal power.

Great strides have been made in all of these, but there is a great distance to go yet before we can retire the oil supertankers. Let us hope that he brings the same resolved to creating North American energy independence as he has brought to the other programs he has managed to push through Congress.

Are you with me?

Yes, I know, you don't have to agree with any or all of what he has done. The man has courage and determination. It will take these qualities to make a dent in the armor of the energy giants and he will not succeed. This process will take decades and many more tough men and women.

As Obama wants immediate action, you and I have two powerful tools at our disposal that don't require political will:

First, using every bit of knowledge we have to conserve as much energy as we can by doing such things as super insulating our homes, driving hybrid cars and so on.

What about new ways of lowering costs? The best way I have found is to make sure your home has a "smart meter" to measure your electrical power consumption. It reports directly to your local power utility over the internet. The reward is that you are charged less for power used at off-peak times.

Where I live, if you program your clothes dryer to run after 10 P.M. during the weekdays, the electricity to dry your clothes costs almost exactly half of what it would during the day. The savings can be staggering.

Secondly, are you afraid the economy might tumble? President Obama wants immediate action. Fine.

What can we do? All our energy savings aren't worth much if you just lost your job and no other work is on the horizon for you.

There is no way that you can predict and protect yourself from everything. The greatest tool we all have is the internet. If you have the ambition to spend a little of your spare time to learning, you can build yourself home online incomes that are exempt from explosions in Afghanistan, unrest in Brazil, scumbags on wall street playing chicken with your future and just general bad luck or ill health.

President Obama wants immediate action to slash tax breaks for the oil and gas industry and to invest in clean energy. Hoorah for you, Mr. President and God speed. In the meantime, the rest of us should strengthen our security blankets using the biggest, cheapest tool the world has ever known, the internet. I call it "The River of Gold", but like any other unexplored river, it's treasures will only go to those willing to dare a bit.

Dare!