Even in a White House trademarked by ignorance, Bush’s negligence of our onrushing energy crises is shocking. Global warming, extreme weather, environmental degradation, the panic waiting at the end of oil—all of these horrors Bush dismisses with a “What, me worry?” smirk. You and I may survive his ignorance. Our children won’t.

Since Republicans are clueless, Democrats can own this issue. But only if we act. And we have to act on a grand, Rooseveltian scale.

Commit to a National Industrial Policy on Energy. Put the Party unequivocally on record for renewable energy. Select three army bases that are slated for closing and convert them to energy technology campuses, as exist in Germany. One will be for solar energy, one for tidal, one for wind.

Research at our great universities is mainly dependent on Pentagon funding. Pull the DOD plug and replace it with a DOE plug. Endow a dozen chairs in photovoltaic technology at MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford. Create a million-dollar Al Gore Prize, awarded each year to the scientist who has done the most to advance renewable energy.

Put the federal government on a green energy diet. Run high-visibility sites like Camp David 100 percent off renewables.

Price Tag, Schmice Tag: America simply has to do this. Republicans, of course, will call us Big Spenders. But how dare they play the fiscal responsibility card now? Their wars, tax cuts and Rx giveaways have bankrupted the country. In every instance White House cost estimates have been ludicrously wrong. Their credibility is zilch. And anyway, this is something the nation simply has to do. It will cost what it costs.

And oh yes—Don’t forget to play The Blame Game. Hold Republicans accountable. Blame is just the guilty party’s name for accountability. Any state trooper will tell you, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse” and that applies to nature’s laws, too. Voters have a right to know which party not only kept its head in the sand but actively spread disinformation on global warming. Every flood, every drought, every raging forest fire will remind them, and every tropical storm serious enough to earn a first name will also acquire an unspoken middle initial: W.

Dems: Share your photo ops with photovoltaics. To be the party that takes survival seriously, Democrats must teach by example. We need to become unabashed salesmen for renewable energy. Every potential Democrat candidate should today build a solar array on his roof. He should share his photo ops with photovoltaics. He should make his speeches at wind farms, not hog farms.

As long as renewables can be dismissed as “pie in the sky” all kinds of mud pies and cow pies will be dished up as solutions instead. “Clean” coal, oil sands, oil shale, ethanol, nuclear power--all are false answers, but debunking them sends a mixed signal. Better to treat them with benign neglect, letting them debunk themselves.

The thing is, people can smell doubt. The Kennedy family’s NIMBY rejection of the Cape wind farm set the cause back for years. Kennedys are held to a higher standard. Ask not if a windmill ruins your view--ask if you’d rather look at a coal-fired plant.

Must a cure for cancer be cheaper than a funeral? “Realists” insist that nobody will buy renewables unless you make them cheaper than fossil fuels. That’s like saying nobody will buy a cure for cancer unless you make it cheaper than a funeral. That’s ridiculous. Life has value which can’t be computed in dollars.

Wind power grew 24 percent last year. But it will take a decade of 24 percent increases to get us where we need to be. We can start now. And while we’re at it, for a change, we can win a goddamn election.