E is for Energy Crisis

Gizmodo pointed me to a happy thought piece on Wired called no solution to the energy crisis until we run out. The article is really worth a read if you have any vague interest in energy policy and how it will shape our lives, but the real meat of this article is an example of how government mandates can make companies do the impossible.

Short version of his allegory, is that there used to be a real problem with old refrigerators trapping and killing children.  Thing is, for some reason it is really fun to crawl into refrigerators and close the door, which would trap them and cause them to suffocate.  When they where told that this was a problem they blamed the victims, and said it wasn't a problem, or if it was a problem it wasn't theirs to fix, ect, ect.  Any of this sound familiar (we're an oil company why do we have to come up with the next fuel source.  We should focus on producing what we started as...)  Any way the refrigerator lobby tried to convince Congress it was a problem that couldn't be solved, well when the Refrigerator safety act passed they started making fridges that weren't little death traps.  Go figure, and they say Government cannot do anything right.  I'm starting to think, businesses cannot do anything right without a little sharp pointing stick pocking their bollocks to get them moving.

As an aside I only 31 but my parents totally had an old refrigerator and I most certainly did crawl into it and close myself in it so I can relate.  Not to worry it was antique and the motor had been removed so I had an air hole, scary but true story.