The crystal balls of carbon policy are working overtime to interpret the results of the mid-term elections.

Fossil fuel providers have been gleeful as most soothsayers suggest a cloudy future for clean energy, energy independence, and any progress on reducing carbon pollution.

Leaves fall and the air begins to bite. Time for the annual ritual of Halloween frights. Here are five of the scariest things on earth - - that is, if we hope for a sustainable economic future.
 

Reading tributes to the fallen tech hero, Steve Jobs, from around the globe, two things are clear to me - - his successor is likely to be in the clean energy sector and working somewhere other than the U.S.

Reading news from Washington DC, while spending a week in China, it seems to me that some members of Congress are backing policies that would make America much more like China - - without any of the economic benefits.

In the race to compete in a global economic recovery, the US may have a secret weapon against rivals like China and even economies closer to ours, such as Canada.  China may be graduating more engineers and scientists; Canada may have a better health care system; but the US has an unlikely secret weapon that has put American companies and workers in a position to race ahead of the pack for years to come - - the USEPA.
 

s summer gives grudging way to our back-to-work lives, busy execs will likely compare notes at Chamber of Commerce luncheons about the economy and job creation.

We can all imagine those conversations, given recent market and political news, but here are a few you won't be likely to overhear.
 

Ever see those signs that say, "If you lived here, you'd be home by now"? 

They're usually affixed to urban revitalization projects located near mass transit hubs (of course you're commuting another hour to your sprawl development in the 'burbs when you read it). 

Dickens begins his novel with the famous line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Were he writing today about the two American cities—Lexington, Mass. and Colorado Springs, Colo.— he might say, “It was the brightest of towns, it was the dimmest of towns.” In this case, bright and dim refer quite literally to light levels, but also to the decision making of two very different sets of civic leaders.

The House of Representatives has proposed legislation to cut USEPA funding by almost 20% and curtail its ability to tackle a wide range of pollution issues. 

The regulated industries and their allies in Congress may be hopeful of reduced cost and a less intrusive government, but they should be very careful of the Law of Unintended Consequences. 

Fingers crossed. BP’s oil leak has apparently stopped shy of 200 million gallons spewed into the Gulf of Mexico and a few million more burned off into plumes of toxic smoke. Many have dubbed it the worst environmental disaster in American history. In my view, it’s not even close, but shares a great deal in common with those that are on the “top ten worst” list - - and offers lessons we can profit from.

Everyone loves a “man bites dog” story. Not everyone likes those tales, however, if they embarrass someone in the process.

Last week, oil company executives testified to Congress about energy policy in the wake of BP’s ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A casual observer may have thought we were transported to an alternate universe. At one session, Representative Joe Barton of Texas apologized to BP for what he called a White House “shakedown” (because President Obama demanded a $20 billion escrow account from BP to ensure that damage claims will be paid). 

Earlier this year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke about discovering that truckloads of single-use plastic shopping bags imported into his war-torn nation were squandering precious resources of fuel while risking the lives of truck drivers as they passed through insurgent held territories.

In 1950s science fiction movies, irradiated monsters would emerge from the sea to level Tokyo as horrified citizens flee. In 2011, as a sign I saw last week in Tokyo airport attests (see photo), Japan faces a real-world nuclear nightmare and the very daunting task of rebuilding cities and an entire nation’s energy grid. An innovative American ad campaign may be at least one way to slay the dragon and build a more sustainable future.

A recent study by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York discovered that America spends a "staggering" $76.6 billion every year to cover the health expenses of our children who get sick because of exposure to toxic chemicals and air pollution. 

On Earth Day last week, I saw a burger wrapper tossed from an old Buick and was stunned that anyone still thought it was OK to use our shared city habitat as a personal dumpster. Later that same day however, I saw a homeless man pick up a Styrofoam cup from the gutter and drop it in a trash can nearby, a tsk-tsk look clearly visible on his face.
 

Wars in the Middle East and oil rig blowouts in the Gulf have given us gasoline in the range of $4 to $5/gallon.  Growing concerns over asthma-inducing pollution from coal fired power plants, not to mention mercury pollution in food supplies and greenhouse gas emissions, have resulted in the termination of numerous coal projects and even the TVA announcing it would soon close eighteen existing coal facilities.
 

America, it could be worse. We could be Europe. I mean, we’re still mostly in the race with China - - in the past five years, they improved energy efficiency by nearly 20% and have a new five-year plan for another 20%. I say big deal - - the Empire State Building recently completed an energy efficiency upgrade and cut its consumption by nearly 40% after only nine months of remodeling. 

The ferocious tsunami that devastated Japan's coast is a tragic reminder that we have an uneasy relationship with our oceans. While we can't prevent earthquakes, we can minimize at least some of the damage from tsunamis on American shores by dealing with climate change and rising ocean levels now.

A few weeks ago in Lamont, California, a fighting rooster killed a man, when the bird slashed him with the blades he had attached to its legs.