Drilling, or something else?

Just a couple of articles in today's Volkskrant (Dutch paper--traditionally Catholic, long time ago, now somewhat left of center, though not as far as twenty years ago): the release of a big study done on behalf of the government on how to prepare this country (one third of it below sea level) for rising sea levels due to climate change. There will be some big projects in the next decade or two, very big, but potentially we're talking about an increase of several feet in the next half century. Then there was a piece on how members of parliament want improve their carbon-neutral travel program and have it work only with credible projects. There has been this program (to offset the production of greenhouse gasses when members of parliament travel on business) since 2005. I certainly had never heard of it. I don't think Congress has one. The example the article gave was of a windmill project in Turkey that's going to receive support whenever a Dutch parliamentarian travels on business. The Dutch, another article reported, are also becoming more open to revisiting nuclear energy as an alternative to oil and gas. Even the left Socialists don't want to rule it out. Of course, Holland is in Europe, and Europe has made itself a little too dependent on the mobsters in Moscow for their energy needs. Still, it was interesting to read this stuff while listening to radio reports on the Republican convention. Energy policy for them, it seems, is still mostly synonymous with finding new places to dig for coal and drill for oil and gas. If these are party leaders, they're not doing their followers a service.