In my day job, I counsel my colleagues to stay positive, to focus on the solutions that each and every one of them is putting forward to generate real progress for our environmental challenges. And I've tried to do the same thing with my writings on Switchboard.

But it is all too easy to slip into anger and preachiness when reading about last-minute land grabs and regulations proposed by the Bush administration or continued intransigence by the dirty fuel and auto industries. Earlier this week, it was a piece in the Washington Post titled "The Car of the Future -- but at a Price" that made me question the future.

The story by reporter Steve Mufson includes a colorful quote from James Womack, a longtime management expert who has written extensively about the auto industry.

"You'd think from reading the media that we have had a burial ceremony at Arlington cemetery for the last pickup truck," Womack said. "I can easily imagine three years from now when the public is focused on a new set of priorities . . . that this whole thing would go poof."

Our national attention span is indeed short. And perhaps that most of all is makes me feel a bit preachy. The idea that all of the promise that has been inspired by technological change and new business leadership and the pledges of energy and climate action by President-elect Obama could in fact all dissipate into nothingness. It has happened before: Jimmy Carter, for example, had solar panels installed on the White House roof. Ronald Reagan instantly took them down.

What's different now? Will a worldwide economic crisis take us into a new future? Will technology make the difference? A President of my generation? All of the above?

It is my bet that it will be President Obama harnessing the opportunity of crisis and power of technology. As he told delegates to a climate meeting in California a few weeks ago:

"Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious. Stopping climate change won't be easy. It won't happen overnight. But I promise you this: When I am President, any governor who's willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that's willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that's willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America."

Those realistic yet hopeful words more than anything else should be enough to counter any feelings of stress or negativity. Whenever I start sounding all preachy again -- and I will -- please feel free to remind me to reread them once again.

I'm a city boy, born and raised in Philadelphia. I've lived in city of brotherly love, Brooklyn and Washington, DC. For a little while, I lived in Takoma Park, Maryland, one of the nation's first suburbs, and, for an even shorter time, I rented a small house in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island's scenic north shore.

All of that to say that before moving to Solebury, PA, I had never seen a single wild turkey, let alone an entire herd of them. (Yes, I know that turkeys flock. But a herd sounds more poetic somehow.) For the last several years, though, I've had the pleasure of watching the local turkeys parade around our neighborhood. The photo below is from the Wikipedia entry on wild turkeys.)

And parade they do. Usually you'll see the turkeys walking single file even when in the spring when they've got their chicks with them. No matter how many times I've seen the turkeys in recent years, I'm still in awe whenever they cross my path. (I'll admit that I'm an easy customer; I still even like watching the neighborhood deer.)

Contrast that with the scene behind Sarah Palin, where a smiling worker fed live turkeys into some kind of slaughtering machine. The governor of Alaska -- the only state, according to Wikipedia, where the hunting of wild turkey is prohibited -- seemed oblivious to the killing behind her and even talks about how much "fun" she's had.

I was inspired to write this today by an email last night from Bruce Friedrich at PETA who posted the top ten reasons to be pardon a turkey on Huffington Post. As usual with my good friends at PETA, I thought a couple of Bruce's ten reasons went just a bit too far. But this one spoke to me:

If you wouldn't eat your cat, you shouldn't eat a turkey. As poultry scientist Tom Savage says, "I've always viewed turkeys as smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings. The 'dumb' tag simply doesn't fit." They're as interesting and have personalities every bit as developed as any dog or cat.

When they're not forced to live on filthy factory farms, turkeys spend their days caring for their young, building nests, foraging for food, taking dustbaths, preening themselves, and roosting high in trees. These social, playful birds relish having their feathers stroked and like to chirp, cluck, and gobble along to their favorite tunes.

So since I wouldn't eat my cat, I'll decline the turkey tomorrow. And give thanks for the Quorn roast I bought last week after searching in vain for my annual tofurkey. Here's hoping that your Thanksgiving is as enjoyable and as cruelty free.

Why? Last night, the House passed an energy bill that the Los Angeles Times termed a "stunning political turnabout ... aimed at rebutting Republican election-year attacks that the Democratic majority wasn't doing enough to try to ease the public's pain at the pump."

To be fair, there is much good in the House bill. Tax incentives for renewable energy and efficiency and a requirement that utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity by 2020 from cleaner sources, such as the sun and wind.

But the drilling provisions represent another huge giveaway to Big Oil, as NRDC says in an advertisement featuring our new friend "Oily" that are running this morning in the print version of Politico, Congress Daily AM and Congressional Quarterly Today.  And they represent the culmination of a campaign designed to dupe the American public into believing that new domestic drilling will do anything to end spiraling energy prices.

The truth is that drilling offshore our coasts will only make things worse. Offshore rigs have a long history of oil spills and there's no guarantee that any oil found on our coasts will be funneled to Americans.  We don't need to risk permanent damage to our beaches so the oil companies can make even more profit selling oil to China and India. 

Increased drilling only prolongs our dependence on oil and will not lower gas prices.  Instead of trying to drill our way out of this problem, we need to act now to become less dependent on oil.

We need to improve energy efficiency as well as invest in renewable energy and new energy technology. We need more choices for energy efficient cars, and ways to make our houses and offices more energy efficient. Where it will work, we need more choices for ways to get around, like buses and trains.  We need to build our communities so people have more transportation choices.

Interestingly enough, the few paragraphs above represent not just NRDC policy. They are drawn from the words of voters -- moderates and those more liberal, low and moderate income, from representative communities in the midwest and east coast -- from focus groups in recent weeks.

These voters were quite angry and resigned to the fact that Washington seemed unable to break its addiction to oil.

They believed, as do I, that the American people are resourceful and innovative and that we can build a new energy economy and in the process create a new energy economy with good, well-paying jobs that cannot be shipped overseas.

Let's hope that yesterday's vote in the House marked a low point in the ongoing energy debate and that a new Congress and administration will finally begin to break our addiction to a finite resource that the world is consuming at a rapidly increasing rate.

For the real facts on energy policy and gas prices, see this collection of NRDC materials. They make for a good read, hopefully we can persuade more policy makers in Washington to give them at least a cursory review.