Opportunity Costs are Cheap!

 I was in the field for lo some 40 years!  

But I'm back in DC for 4 years since!  And, one of the things I'm learning fast (4 years isn't that long to learn another lesson), is the importance of seizing an opportunity while it's there staring me in the face!  And, it might not come along so opportunely, if I don't do everything in my power to bite at it (like a crocodile)!

Here comes an opportunity in Russia.  RIGHT NOW!  Staring us all in the face!

Putin is staying to the script--oil to generate electricity, etc.  If Russia stays on that course, it will face another bankruptcy, as the world moves away from hydrocarbons.  

When I was in Russia in 1989, I knew how oil was a lucrative commodity then; and I knew it would be pounced on as an easy course to get the Russians out of their financial woes--just as any government would light upon.

But I also knew that the world would have to develop some alternatives, e.g., taking energy from the sun, but I was not there in Russia to deal in those matters at that time.

We know there's wind and the sun's heat available now as viable alternatives.  Imagine if Mongolia and Russian forests were used in the process of generating electricity.  A veritable gold mine!

The point is to turn Russia from trying to install more piping and transport of oil products to becoming a leader--as in the case of China--electricity from sources other than hydrocarbons.  Of course, there are die-hards in China, too.  Attempts to clean up the carbon residues generated from burning hasn't proved a solution to the problems inherent to using carbon for generating energy forms.

It was needful, in my opinion to have a period for Russians to recover from the Second World War and the Soviet Union collapse--one following closely upon the other.  But now is the time to awaken the sleeping Bear to the wonders of a new world of opportunity that should include their active participation.