At the rate financial institutions are dissolving into the thin air of insolvency, sprawl is not a worry. There is no one out there now who will loan money to develop any land. If all the phone calls I have had in the last two days are representative of anything in this economy, it is that banks are not loaning money, and lines of credit to run small businesses are being jerked in like yellowtail on a tuna clipper. It is run and hide time for banks. They are running from loaning money, and hiding from customers who they have just cut free without notice.

The best thing Montana can now do, collectively, is to support a national goal of energy independence. Conservation, drilling, mining, wind turbine siting, new power transmission lines and pipelines, a national upgrade of rail lines to haul more freight, faster and cheaper, all will go a long way to cut energy dependence, and by pursuing that goal, drive the price of crude down to the $60-$80 range it should be priced at in a real world market. But you have to do that in a Congress that cannot accomplish a thing, and ideas are rated only by party of origin: mine is great and yours is not doable.

The reason Montana was so valuable to 19th century America is that gold, silver, copper, lead, all the minerals, had a world wide value, and the most valuable backed our money. Mining created a credit economy, because with our own gold, and more of it being produced every year, the US was able to finance its growth outside of having to borrow from European bankers. We mined not to ruin the landscape, but to build this great country. And we need to go at the energy problem with the same zeal, commitment, and sense of national purpose. Of course there will be an environmental cost. But the most egregious environmental damage is always taking place where the people are the poorest, and in nations where there is more wealth, the environment get better care. If we make it cheaper to import energy than to produce it, we are then slaves, paying too much, and all the blame is on ourselves. Tough decisions are made by single minded tough people, and that is what we need to ask ourselves in November: who is the toughest, the one who will make unpopular, hard decisions to benefit the country as a whole, not individuals, or pressure groups, or single interest lobby efforts. What is best for all of us? And then vote. Urban sprawl is not going to be on the ballot. National economic survival is going to be on the ballot.