The polls are pretty clear most Americans aren’t real thrilled with Washington and the economy. Anemic growth, crushing debt and shovel ready job proposals that sound more like short term construction projects than long term solutions to put us back to work permanently and for those of us concerned about the environment – continued degradation of environmental policy in an effort to stop the hemorrhaging of employment opportunities.

The truth is – the U.S. is not alone. Most of the world’s economies are right with us, struggling to keep their heads above water, forced to dramatically cut services, eliminate pensions and cut retirement and health benefits for citizens. Yet there is one economy that is doing pretty well, actually they have a big surplus, that country is Norway.

Fifteen years ago Norway discovered they had oil, not a lot of oil mind you but some. And knowing that there is a strong global market for oil and that there economy was doing OK without all that extra revenue from oil the Norwegians decided to do some moderate drilling and to take ALL the proceeds and create a fund. A fund that would not be touched until a rainy day, a fund which now stands at more than 570 billion dollars (about $100,000 per citizen) so while other countries are struggling with staggering debt the Norwegians are sitting on a massive fortune which they have no intention of touching.

That fund gives both Norwegians and their businesses a sense of security and their government a nice piece of recurring revenue. Even though Norway doesn’t touch the principal of the fund the government can spend the interest -thus providing services to citizens that don’t cost the country anything.

So back to Obama; we all know how bad it is out there and the reality is that without a big idea we’re screwed. Under the current economic situation this and any administration is going to forego the long term (i.e. environmental regulation and planning for the future) and think only of getting people back to work today. So why not follow in the footsteps of Norway with a twist.

The U.S. has an abundance of relatively easily attainable oil fields (ANWR, Bakkan, Devonian Oil Shale, Green River and the North Slope to name a few).  Why not start drilling (as an environmentalist this pains me – but wait there’s more) in a responsible manner, one where concerns for the environmental impact are carefully weighed against the cost and benefits of the drilling, taking into consideration that all profits from drilling go into a US Alternative Energy Fund. A fund where 100% of all profits from this expanded oil drilling would be reinvested back into creating a clean sustainable economy.

The reality is we all live on the same planet and a gallon of oil pumped here has the same impact as one on the other side of the world. Actually if a gallon of crude is produced here in the U.S. it has a smaller environmental impact than if it was produced abroad and then shipped to the U.S.  So why not use our natural resources to wean ourselves from Mid East oil while at the same time creating millions of jobs right here in the U.S.  jobs not only from drilling, transporting and refining our oil into a global commodity but millions of new jobs and tax revenues in transforming us into a fossil-fuel-free and war free country.

All the drill here, drill now Tea-partiers rejoice, the White House looks like a hero, Democrats get to protect social programs because of all the new revenue being paid by big oil and payroll taxes, progressives cheer the salvation of the planet and millions of Americans go back to work in the new industries (i.e. long term jobs) created. It’s a win, win.

The proceeds should not only be invested into existing proven technology like solar, bio-fuels and wind energy but also investments into new R&D to create tomorrow’s clean sustainable technologies. Technology and solutions that once created can be exported (i.e. sold) to the rest of the world.

Not only does this proposal create millions of jobs in moving us towards a new economy but it also invests into creating the solutions that our world needs in the coming decades. It builds a strong America by utilizing our existing resources to solve our short term problems, creating a new manufacturing sector to export our technologies to the world and in true American spirit it spends every penny we collect on building something new. Take that Norway!