A Lobbying Strategy for Focus Fusion

[Focus Fusion Society]

Do we have a lobbying strategy in place for Focus Fusion? How about for fusion alternatives in general? Is there an umbrella organization that we can all work together with?

[Rezwan]

Global warming and Al Gore were a big news item on TV tonight (news & 20/20) (because of that bill just signed by our governor? I didn’t pay too much attention). But the soundbites motivated me to search the web and found this website: http://www.ontheissues.org/ – they seem very detailed and thorough in their breakdown of politicians and where they stand on each of a bazillion different issues. So I sent them an email asking them to find out where politicians stand on fusion and informing them of our endeavors. Before you start lobbying people, you should know how they feel about the topic.

As of now, the site doesn’t include fusion as an issue. Under energy issues they have:

Alternative Energy: The federal government regularly funds research into solar power, wind power, wave power, biomass power, and other alternative energy sources, but none are competitively priced with gas and oil at the present time. Liberals contend that gas and oil prices are kept artificially low by federal intervention (including military action in the Mideast), which results in policy prescriptions like President Clinton�s proposed �BTU Tax� in the early 1990s, intended to foster alternative energy development.

Y’all may want to follow up and send emails to that site and others like that. Oh, and I sent the link to our “I’m just a bill on capitol hill” example of the lack of awareness of aneutronic fusion in alternative energies strategies.

[Graeme]

I’m a little new at this, but can we not start by contacting our Senators? I just did, and it took only a few minutes. It’s important to get their attention, but not drone on about Focus Fusion until they have a chance to have someone research its legitimacy.

Here is what I wrote (admittedly rough):

Dear Senator …:

(Briefly)

Are you aware of the concept of Focus Fusion? This is a clean and promising cheap energy source that has received pitiful funding. Only a handful of part-time scientists are working on it, yet it shows far more promise than the Tokomak process which receives hundreds of millions of dollars per year in funding.

Livermore and Sandia labs are both doing some experimentation and despite the odds, have made amazing discoveries.

For more: https://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/toc/what/

Thank you for your time,
Graeme …

[Tasmodevil44]

I left a short message about focus fusion in the Obama – Biden forums website. I mentioned the fact that it has the potential for unlimited nuclear power with even less waste than a thorium reactor. But I don’t know if Barack Obama or one of his associates will read it and pass the word on to him or not. I have also noticed that others have posted messages about focus fusion on the Obama – Biden site as well. If we keep bombarding them with enough messages about all the superior advantages of focus fusion, maybe eventually somebody in the Obama Administration will listen and take it to heart.

[Aeronaut]

There’s strength in numbers, my friends.

Until enough average people and influential people make it politically risky to defend the status quo, we’re going to be stuck with our “fair share” of every tokamak ever built and yet to be built. Promoting this site by bookmarking it in Digg, StumbleUpon, FaceBook, MySpace, blogging, writing articles, and more is how we as a team can magnify our individual efforts thousands, perhaps millions of times over.

Well written and presented video is the most persuasive selling medium available, and YouTube puts the potential to reach over a million viewers within the reach of anybody with a truly compelling message of Hope and Inspiration.

Make no mistake, lobbying is selling, and selling is all about leadership. To make Focus Fusion HAPPEN we must lead tens of millions of people to make the decisions they really want to make: lower electric costs from locally generated power, electric ships, trains, trucks, cars, perhaps even aircraft when electric motors are light enough; the greenhouse gas and thermal pollution reductions from electrifying shipping and transportation alone should be enough to inspire most people on the logical level.

The only thing remaining is how to tell that story in such a way as to inspire at the gut level. People love to buy. They hate to be sold to. People always buy on emotion and then justify the purchase with logic.

Let’s do some persuasive story telling. After all, we’re only trying to raise six million, right?

[Brian H]

Leave Biden and Obugabe alone. They are the last people you want to fund you. Just ask GM and the banks who were forced to take money they didn’t want in return for senior shares and a LOUD government voice in their affairs.

[Aeronaut]

Brian H wrote: Leave Biden and Obugabe alone. They are the last people you want to fund you. Just ask GM and the banks who were forced to take money they didn’t want in return for senior shares and a LOUD government voice in their affairs.

I agree. Here in West Michigan the woes of GM, Chrysler, and their “ecosystem” are always good for fear headlines and TV coverage. Why, just last night you could see Governor Granholm on Obama’s left as he announced what he was going to impose on his 2 new car companies.

[Mike Weber Goodenow]

There is a difference between educating and lobbying.

I think that FFS should dramatically increase its focus on educating policymakers and public decisionmakers. This means the federal Administration, the Congress, Governors and their state adminstrations, and state legislators. Economic development people at the state level need to be a focus.

Sharing the benefits and promise of clean (aneutronic) fusion — and details about it — is educating.

Educating becomes lobbying when there is a particular bill or action (appropriation) that you advocate for.

Educating can be done cheaply. Sending an e-mail to 7,500 state legislators doesn’t really cost that much. Lobbying costs quite a bit more. (There are also lots of laws about it.)

So FFS could expand its education efforts in 2012 but wait until 2013 or later to do real lobbying.

[Author]

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