I have been thinking awhile now about Alberta. It is distinguished as an energy producer in Canada and across the world. Its status is well earned as a crown jewel for the oil and gas industry. I understand that hundreds of thousands of jobs, maybe more, drive this production forward. The industry is sophisticated and wide spread, many people, much more than the workers and executives, depend on this province for its product. Alberta holds an esteemed position as an energy producer. Here is a huge "but": if you look at progress in energy production globally, it is impossible to deny that there is motion in new forms of energy that is gaining momentum. Alberta is king (or queen) now, full of natural resources in fossil fuel to supply the country and other parts of the world with energy. I want to digress and talk about Blockbuster, the prevailing video rental, ie. media distribution, company in the late 1990's. At an opportune time, when it became possible to visualize the state of relevant technology and to envision new models of media distribution, Blockbuster turned down a startup company called Netflix to buy. Netflix now not only stream main stream consumer content by the Terabyte, but because Blockbuster rejected their offer, they have streamlined their process and have become a content production company. Blockbuster was a giant in the 1990's and their future to continue that way seemed guaranteed. Nobody significant at this company had stepped back and looked at the whole scope of things. There was denial that media distribution was going to change; it was a mistake in that they had thought their method and appeal, and thereby their status, was going to continue without end. Things changed regardless, and now they are bankrupt and no longer remains a player in the industry. Can we learn something from this example? Opportunities come as possibilities played out in a window of time. How would Alberta fare in the long run as an energy production and distribution enterprise? Is the world changing? It is common sense knowledge to the everyday man and woman that fossil fuels have become seen by progressive members (scientists, automaker, even grade school students) to be something that is increasingly backward.  Another point of digression here, what do we know about the roles fossil fuel play in the strata of earth? This digression could be a controversial thought, so let us put it aside for now. If Alberta wills to continue to be a shining example of energy production in a world that has started (slowly at first, but now gaining momentum) to move away from fossil fuels, then there must be a beginning in taking charge of the task at hand, energy production, and seeing that energy can be different from oil and gas. The window has opened; emissions and usage are coming under policies that suggest this change: yet, what alternatives is there? Certainly, there are alternatives, as we can see in the news and journals bright harbingers of new forms of energy being implemented in all sorts of places around the world. There may be many people invested in oil and gas, some with money, and others their livelihoods. These people have the means and passion and most importantly, skills and abilities to learn new ways.  Perhaps the saying that nothing can come overnight, ie. Rome is not built in one day, is central to what I am getting to here. Bruce Mau says, Begin anywhere. Start now, for tomorrow. I say all this in order to put forward an idea tentatively. I think we need to make a start. My proposal is something called (and this is a working title) New Energy Institute, to be built right here in Alberta. An organization such as this could secure funding, provides in-house research ("in-house" meaning not only research to be carried out in the organization, but also in the specific context of the province of Alberta), public education, champion those willing to tackle this opportunity, further network, and perhaps most importantly, lend credibility and even coordination for startups or bigger effort through having a respectful disinterested discernment on the basis of science and technology. Maybe even develop standards upon wide-survey reviews of efforts like these from around the world. I think an institute such as I have described could be associated with a university (as comparable organizations has been), a private effort (though this could be difficult to fund given that we don't know if and where the money would come from for what motives), or a government supported organizations. Personally, at this point, I am leaning towards affiliation with a university because as there exists strong tendencies towards rigorous production of facts at the more reputable university, but I don't yet know if this could be the path. I would have to further incubate this idea for a more specific set of specifications. I think New Energy Institute could do much in preparing Alberta for a bright future, in which accessible technologies could be applied to diversify interests in energy production for the foreseeable future. This is something that probably would have arrived later than desirable, much of inertia being the forementioned investment in oil and gas. Recently, the federal government has purchased a pipeline for nearly $5 billion dollars. Surely, there could be money set aside to dedicate to looking forward with a wider scope at what is possible for tomorrow.