THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 192, November7, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ENERGY ABCS: PLAYING AMERICANS FOR FOOLS
By Alan Caruba
U.S. ENERGY POLICY: PUTTING AMERICA AT RISK BY CREATING ENERGY SHORTAGES -- PUBLIC POLICIES THAT
HAVE THE EFFECT OF DENYING AMERICANS ACCESS TO THEIR OWN VAST ENERGY RESERVES -- RESTRICTING &
PROHIBITING EXTRACTION & EXPLOITATION OF COAL, OIL, NATURAL GAS, & NUCLEAR POWER -- BLOCKING AMERICAN
USE OF THE ENERGY NEEDED TO REVERSE THE CURRENT RECESSION & UNEMPLOYMENT & ENHANCE THE ABILITY OF THE
U.S.A. TO GROW ITS WAY BACK TO ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
FULL STORY:
I have long harbored strong doubts about the knowledge that most Americans possess regarding the sources of energy
they largely take for granted. We flip a switch and the lights go on. We pull up to the gas pump and drive away. We use
machines that are totally dependent on having enough electricity to power entire cities as well as rural communities.
Since all successful economies depend on abundant, affordable energy, why is the Congress preparing to pass a
cap-and-trade bill, renamed to suggest “clean energy” and “national security” is relevant to imposition of a huge tax on
the use of energy by all Americans?
There are some fundamental facts about energy in America you need to know. The Congressional Research Service
recently released a report on U.S. energy reserves. To begin:
The U.S.A. has 1,321 billion barrels of oil (or barrels of oil equivalent for other sources of energy) when combining its
recoverable natural gas, oil, and coal reserves. This is oil known to exist and oil estimates in fields as yet untapped.
Between Alaska and the continental offshore potential, we could literally be self-sufficient.
Keep in mind, however, oil represents less than 40% of our energy use, nor do we import most of that from the Middle
East. Two-thirds of our oil consumption comes from North America with Canada and Mexico being major providers. By
expanding domestic production, we could reduce dependency on the Middle East even further.
That said, since the days of Jimmy Carter, the White House and Congress has gone out of its way to make it difficult, if
not impossible, to tap domestic reserves. When a windfall profits tax was imposed on November 9, 1978, it sent a message
to U.S. oil companies they were not welcome here.
While ExxonMobil is the favorite target of environmentalist organizations such as Friends of the Earth or the Sierra Club, the
fact is that it is no longer in the seven top oil producers in the United States. The “big” domestic oil companies are now
Aera Energy and Anadarko, and Occidental. ExxonMobil looks for oil in overseas locations.
Astonishingly, other oil producing nations whose reserves are ranked behind the U.S.A. are Russia, Saudi Arabia, China,
Iran, and Canada. The only oil “shortage” in the U.S.A. is one created by Congress and the energy policies of a
succession of past Presidents. An estimated 87% of our oil reserves remain untouched.
When it comes to coal, the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal, with 28% of all the world’s coal reserves. Russia
comes in second with 19%. Coal represents more than 50% of all the electricity produced in America, and the Obama
administration has declared war on it.
The cap-and-trade bill before Congress puts all of its emphasis on the two worst, most expensive, and job-killing forms of
energy, wind and solar. Combined, they represent a pathetic 1% of electricity. They are unreliable sources, dependent on
whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. Moreover, though never mentioned, they require backup sources of
traditional energy production. You cannot have wind or solar energy without also having a coal-fired, hydroelectric, or
nuclear plant to ensure a steady source.
As reported in Newsweek, “Each year, as much as $100 billion is spent by governments and consumers around the
world on green subsidies to encourage wind, solar, and other renewable energy markets.”
As a result, in the U.S.A., virtually an army of “1,150 lobbying groups ... spent more than $20 million to lobby the U.S.
Congress as it was writing the Clean Energy bill (which would create a $60 billion annual market for emissions permits by
2012.)”
The Newsweek article said: “It’s a genetic defect that not only guarantees great waste, but opens the door to
manipulation and often demonstrably contravenes the objectives that climate policy is supposed to achieve.”
We do not have a climate policy in the United States. We have a huge scheme to enrich a small group of people who will
control the exchanges for utterly bogus “carbon credits,” nothing more than the right to emit carbon dioxide as the natural
result of burning fuel for energy. It is not, however, such industrial and other uses that represents the largest emitter of
carbon dioxide. The Earth itself is responsible for 95% of the CO2 in the atmosphere and that CO2 represents 3.618%.
By comparison, nuclear energy does not produce CO2 emissions, and, yet, there hasn’t been a new nuclear reactor built in
the United States for some thirty years.
The same is true for the building of a single new oil refinery in America. Since it takes about a decade from start to finish on
these huge engineering projects and a billion dollar investment, it would be 2020 before one was in full production, if begun
next year. The real question is, if you were an oil company CEO, would you invest that kind of money when the U.S. won’t
let you explore or extract oil on or offshore?
What no one is telling you is that CO2 does not “cause” global warming and there is no global warming. The Earth is
actually in a natural cycle of cooling that began in 1998 and is anticipated to last at least two to three decades.
Europe’s experience with “renewable” energy has been a disaster. Great Britain is facing blackouts that will make economic
growth impossible and wreak havoc on the daily lives of the English. As with other European nations, it has driven up the
cost of electricity.
The American energy consumer is being lied to and stolen from in the form of the cap-and-trade bill under consideration
and other obstacles.
The nation as a whole is being put at risk for lack of access to our own vast energy reserves -- coal, oil, and natural gas,
and nuclear power, energy that will be needed to reverse the present recession and unemployment and enhance the ability
to grow our way back to prosperity.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, business and science writer, he is the
founder of The National Anxiety Center.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity