THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 80, May 23, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ENERGY POLICY? WHAT ENERGY POLICY?
By Alan Caruba
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S ENERGY POLICY: PRODUCTION OF AS LITTLE ENERGY AS POSSIBLE -- REDUCTION
OF AMERICA'S ACCESS TO ITS OWN ENERGY RESOURCES -- IMPEDING COAL, OIL, & NATURAL GAS EXPLORATION &
EXTRACTION WITHIN THE BORDERS OF THE U.S.A. & UNDER ITS TERRITORIAL WATERS -- THWARTING THE BUILDING OF
ANY NEW COAL-BURNING, NUCLEAR, OR HYDROELECTRIC PLANTS IN THE U.S.A. -- CAP-&-TRADE LEGISLATION THAT WILL
DRIVE UP THE COSTS OF ENERGY PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION -- EMPHASIS ON VERY-LOW-YIELD ENERGY SOURCES, SUCH
AS WIND & SOLAR POWER
FULL STORY:
When the government controls the provision of energy, it controls the lives of all citizens and the growth or failure of the
nation’s economy. Everything else, including national defense, runs second, when it comes to this single factor.
Recently, the fourth annual survey of more than a hundred executives in the U.S. and Canadian electric and natural gas
industries was released by Platts and Capgemini. Platts is a global provider of energy and metals information and
Capgemini is a leading provider of consulting, technology, and outsourcing services. The objective of the survey was to
determine the opinion of energy industry executives regarding the first year and a half of the Obama administration’s
energy policies.
The Obama administration’s energy policy is to have as little energy as possible.
The administration is bent on reducing America's access to its own energy resources (including coal, oil and natural gas)
-- a key policy goal combined with a bizarre emphasis on very-low-yield “alternative” or “renewable” sources in the form
of wind and solar energy. European nations that went this course ended up with fewer jobs, insufficient energy for the
money invested, and massive fraud in its carbon credits exchanges.
It is essential to understand that utilities in the U.S.A. have all signed onto the bogus “global warming” theory that carbon
dioxide emissions threaten all life on Earth because they can make gobs of money raising the rates they currently charge
Americans for electricity. They expect to do so via the bogus selling and trade of “carbon credits,” a key element of the
Cap-and-Tax bill currently in the U.S. Senate. It is a massive robbery of all energy consumers, and that means everyone.
Under intense pressure from the U.S. government and from environmentalist organizations, many utilities have wasted
millions on the installation of wind and solar farms, none of which provide enough electricity to even begin to meet their
consumer’s needs. Moreover, they must all maintain traditional coal-burning, nuclear, and other forms of energy
generation plants because neither wind or solar provide a reliable source of electricity.
This is the big, dirty secret of the socalled “sustainable” energy from wind and solar. It is not sustainable, if the wind is
not blowing and the sun is obscured by clouds. Wind energy provides about one percent of all the electricity used daily
in America. In 2006, solar power provided 0.1 percent! By contrast, nuclear provides about 20 percent and coal provides
just over 50 percent!
The alternative energy suppliers are sustained by a combination of taxpayer subsidies (your money) and mandates
imposed on the utilities to include them with nuclear, coal, and other energy sources. One way the government makes
socalled sustainable energy appear to be a greater source is to include conventional hydroelectric energy.
According to the survey, “some 80% are dissatisfied with the U.S. government’s energy policy performance following the
one-year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration and amid a slowly rebounding economy,” adding, “there is
considerable dissatisfaction in the lack of tangible and actionable policy and legislation.”
John Christens, Vice President of Smart Energy Services for Capgemini, says, “Few utility executives consider the current
solutions as satisfactory either in scale or feasibility.” That’s because there are NO current “solutions” to America’s
growing needs for additional energy provision and the nation’s electrical grid is aging daily and in need of major upgrades.
Not surprisingly, since they stand to make billions if the Cap-and-Tax bill is passed, many utility executives were unhappy
with the progress “on CO2 legislation and action, regulations which will increase the cost of power without addressing the
root issue of atmospheric carbon….”
There is no “root issue” because carbon dioxide plays NO role whatever in climate change. The bloviations of Al Gore and
the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are a huge package of lies based on flawed and
deliberately spurious computer model projections.
In November, 2009, the Climategate revelations that a handful of IPCC scientists had been misrepresenting the truth should
have ended the global warming fraud, but it has only intensified the effort of those behind it to impose it on the world. At
some point, having taken millions in government funding for research, particularly here in the U.S.A. and in England, some
of these IPCC scientists should be on their way to jail, if there is any justice to be had.
The survey is barely useful to the public because it was taken among the very utility executives who are guilty of
supporting the global warming fraud, in anticipation of reaping obscene profits. The cost of energy will soar if the
Cap-and-Tax bill waiting a vote in the Senate is passed and signed into law by the President.
Meanwhile, the real energy policy of the Obama administration is to do everything in its immense power to thwart the
building of any new coal-burning or nuclear plants, while deceiving the public into believing that wind or solar has real
potential of meeting present and future energy needs. Dangling promises of “green jobs” is perhaps the cruelest lie of all.
Virtually all of the technology required for wind or solar is manufactured overseas.
The Obama energy policy can be summed up as no new energy, no new jobs, and a very dark future for America.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
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 and a business and science writer, he is
the Founder of The National Anxiety Center.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity