THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 81, March 16, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WILL OBAMA LEAVE OUR CHILDREN POWERLESS?
By Dennis T. Avery & Alex Avery
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S ENERGY POLICIES: NO ADDITIONAL NUCLEAR ENERGY, LESS USE OF COAL & OIL,
& GREATER RELIANCE ON RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES -- PLACING AMERICA'S ENERGY FUTURE IN THE SHAKY BASKET
WITH WIND TURBINES, SOLAR PANELS, & BIOFUELS -- HOW HIGH-TECH BREAKTHROUGHS & INCREASED NATURAL GAS
SUPPLIES MAY PROVIDE A MEANS OF GETTING AROUND THE IMMENSE ENERGY PROBLEM THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
IS CREATING FOR THE AMERICAN POPULATION & ITS ECONOMY
FULL STORY:
President Barack Obama just killed the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada — and, with it, any
realistic chance of actually slashing U.S. carbon emissions without massive consumer costs. Instead of more
nuclear energy, he’s putting our energy future in the shaky basket with wind, solar, and biofuels. It’s a recipe for
disappointment and disaster.
Despite more than $13 billion and 22 years ensuring that Yucca was a safe, longterm nuclear storage, Obama’s
energy Secretary, Stephen Chu, told the U.S. Senate the site is no longer an option. After all, it’s in Senator Harry
Reid’s state, and Harry doesn’t want it.
Will Obama leave our children powerless?
He just promised that the U.S. would “double the amount of energy from renewable sources within three years.” But
Obama, as Stan Jakuba noted in the Energy Tribune, “should know that that’s not possible.” In fact, over the
past decade, renewables declined slightly as a share of our total energy.
Currently, less than seven percent of our energy comes from “renewables.” Two thirds of that comes from
hydroelectric dams and wood, and the Greens want to tear out existing dams, not build new ones. Nor will they allow
the chain-sawing of more forests. Ethanol is already gobbling up one third of our nation’s corn crop for its one
percent energy — and doubling that will redouble food prices. Cellulosic ethanol is years away from practical reality
and still faces the shortage of cropland.
We would therefore need a ten-fold expansion of solar, wind, and geothermal. That’s more windmills, solar panels,
and geothermal plants in three years than we’ve installed in the past 30!
It gets worse: both wind and solar need fossil fuel or nuclear power plants to cover for them when they’re down,
which is most of the time. Solar provides power about half the time, wind only about 15 to 30 percent of the time.
That’s why Denmark, the global leader in wind, has had to keep its fossil turbines turning.
That leaves only one hope for cost-effective base-load electricity in the U.S. — natural gas from shale. Technology
(human ingenuity) has come to our aid again, in the nick of time. Massive new gas wells are tapping the enormous
shale-gas reserves under north Texas’ Barnett formation, Louisiana’s Haynesfield shale, and the Marcellus
formation that runs from New York through West Virginia. Shale boosted our natural gas output by 9 percent in 2007,
even while drillers were pulling rigs to avoid dropping the price even lower than $5 per 1000/cu/ft.
The high-tech breakthroughs: computerized drills that can go sideways along the shale layers, and “frakking” —
pumping water and sand into the gas wells to break the shale layers and wedge them open.
Though gas is a fossil fuel, it’s much cleaner than coal. Even Nancy Pelosi told “Meet that Press” last year that “I see
in natural gas a clean, cheap, alternative to fossil fuels”.
That leaves one hope: That Obama will not hit our stumbling economy with a carbon tax. Either cap-and-trade or an
outright carbon tax will hit all consumers hard and they are designed to do so. Their purpose is to drive all carbon
sources from our economy, including natural gas.
Never mind that the lack of global warming since 1998 — and the sharp drop in global temperatures since 2006 —
clearly show that the earth’s climate is not strongly linked to CO2 levels in the atmosphere. The CO2/temperature
correlation since 1860 is 22 percent, while the sunspot index correlation is 79 percent. Now, the Pacific Ocean has
entered a cool phase, and these coolings have historically lasted 25 to 30 years. Europe has accepted no binding
carbon limits; Australia has announced a tiny 5 percent reduction target.
Obama? We’ve written that only a fool would impose high energy taxes during a massive recession, while
temperatures are declining. Only a fool — or a heedless ideologue.
SOURCES:
Stan Jakuba, Energy Tribune, “Obama’s Stumble: Wind Power” March 6, 2009.
Data source: EIA, U.S. Dept. of Energy; www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=1390
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery is an environmental economist, and a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He
was formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable
Global Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years. Readers may write him at PO Box 202, Churchville, VA 24421 or email to
cgfi@hughes.net
Alex Avery is the Director of Research and Education at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Food Issues. He
regularly writes and speaks about agricultural, food safety, regulatory, and global population issues. His book, The
Truth about Organic Foods is rapidly changing the debate about the future of farming and food.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity