THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 146, August 2, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
DO-NOTHING ENERGY POLICIES:
We Need Sound Energy Policy, Not
Price-Gouging Anti-Energy Proposals
By Paul K. Driessen
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM VERSUS THE INDIVIDUAL CONSUMER & THE PUBLIC INTEREST: POLITICAL
ENVIRONMENTALISTS, GLOBAL
WARMING ALARMISTS, & ANTI-FOSSIL-FUEL POLITICIANS SEEK ENACTMENT OF LEGISLATION DESIGNED TO ENCUMBER
& DISMANTLE THE THE ENERGY & ECONOMIC SYSTEM THAT HAS BROUGHT US SO MUCH OPPORTUNITY & PROSPERITY --
ENERGY BILLS RECENTLY INTRODUCED INTO THE U.S. CONGRESS ARE REALLY ANTI-ENERGY & ANTI-PROSPERITY BILLS --
AMERICANS SENSE THAT THEY ARE GETTING DO-NOTHING ENERGY BILLS FROM A DO-NOTHING & KNOW-NOTHING
CONGRESS
FULL STORY:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, “it means just what I choose it to mean.”
That’s apparently the operative philosophy for many politicians these days. Legislators should be working to ensure that
markets work properly, so that we have (1) abundant, reliable, affordable energy to meet the needs of a growing population
and (2) technologies that safeguard and improve our lives.
Our economy’s digital infrastructure alone accounts for more than 10% of our electricity demand. Data centers are
voracious energy consumers.
Unfortunately, legislative bills could more accurately be called anti-energy and even anti-environment. They may reflect
gratitude for special interests that get legislators elected, but they hardly serve the interests of American consumers or
the general welfare of the American nation as a whole.
These politicians insist that the United States’ output of 5 billion gallons of “renewable” ethanol last year is a great victory
for energy independence and the environment. As King Pyrrhus remarked, “One more such victory, and we are ruined.”
This heavily subsidized fuel came from a sixth of the Montana-sized 93 million acres America planted in corn in 2006,
instead of sowing other crops or leaving land as wildlife habitat. By comparison, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could
produce some 21 billion gallons of gasoline annually for 20 years from just 2,000 acres – one-twentieth of the land area of
Washington, DC.
Moreover, to grow this corn, convert it into ethanol and truck the fuel to gas stations (it cannot be pipelined), we expended
billions of gallons of water, millions of pounds of fertilizers and pesticides, and vast amounts of energy. Analyst Michael
Economides calculates that it took nearly 9 billion gallons of gasoline equivalent to get that 5 billion gallons of ethanol.
Motorists pay more per tank for this politically correct fuel, but get less mileage than from pure gasoline. Ethanol enriches
certain farmers, but raises costs for cattle, pork and chicken farmers, as well as prices of meat, milk, soft drinks, tortillas, and
countless other products.
When markets do this, Capitol Hill calls it price-gouging. But when politicians do it, they call it consumer protection.
Hardest hit are poor families that these pols profess to care about most.
Conservation should be encouraged whenever it makes economic and environmental sense. But where the heavy hand of
government is involved, the results can be perverse.
Intense opposition to onshore and offshore drilling means every barrel saved via conservation is offset by several barrels
of declining domestic production. Congress has already locked up an estimated 40 billon barrels (1.7 trillion gallons) of
onshore and offshore oil. As a result, we are importing increasing amounts from increasingly unfriendly sources. We need
that oil, not more snake oil. But, instead, we’re locking up our natural gas, too, and promoting other equally questionable
ideas.
Mandating that we use millions of expensive compact fluorescent lightbulbs could result in vast quantities of mercury
heading to landfills or high-cost recycling centers.
Tougher mileage standards could mean more miles driven in vehicles that are more fuel efficient because they are lighter,
less able to haul heavy loads, and more likely to cause thousands of additional injuries and deaths. (Perhaps the term
Corporate Average Fuel Economy or CAFÉ should be replaced with Conserve Our Refined Petroleum to Save the
Environment – or CORPSE.) Other ideas make more sense.
Streamline traffic flow, especially along main corridors during rush hour. Too many lights are timed to impede traffic, as
along Routes 50 and 123 through Fairfax, Virginia, and Route 202 in Wilmington-Talleyville, Delaware. In this
computerized era, that is unacceptable.
Eliminate toll booths, especially along interstates like I-95 in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. The gasoline wasted
and pollution emitted by cars waiting to get to booths or EZPass lanes is monumental – and any revenues collected are
more than offset by wages and taxes lost because workers are stuck for hours in miles-long parking lots. Besides,
interstates were built with federal tax dollars, and should not be subjected to interstate-commerce-choking state revenuers.
We might even consider eliminating air-conditioning in the 1,500 federally owned buildings. This would save energy,
ensure that government focuses on high-priority items, protect taxpayers and small businesses from hyper-regulation at
least a few months a year, and help achieve Representative Nancy Pelosi’s goal of a carbon-neutral Congress – without
relying on phony “carbon offset” indulgences.
However, even concerted common-sense Conservation won’t alter a basic fact: America needs more energy – especially
electricity – to support economic freedom, health, industry, and modern living standards. Where will that energy come
from?
Coal generates 52% of the electricity America uses: over 300,000 Megawatts. Its low cost per kilowatt-hour is a blessing
for poor families, businesses, manufacturing, and jobs. And, over the coming decade, new technologies will eliminate most
remaining power plant emissions.
But Green activists and politicians say carbon dioxide from coal-fueled power plants causes disastrous climate change. of
Numerous scientists disagree with this dire assessment – and with the notion that humans have suddenly supplanted the
sun and other natural forces that caused innumerable climate shifts throughout Earth’s history.
Moreover, if we curtail coal use, what will replace it? Congress continues to make oil and gas prospects off limits to drilling.
Liquefied natural gas requires ports that Greens and local communities oppose. And reliance on these globally traded
resources puts additional upward pressure on prices.
Many Greens and politicians also oppose nuclear power and waste repositories. Their substitute of choice is wind turbines.
“Socially responsible” companies, like those in the Climate Action Partnership, want to sell more wind turbines. So they
support subsidies and mandates, to “save the world from climate apocalypse.”
However, wind supplies only 0.4% of U.S. electrical output, and the unreliable electricity it generates must be backed up by
instant-on (peaking capacity) power plants that burn the natural gas that legislators have put off limits. Otherwise, traffic
lights, schools, offices, assembly lines, and operating rooms go black whenever the wind stops blowing.
In fact, for every 10 MW of wind power, you need 9 MW of gas, says Wood McKenzie Vice President Bob Fleck. And
those new gas power plants increase wind energy costs dramatically – up to twice as much as for electricity generated from
existing coal plants. Wealthy activists, politicians, and celebrities may not mind. But minority and other poor families would
be hammered.
Wind power also requires vast stretches of land – much of it once-scenic wildlife habitat. Replacing just one-third of all
coal-fired generating capacity with wind farms would require blanketing an area the size of Virginia and North Carolina with
huge turbines. We’d also need some 200 new gas-fired power plants – or a new breed of Americans who don’t mind
repeated power outages.
People sense that they are getting do-nothing energy bills from a do-nothing Congress. That may help explain the dismal
14% approval rating Congress received in recent polls.
Anti-fossil-fuel politicians and environmentalists want to encumber and dismantle the energy and economic system that
has brought so much opportunity and prosperity. But do they have the ability or wisdom to create a new system to take
the place of our present system? If only we could use their hot air to generate electricity.
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
Paul K. Driessen is Senior Policy Advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality, the Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, and the
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. Driessen is author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death, which can be
obtained at www.Eco-Imperialism.com. Email: pdriessen@cox.net --- Telephone:
(703) 698-6171
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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