Blog: Dermot Cole
The stories in the paper today about how the federal government is planning to deal with the energy crisis reflect a sorry state of affairs.
This is the GOP plan: Drill in ANWR and offshore on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Beg OPEC for lower prices.
This is the Democratic plan: Punish the evil oil companies. Beg OPEC for lower prices.
Both parties want to stop putting a tiny amount of oil away in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as if that would have any impact on world oil prices.
The political leaders mention nothing about changing federal policy to force consumers to buy smaller cars or build better public transportation facilities.
But that should be part of the discussion.
We need to produce more energy and conserve more energy.
What the people in power won't say is that the answer to the energy crisis is going to be costly to their constituents.
An intelligent approach to energy requires an intelligent approach to public policy.
We have neither.
We have politicians who study poll data and tell people what they want to hear.
What do you expect from a nation obsessed with American Idol and other nonsense on the TV? That allowed itself to be completely fooled by the likes of Clinton and Bush? Sorry, until people in the US are confronted with the choice of eat, drive or stay warm (choose only two), they will not wake up.
BTW, what's on the tube tonight?
Good thing we have an intellectual elite to help out all the unwashed masses!
Seriously, neither the people nor the politicians are as stupid as they sometimes seem. We do have an unfortunate tendency to elect leaders just like us though, and we've been nationally shortsighted about energy for a loooooong time, like since the 18th century or so.
Hopefully that good old American ingenuity and pioneer resourcefulness will help us buckle down and find solutions.
This sounds familiar to our similar state energy policy. In the inimitable words of Alfred E. Neuman - what me worry!
In the mid 1970's the legislature created an Alaska Power Authority. Later on renamed, the Alaska Energy Authority, after it had created a number of retrospectively stellar projects, it was trashed by the legislature.
We have known for a few years (at least) that we needed an energy policy entity, but has the legislature done a damn thing about it? No, nothing of significance has been done at all. Is anyone pledging to do anything about this? Not that I've heard.
There are some significant opportunities which will become known soon. Will the state be ahead or behind the eight-ball when they do?
Democrats doing the bidding of the earth worshiping whackos has succesufully stopped all oil drilling, all construction of oil refineries and nuclear power plants in the last 30 years! We now import 13% of our refined gas. Bush proposed building refineries on old army bases to address this issue, The Democrats BLOCKED it .... Now, Those same dems want to do nothing to lower the price of gas, just increase the cost of our food with their disasterous ethynol policy by turning FOOD into deisel......This is insanity yet these bozos are in comtrol of both houses of congress!I want to sincerely thank all you idiots that keep voting these economic democrat traitors into office time and time and time again.
No Dermot, it's not both dems and repubs that's got us in this mess, its squarly lies with the democrats
Post a comment