Energy is the life blood of any modern economy. Remove energy and the American way of life would end. Raise the cost of energy substantially and the economy stutters and then stalls; recession is the next stop. None of this is rocket science. None of this is even debatable. It is all simply a fact of life.
The question, of course, is not whether or not America needs energy, but rather how is America to get the energy it needs. A hundred years ago, America was mainly powered by coal. As the years passed, hydroelectric power was added, followed by oil, natural gas, and nuclear energy. In the last decade, we have seen the start of solar and wind power as contributors to our national energy supply. Even so, America still gets about 50% of it electric power from that old standby, coal. Natural gas has been increasing its share of the power supply while oil usage has declined. Indeed, oil is now used almost exclusively for fuel for cars and trucks. Less than 1% of electric power now comes from oil.
Also in the last decade we have seen the rise of the Al Gore theology of global warming and the cult of "green" energy. Many in the environmental community are strongly against any action which increases supplies of fossil fuels. Many of these same folks push just as strongly for the adoption of wind, solar and other so-called renewable energy sources to power our country. The problem, of course, is that at the moment wind and solar power are much more costly and much less reliable than our current methods of power generation. Clearly, America cannot run on a power source that is only available on windy days. Nor can power supply stop at sundown. When one factors in the high cost of generating the green energy, there is no one who really wants to adopt it voluntarily. After all, no sane company or individual would pay much more for energy in order to get an unreliable supply.
This problem of high cost and unreliability for green energy has stopped any push to adopt such energy sources in the marketplace. And that stoppage has led to a further divide in the country as to what to do next. President Obama and the Obamacrats have taken the view that the federal government has to step in to promote the further use of wind and solar power. Obama has told us how the future economy will be based on these energy sources. Obama has funneled billions of dollars to his friends in the wind and solar energy fields. Remember Solyndra, the solar energy company that collapsed the week that the federal funds ran out? It is just one of the many failures of that sort. Even so, Obama has been funneling tens of billions on a continuing basis to wind and solar.
Just imagine what would happen to American industry were all electricy to be generated from wind and solar at a cost much higher than the current one. The answer is simple: American goods would be priced out of world markets; we would no longer be able to compete. Countless companies would be forced to close and millions and millions of jobs would be lost. This is actually Obama's goal, not the massive unemployment, but the use of wind and solar energy.
The truth is that for there to be green energy in the American economy, someone will need to find a way to generate power from the wind or sun that is LESS expensive than the power from natural gas or coal. We are nowhere near to finding that out, so any funds spent now on solar and wind energy is just wasted.
In a rational world, the president of the United States would let private industry build the power system and stay out of it. Indeed, if there were to be government involvement, it would be to help fund the research needed to find solar or wind energy technology that could compete on a price basis with oil, coal and natural gas. But, we do not live in a rational world. Obama's America is a place that is ruled by ideology, not reason. The Obamacrats argue that if the market cannot bring about wind and solar power, then the government must. But even the government has limited funds, so when these funds run out, the wind and solar ventures must fail.
The budget proposal from the House Budget committee cuts a big part of the subsidies Obama and the Obamacrats have been giving to uneconomical solar and wind facilities. The GOP is trying to have actual market forces determing the most efficient way to proceed. The response from Obama has been nothing less than hysteria. Here is what the White House spokesman said earlier today: Those who support such a budget are "aggressively and deliberately ignorant" about the need for green energy and other programs slated for cuts. "You have to be aggressively and deliberately ignorant of the world economy not to know and understand that clean energy technologies are going to play a huge role in the 21st century."
Translating this into English, Obama is actually saying that the government has to force people to use more expensive and less reliable energy sources no matter what the cost. Linking such coercion to success in the world economy, however, is delusional thinking by Obama and his minions. America has to stop wasting money on energy projects that do not work. Failure to do so will drive the economy over the cliff. Obama is exactly wrong!
2 comments:
SOLAR AND WIND AND OTHER SOURCES ARE A VIABLE AND REALISTIC SOURCE THAT IS BECOMING LESS AND LESS COSTLY AND BECOMING MORE EFFICIENT.(CHECK OUT MORGAN SOLAR IN TORONTO).ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD DISAGREE WITH WIND,SOLAR,THERMAL AND THE TIDAL ACTION.TECHNOLOGY IS WHAT MADE AMERICA GREAT.
So Tiny, maybe you could explain how wind, solar and thermal are going to become energy sources if the energy they produce costs much more than energy from conventional sources. Are you planning on paying twice as much for your electric bill because technology is what made America great? My guess is that if your bill doubled, you would grumble about the evil utility that was ripping off its poor customers. But you cannot have it both ways.
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