Energy Morons

By Alan Caruba

The ugly little secret of Election 2008 is that it does not matter which candidate becomes your next President because all of them, Democrat and Republican, have energy policies that will keep America moving down the road to an inevitable lack of electrical energy and the oil, i.e., gasoline and diesel, needed to keep cars and trucks on the road. Throw in the need to heat homes and other structures in the winter and cool them in the summer, and you have a bad choice no matter who your choice may be.

In a recent Washington Times editorial, the energy proposals of the candidates were compared. All subscribe to the hoax of global warming and, with it, the notion that carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, has to be reduced or sequestered. Given that CO2 constitutes 0.038% of the Earth’s atmosphere, this might seem strange to anyone with any sense, but we are talking about politicians here.

John McCain is the biggest believer in global warming among those still running. He has co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Joe Lieberman that would impose an economy-killer in the form of a “cap-and-trade” arrangement on American business and industry that would have them wasting money on emissions “credits” they could use, trade or sell. This plan has been a total failure in Europe and, of course, ignores all the emissions being produced in places like China, India, Russia, the continents of Africa, South America, etc. It is idiotic.

Hillary Clinton hates “Big Oil”, possibly because they may not be among her biggest contributors. She is calling for increased fuel-efficiency standards, but I keep telling people there is just so much energy that can be squeezed out of a gallon of gasoline. It's called the Law of Thermodynamics. Much of the current energy is wasted in the form of heat and the rest keeps your pistons providing power to the wheels. This isn’t rocket science, but there are limits to efficiency, even if there are no limits on stupidity.

Barack Obama, when he isn’t peddling “hope” and “change” like the Pied Piper, claims to be ready to introduce a “green economy.” He, too, wants a cap-and-trade system. Apparently green economy means an economy in a permanent Recession or worse. And it does get worse, because he wants to require that 25% of the nation’s electricity come from wind and solar generation. The problem with this airhead solution is that wind and solar currently represent less than 1% of the electricity the nation uses and can never produce anywhere near 25%. It is the most inefficient form of energy on Earth, no pun intended.

Mike Huckabee has energy plans, too, but who really cares what this hayseed has to say about anything? He’s promising “energy independence by my second term.” That kind of talk comes right out of a bottle of good ole Arkansas moonshine. No nation on Earth can or will be energy independent. You may have noticed that the U.S. imports a lot of its oil and gas from other places. You may have noticed we haven’t built a new nuclear plant in thirty years?

Put them all together or rearrange them any way you want, this group of morons are going to send your energy bills soaring. No matter which one gets to the Oval Office, when it comes to energy, they don't have solutions. They haven't even got a sixth grader's grasp of the issues.