By Alan
Caruba
If I told
you that you should hate coal, oil and natural gas, you might think I was crazy
and you would be right. Everything we do involves these three energy reserves
and the U.S. has so much of them that we could be energy independent of the
rest of the world while, at the same time, exporting them.
When you
think about energy reserves, think about the hundreds of thousands of jobs they
represent. Then think about the huge revenue in leases and taxes they represent
to the government that needs to reduce its debt. Ultimately, though, try to
imagine a nation that does not utilize petroleum in thousands of ways or fails
to tap its enormous coal and natural gas reserves to generate the electricity
upon which that everything depends.
I recently
received an email from the Sierra Club praising the President’s State of the
Union speech in which he claimed that climate change—by which they mean global
warming—is real and that the science is “settled.” No, the science entirely
refutes it—except if one means that the climate has always been a state of
change. The most recent climate change is seventeen years of cooling that has
gifted us with record-breaking cold as far south as Florida.
What
Sierra Club focused on was Obama’s call for “new sources of energy” other than
the traditional ones. He was referring to solar and wind energy. A recent news
article on CNSNews noted that “Solar power, which President Barack Obama
promoted…accounted for 0.2 percent of the U.S. electricity supply in the first
nine months of 2013, according to data published by the U.S. government’s
Energy Information Administration.”
According
to the EIA, “the United States is producing less electricity now than it did
when Obama took office…From 2008 to 2012, U.S. electricity production declined
by 1.7 percent.”
Some might
take this as a good thing, but “electricity has gotten more expensive since
2008—with the electricity price index at an all-time high.” So we are paying
more while getting less.
The Sierra
Club, however, criticized Obama saying “As long as his administration keeps
throwing lifelines to old sources of energy like oil and gas, we won’t be able
to lead the world on clean energy solutions like wind and solar.” They called for an “end to oil and gas
fracking on public lands.” What they are not saying is that the Obama
administration has virtually put an end to any exploration and extraction of
energy sources on public lands. And you can forget about the massive reserves
estimated to exist off-shore of our coasts.
In early
January, Mark D. Green, the editor of Energy Tomorrow, a project of the
American Petroleum Institute, examined the reality of our vast energy sources.
Keep in mind that every product we purchase is dependent in some way on oil.
“Every day 143 U.S. refineries convert an average of 15 million barrels of
crude oil” that provide power for our vast transportation needs and thousands
of other uses. Oil is the basis for the creation of plastic. Try to imagine
living without anything that does not utilize plastic in some fashion.
As for
natural gas, experts predict that lower prices as more is discovered via
fracking, will increase industrial output 2.8 percent by 2015 and 3.9 percent
by 2025. Policies that would allow the export of U.S. liquefied natural gas
would generate between $15.6 billion and $73.6 billion to the Gross Domestic
Product and help reduce our deficits and debt.
The Sierra
Club doesn’t want to see the U.S. benefit from coal, oil and natural gas. It
wants to see the landmass filled with solar farms and thousands of wind
turbines that would not produce enough electricity to meet the needs of nation,
let alone a major city. Because they are unpredictable, all require the backup
of traditional plants.
Nor does
the Sierra Club make any mention of the Obama administration’s war on coal that
has forced 153 plants to shut down. Its Environmental Protection Agency has
proposed regulations that would require new plants to employ carbon capture and
sequestration technology that is not commercially available! Nor is there any
reason to capture carbon dioxide, the gas that is the “food” that every single
piece of vegetation requires; a gas that plays virtually no role at all in the
Earth’s climate.
As this is
being written, the State Department just released a report that would clear the
way for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada after a
five-year delay by the Obama administration. Pipelines are the safest way to
transport oil and natural gas. If the U.S. cannot gain access to the oil, it
will go to China and other nations.
The
prospect of the pipeline was rejected by the Sierra Club. Friends of the Earth
announced that it would join with the Rainforest Action Network, the Sierra
Club, and other radical Green groups to hold vigils around the nation Monday to
protest its possible approval and construction.
The Sierra
Club is not only lying to its members, it is lying to all of us when it says
“Getting all of the energy we need without using fossil fuels is no longer a
question of whether we can—but whether we will.” We can’t, we shouldn’t, and we
won’t…but we must wait until Obama is no longer in office and, as early as the
2014 midterm elections, we must rid our nation of his supporters in Congress.
Then we
will watch our nation’s economy expand with more jobs and more revenue.
© Alan Caruba,
2014
5 comments:
If the Sierra Club ran America that horse wouldn't be a viable transportation source.. Flatulent emissions...
Production down, prices up; THAT my friend will be at least one HUGE chapter in the Obama legacy of failure!
Why is it that owners of coal fired power plant who invested $30 billion in scrubbers between 2007 and 2011 doesn't count?
Why is it that the vehicles we drive have easily three grand worth of emission controls that we pay for doesn't count?
When does it end? What will it take to satisfy the EPA and the greens?
Alan, as I have said before, those that think we should live by 'clean energy' alone should put in action what their collective mouths are saying and live by 'clean energy' alone.
Until then they can shut their mouths and work for practical solutions. Either that or move to somewhere else in the world and start their own country.
Ron, there is NO satisfying the EPA and Greens. The game is always about acquiring more power over everyone.
The hypocrisy of the Sierra Club is nearly as great as the hypocrisy of Barack Obama, Al Gore, and all the rest of the fearmongers. On the one hand, they lecture to thee rest of us to cut our CO2 footprints 80%. On the other, they continue to fly around the world with self-important abandon. Obama flew Air Force One to South Africa to take selfies with the cute Danish Prime Minister. But he gave British Prime Minister's funeral a pass. Then Obama flew to Hawaii for his Hawaiian Christmas vacation, his fifth I believe. Gore flies around and around lecturing people who already know what he will say. They drive to hear him by the hundreds of thousands collectively. Gore flies in his private jet, poisoning the very air he pretends to want to "protect." United Nations - same thing. University "scholars," ditto. Sickening, really.
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