Saturday, January 21, 2012

Destroying America by Denying Access to Energy

By Alan Caruba

It is the crime of the century that America, home to some of the world’s greatest reserves of coal, natural gas and oil, is being deliberately destroyed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior as they do everything in their power to restrict access and drive energy producers out of business.

It is common sense that a nation that cannot produce sufficient electricity to turn on its lights and power its manufacturing sector will be destroyed if current Obama administration regulations and actions continue. Our vital transportation sector and all others that utilize petroleum-based products will suffer, too.

While President Obama babbles about millionaires and billionaires, everyone will be impoverished by the loss of jobs and revenue our energy sector produces now and can produce in the future.

This isn’t an “energy policy.” It’s a “no-energy policy” and it is a guarantee of economic disaster.

Obama’s decision to reject a permit for Canada’s XL Keystone pipeline is just one example. It is a job-killer and a revenue-killer. There are thousands of pipelines serving America’s energy needs and the XL Keystone pipeline would ensure that Canada’s own vast energy reserves would flow to America. It is one of our key trade partners and Obama has slapped it in the face.

In early January, Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior, announced a new 20-year, million-acre ban on uranium mining for federal lands in Arizona, despite the fact that these lands hold the highest-grade of known uranium deposits in the United States. It is an outrage that a new GOP-Congress will have to overturn if the nation is to be assured of sufficient uranium to power its nuclear plants and for weapons development. If the ban remains, these uranium resources would be inaccessible until 2023!

Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research said that Salazar’s announcement “further compounds a man-made energy crisis that has been planned and executed in Washington, D.C.”

At the same time we are learning of enormous natural gas discoveries that can reduce our energy bills and turn sleeping little towns into boomtowns, environmental organizations have launched a vast propaganda campaign against “fracking”, a technology that has been safely used for more than fifty years. Their claims about dangers to the nation’s supply of fresh water are baseless. Their claims that fracking has caused earthquakes in Ohio are absurd.

Need it be said that the Environmental Protection Agency has turned its eyes on fracking and is working on a report due later this year that will likely call for harsh crackdowns on its use and more regulations to throttle the expansion of natural gas extraction?

The EPA has just released a report of those power plants that top the list of its regulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. There is no basis in science to justify the reduction of CO2. Indeed, since it is a gas on which all vegetation depends, much as oxygen is vital to all animal life, reducing it would impair great crop yields and healthier forests.

These regulations are based on the global warming hoax that blamed CO2 for warming the earth. That is utterly false. The Earth is currently in a perfectly natural cooling cycle and the climate of the Earth is almost entirely based on the Sun—solar radiation—along with the actions of oceans, clouds, and even volcanic activity that spews tons of particulates into the atmosphere.

Coal-fired power plants account for fifty percent of all the electricity generated in the United States. Fifty percent! And yet the EPA is determined to shut down dozens of them providing that vital factor in the lives of all Americans and the economy, nor does this take into account the billions that energy producers have spent to upgrade their technology to reduce emissions.

The Obama administration fuel economy agenda, a call for 54.5 miles per gallon ignores simple physics. There is a finite amount of energy a gallon of gas can generate. If you dilute it with ethanol as is currently required, you get even less mileage. The administration is trying to circumvent Congress by issuing standards based on regulating “greenhouse gas emissions”, but there is no need for this. It is a false argument. The Center for Automotive Research says that the proposed new standards would cause the retail price of average motor vehicles to increase by more than $11,000.

Americans and the nation’s future are being victimized by Obama administration policies. The 18th annual Index of Economic Freedom, was released on January 12th by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, measures the many factors that contribute to the economic health of a nation—things like property rights, regulatory efficiency, open markets, free trade and labor policies.

Economic freedom is declining worldwide as governments try to spend their way out of the global recession. The United States fell to 10th place. In 2009 it ranked 6th, in 2010 it was 8th, and in 2011, it was 9th.

We are witnessing the deliberate murder of a superpower.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

12 comments:

Lime Lite said...

One can only hope that the Keystone pipeline debacle sinks Obama, once and for all!

denimflyz said...

Several men my partner knows called yesterday, and they have been laid off and sent back home here to Nebraska. They were working in North Dakota in the shale fields, and now they have no idea what they are going to do because of Obama's decision.
I know that Nebraska is in the middle of this mess with the XL line, I was hoping for some jobs for friends who need work badly.
We have gas lines crossing all over the place out here, and as far as I know, we have had no problems, just south of me is a gasoline transfer station that has enough fuel to blow us off the map literally. been there for years.
Our electricity here comes from coal burners, and my electricity bill is getting higher and higher, soon I will not be able to afford it period, and I have to go to my oil lamps, then the Obama administration will take my oil for my oil lamps too, probably.
I do not know where it will start again or stop, Mr Caruba. And yes, Obama is destroying our great country. I just want to cry over it, and it makes me furious also at the same time.

Steve Hollar said...

I can not stand that crap in the White House right now and all his liberal minions. In 62 years I never dreamed I would see our great nation destroyed the way Obama is destroying it. He needs to be thrown out of there and all liberals sent packing. They have done enough damage in my lifetime.

scott adie said...

To understand why the Obama Administration is deliberately crushing our own energy industry one needs to understand the current progress of UN Agenda 21 and it's insidious pursuit of One World Government or the New World Order as some call it. The magnitude and scope of UN Agenda 21 eventually presses everyone into subjection by eliminating American democracy and sovereignty. LOOK IT UP!

Travis sez said...

I, for one, would like to have each and every candidate for the presidency read and comment on this article. The media, even including Fox News, act as if this were a non-issue. It's unknown whether in their heart-of-hearts, they are aware of it. I hope some of us have the cojones to send this article to every candidate. You get an A+, Alan, and thank you again.

Alan Caruba said...

THANK YOU, GENTLEMEN!

Anonymous said...

Very good article. If you want to see what this kind of mentality will lead to, check out the current political activities in Australia and England. In spite of protests and pleadings, the governments are determined to push their people into the dark ages with their "enlightened" agendas. We are most certainly next if we don't wake up now and stop this.

Anonymous said...

Very good article. If you want to see what this kind of mentality will lead to, check out the current political activities in Australia and England. In spite of protests and pleadings, the governments are determined to push their people into the dark ages with their "enlightened" agendas. We are most certainly next if we don't wake up now and stop this.

kzimm63 said...

Last month the Associated Press reported that America’s top export in 2011 wasn’t cars or food or technology, it was fuel – gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel! This trend helps explain why U.S. motorists are paying more for gasoline. The more fuel that is sent overseas, the less of a supply cushion there is here at home. There is plenty of blame for all of this. You can blame Obama, and you can also blame both the democrats and the republicans, you can also blame the large oil companies and you can also blame Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley who have extremely large investments in oil and gas supplies. All of these things working together are one big “fleecing” of America.

buddy larsen said...

--I couldn't agree more, with the post as well as the comments. These people in control of the DC govt are a whole heckuva lot worse than most folks realize. They always need crisis to create the 'fundamentral changes' --and where there's no crisis, no problem, they will create it. Need a shootin' war on the Mexican border? Need a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? No problemo, folks, they can, will, and have, provided. I don't say this lightly --I study these things.

buddy larsen said...

--I couldn't agree more, with the post as well as the comments. These people in control of the DC govt are a whole heckuva lot worse than most folks realize. They always need crisis to create the 'fundamentral changes' --and where there's no crisis, no problem, they will create it. Need a shootin' war on the Mexican border? Need a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? No problemo, folks, they can, will, and have, provided. I don't say this lightly --I study these things.

Rocky2 said...

[Amen, Alan. Spied this web bit exposing the leading problems!]

EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OBAMA

The Old Testament has time-proven insights into professional vacationers like the Obamas:
Proverbs 19:10 (NIV): "It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury - how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!"
Also Proverbs 30:22 (NIV) which says that the earth cannot bear up under "a servant who becomes king."
And Ecclesiastes 5:2-3 (KJV) advises: "let thy words be few...a fool's voice is known by multitude of words."
Although Obama is not descended from slaves, he may feel that he's destined to become a black-slavery avenger.
Or maybe an enslaver of all free citizens!
For some stunning info on Pres. Obama and his fellow traitors, Google "Imam Bloomberg's Sharia Mosque," "Michelle Obama's Allah-day," "Obama Supports Public Depravity," "David Letterman's Hate Etc.," "Un-Americans Fight Franklin Graham" and also "Sandra Bernhard, Larry David, Kathy Griffin, Bill Maher, Joan Rivers, Sarah Silverman." Also Google "Islam will purify Jews and Christians" and "Prof. F. N. Lee's ISLAM IN THE BIBLE [PDF]."
Since Christians are commanded to ask God to send severe judgment on persons who commit and support the worst forms of evil (see I Cor. 5 and note "taken away"), Christians everywhere should constantly pray that the Lord will soon "take away" or at least overthrow all US leaders (including subversive, America-hating, Jesus-bashing Hollywood shmucks) who continue to sear their conscience, who dangle every unspeakably filthy vice before young people, and who arrogantly trample the God-given rights of the majority including the rights of the unborn. Do we need a second American Revolution?
After the Obamas are kicked out of the White House, there will be no place on earth where they can escape from scowling folks who wish to belatedly express their gratitude, in tangible ways, to the Obamas who tried to destroy the greatest nation ever.
For the record I'll predict that after the Nov. 2012 election, Obama will try something so unthinkably insane that he will be physically restrained and locked up - and remember where you heard this first!