by Tom Harris
In his inaugural address last week, President Obama demonstrated that
he is putting people at risk with misguided climate and energy
policies.
If there really were an increased threat from “raging
fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms,” as the
president indicated in his speech, then America would need more, not
fewer sources of reliable and affordable energy to prepare for and cope
with these hazards. More electricity would be needed to handle greater
demands for air conditioning and heating. More power would be required
to irrigate drought-ridden lands, build dikes, harden public
infrastructure and relocate populations living on flood plains or in
harm’s way due to tornadoes and hurricanes.
Yet instead of
promoting the most reliable and least expensive energy technologies,
such as coal-fired electricity generation, Mr. Obama encourages the
least reliable and most expensive sources. It was certainly an
understatement to say, as he did in the address, “The path toward
sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult.” He
should have added, “and virtually useless,” because the sustainable
energy sources he has most in mind are wind and solar power.
The
president presents the transition to these technologies as an economic
benefit. He asserted, “We cannot cede to other nations the technology
that will power new jobs and new industries — we must claim its promise.
That is how we will maintain our economic vitality.”
No, that is how you ruin a country’s economy.
Sustainable
energy sources have had decades to mature. Energy from wind and solar
power still costs between 3 and 10 times more than energy from
conventional sources like coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear. The
government had to funnel billions of dollars into subsidies for “green
energy” technologies just to keep them afloat during Mr. Obama’s first
term, and some failed even then. The Energy Information Administration
shows that for 2010, non-hydroelectric renewable electricity generation
was still only 3.6 percent of all generation, but it received 53.5
percent of all federal financial support for the electric power sector.
No country, the United States included, can afford to sustain this indefinitely.
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Obama’s path toward energy poverty
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