Energy still in search of policy

"Ronald Reagan asked the simple question back in the 1980's - 'Why in the world do we need a Department of Energy?' Good question then Mr. President, and a even better question now."

For years now, I have been amazed at our energy policy - or should I say lack thereof. It is a hot mess for sure. The only word I can think of to describe what we have in lieu of a policy is "disjointed". Why do I say that? Think of the recent ruling about the pipeline which was to run through North Dakota. As we know, the pipeline was being protested by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. It had gone to court. When it appeared that the courts were going to rule against the tribe, the government stepped in and shut it down.

Shades of the Keystone Pipeline. Obama did not want it. He is King over the land, so he killed it. No big thing. We will just keep on using those risky oil cars to ship highly volatile tar sand oil across county. Even though it has been proven time and time again that pipelines are safer and cheaper than shipping by rail, who cares? 

Back to our disjointed energy mess. We have plenty of energy in this country. However, we still rely on the Saudis to keep enough oil flowing to maintain stable world markets. What if the Saudis decide to cripple the world market in response to the recent law being passed by the House and Senate? The law which will allow relatives of 9/11 sue the Kingdom? Are we able to manufacture enough energy to maintain our supply and stabilize our prices? Or will go back into another 1970's type of energy crisis?

Yesterday, I addressed the issue of wind turbines (I had mistakenly referred to them as "windmills"). My opinion was they are big, ugly, and inefficient. If our government wants 50% of all our energy coming from renewable sources by the year 2030, we have a ways to go. 

Currently, we get about 13% from renewable sources. And even though the cost curve is coming down for solar (not so much for wind if you bake in the subsidy cost), it still has a ways to go to be not only cost effective, but plentiful enough to prevent brown outs or black outs. Many scientists feel that our biggest hope for the future for sustainable, renewable energy will come from solar more than anything else. But that time is not yet here.

I detest the zero sum game the Administration has given us on energy. Kill the coal industry and prop up the wind industry. Why not exploit every source of energy we have? Trust me, market forces will rule the day. The technology of renewable energy is getting better and better all the time. There are energy sources we have not even tried as yet (like go to market fuel cells) which might be game changers in twenty years.

Ronald Reagan asked the simple question back in the 1980's - "Why in the world do we need a Department of Energy?" Good question then Mr. President, and a even better question now. This bloated department does NOTHING to increase our energy independence. All they do is employee lots and lots of civil servants and spend lots of taxpayer money. The least they could do for us is give us a policy worth the paper it is written on.