The great (energy) debate

"Right now, we have a government which is more concerned with jobs than fear. After eight years of peddling fear, maybe we can try eight years of job creation (through abundant energy) to see which fits us better."

It sure seems as if this has been going on for just short of forever. The disciples of Al Gore ("the Earth, has a fever") believe we are "toasting" the planet due to our excessive carbon release. Others believe that is just so much hogwash, designed to give the government and the UN more power. Still others don't know what to believe. 

Yesterday, President Trump undid some of what his predecessor did on clean energy. He rescued the coal industry. Why is that important? Whether we like it or not, coal still plays a vital role in our nation's energy picture. True, it probably won't too much longer. But as of today, we still get over over 30% of our electricity from coal. In fact, we get over 60% of our electricity from carbon based fossil fuels. In short - coal is not our enemy. It is currently saving us from "brown outs" or even "black outs" on the grid.

If the "greenies" in this country really want to find someone to beat up on about coal, leave the fine folks in West Virginia alone. They have enough problems down there. Go pick on the ChiComs. That country consumes almost half the world's coal. They are the grand daddy of coal production and consumption. Think they are going to cut back? Think they give a wit about Al Gore and his cottage industry of fear mongering? Nope and nope again.

A story I love to tell about our air quality happened right here in Minnesota. Years ago, some knuckleheads in St. Paul thought it to be a good idea for everyone to have an emissions test done on their vehicles each year. It was a waste of time and money. In any event, the program was scrapped just a few short years after it was started. Why? The inspectors were finding that each year, more and more cars were passing the test on first try. The reason is simple - cars were just becoming better. Better mileage and less pollutants.

According to the United States Energy information Administration, the end is in sight for our supplies of natural gas. Okay - that was a joke. At today's consumption, we have 96 years of supply left. With coal, we are really in tough shape - only 256 years supply remains. And British Petroleum has recently estimated the world only has 53 years of oil remaining - that is assuming there are no more discoveries like what we found in North Dakota.

The bottom line is simply this - Donald Trump is doing the right thing. We are currently an energy rich nation. With abundant energy comes abundant economic possibilities. And even with all that energy, guess what is happening behind the scenes? You guessed it - companies the world over are trying to find the golden fleece. That would be the yet to be discovered energy source which is clean, abundant and dang near free.

So Al Gore can continue to enrich himself peddling nonsense. This old Earth is a tough old bird and the climate has gone from very hot to very cold over the past epochs. We humans only have viable weather data which goes back a hundred years or so. And putting the climate issues aside, we are blessed to live in an energy rich nation. Japan for example, has to import 84 of its gas and oil just to keep the lights on. We never have and probably never will have that problem.

The great (energy) debate will continue. Right now, we have a government which is more concerned with jobs than fear. After eight years of peddling fear, maybe we can try eight years of job creation (through abundant energy) to see which fits us better.