Our War on Energy....

 

 

"Going to war on our domestic energy supplies is dumb and dumber...."

 

Hello! I am writing this post from Saudi Arabia. Really? Not really. However, I am writing this post from a country which has more oil than Saudi Arabia. That is good, right? It should be. However, the "King" of this country HATES oils and has declared "war" on it as well as other fossil fuels. Make sense? No? Good. Then I can continue.

I would like to blame our war on energy on the current Administration, however the newly declared war on coal is just another battlefront in our war on energy. This has been going on for decades. Many times when I think of our energy policy, I think of the adage, "We have seen the enemy and it is us". For some reason, when our nation is awash in fossil fuel, so much in fact we can export the excess, we refuse to exploit them. 

 

Lets look at our initiatives to expand our energy base since the oil embargo of the 1970's:

• Nuclear - Although new nuclear reactors have come online as late as 1996, the NRC hasn't issued a license to build a new reactor since 1978.
• Offshore Drilling -  We have done some, but not enough. The Gulf of Mexico is a bonanza, and if we do not drill there, other countries will.
• Keystone - Even though the "King" hates what is going on in North Dakota and Western Canada, oil is flowing. We are forced to ship all that oil via tanker car rather than pipe line because...I guess I don't know the reason other than the "King wants it that way.
• Coal - If the "King" had studied history rather than Saul Alinsky, he would know that our country was built on coal. We have almost 300 years proven supply of coal remaining. It was the blood of the industrial revolution. Today, with of all our energy demands, we now use over 20% coal. The "King" hates coal more than oil. This afternoon, the "King" declared a war on coal. Many jobs and poor people will suffer because of it.

We have come a long way baby since the Carter years. Or have we? The difference is in the Carter years many believed we were actually running out of oil. Today, we know that is not the case. And yet, we insist on being over the same barrel (no pun intended) now that we were in 1970. Energy made this county great. Energy will continue to allow our country to be great. Without energy, we will not be great. Wind and solar are not the answer now. Maybe solar in the future, wind never, but not now.

The climate change I have noticed is this - we had a late spring with lots of snow. We are now having a very warm summer with trees and shrubs looking great. Crops are growing. Every year we get smarter on how to safely extract energy from the ground, and how to more cleanly burn it. Our future looks good - very good. We have the resources and the know how to blaze the path. We just need our "King" to realize that also.