Energy Editorial - Why the Bush/Cheney National Energy Policy stinks…
Full Article…

Interesting that Dick Cheny has unveiled his new energy policy for America on the same day the American Lung Association has announced that more “Polluted Air is reaching more Americans than ever before” http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/05/01/air.quality/index.html
An even more recent story shows 1 in 4 children in a polluted area of NYC have asthma.

Dick, a former President of an oil or gas company who made over 50 millions dollars in his last year with this operation, is calling for more oil drilling, oil refining, nuclear power, coal extraction and other actions that will harm our environment more, while doing great benefit to the large contributors that put him in office.

He also claims that conservation cannot really play a big part in this equation. Let’s step back and look at this from a reasonable perspective. Having been involved in the energy business for 25 years, this is one subject that I am surely qualified to speak on.

As it stands now, the US uses 1/4 of the worlds energy, while only housing 1/20 of the global population. We use TWICE as much per person as the countries in western Europe which have a HIGHER standard of living than we do. Anyone with a reasonable sense of fairness can see that this is not only wrong, but it is unfair. When we use resources in a wasteful manner, it takes them from others...and returns more pollution for both us and those others to live with.

Let’s look at Chenys claim that conservation can do very little good. This is only true if people do not conserve or are not forced to conserve. Two instances that might hit close to home:

1. The New Hummer SUV- They’ve come out with a new model that gets about 10 MPG. Therefore, you’d use over TWICE as much gas as the average car, and 5X as mush as the best car available today. Simple math will tell you that we would therefore extract a tremendous savings in gasoline and pollution.

2. Air Conditioners - The Bush administration recently rolled back rules which would have made air conditioners more efficient. The technology exists, but Bush claimed it was too expensive and would cost consumers dearly. Here’s the problem with that logic; the savings for the customer from lower electric bills would offset the higher air conditioner sales price within 2-4 years. Therefore, the only reason a customer would save money is if the air conditioner were never used!

One common theme runs through all this.... more money for the energy companies, most of whom are Bush and Cheney buddies. It is so blatant of a crime that it is amazing we are not all marching to Washington and protesting. A vote for more oil, coal and refining is really a vote against your children and responsible stewardship of the earth we live on.

Make no mistake about it. Oil and cheap energy are a drug and we Americans are very addicted. As with the other intoxicating compounds, there are hidden dangers which lurk beneath the temporary high.

Personally, I feel better about myself when I use less energy. How about you? Do you like to show off by having a house six times as large as you need? A 4 ton car for a 110 pound soccer mom to drive around in alone 90%+ of the time?

This is what makes us the Ugly Americans to much of the world. We want more than what is ours...we want what is theirs. That is why we fight wars for oils.

At some point we must decide what is important to us. My guess is that, for most of you, it’s your family and the beauty of life (nature). If so, you owe it to both of these parties to consider our energy policy and take steps to assure a cleaner future.