Unveiling the Light

A lot is being said in this political season and little of it seems oriented towards those things that really affect Americans. So far the main point of contention among the democrats is who will get out of Iraq first while McCain says to stay the course. This is an important subject but with more people now being killed on American highways than in Iraq, it is not at the center of American concern. There is a lot of talk about integrity and a lot of talk about unifying the country. Few of us believe in the former among politicians who promise the world without a thought of paying for what they promise and before we talk about unity, perhaps we should talk about what we will be unified about.

If anyone wants my vote this year they need to address some bread and butter issues. I am all for saving the planet and “green” economics, but not when it results in the ruin of our country. The fact is that gas is now near $3.50 a gallon or more. It is $4.00 a gallon for diesel which powers the trucks which bring our goods to market. This hits Americans directly in the pocket everyday. The undeniable fact is that a growing economy depends on plentiful power at a reasonable price. We have neither and until we do we can expect the economy to slow and our standard of living to stagnate.

So far the only action our government has made is to make things worse. By mandating ethanol in our fuel Congress has shifted thousands of acres of agriculture to production of gasoline additive. Not only has this move failed to reduce gas prices but it has resulted in drastically higher prices for groceries. Wheat is in less supply and more expensive, as is the food used for livestock. The result is raising prices across the board. Now we have expensive gas and expensive groceries. Also, we are pumping billions of dollars overseas with the resulting decrease in the value of the dollar. As it devalues the cost of imported goods will increase as well.

Our economy needs oil for the short and medium term. We can increase supplies and decrease prices by drilling for oil in Alaska and off the coast of our nation. We have found the oil there but environmentalists stand in the way. What is more dangerous to the environment, drilling oil in Alaska and piping it across the country or continuing to depend on supertankers crossing the ocean and docking off our coasts? Why do we fail to drill for oil up to 12 miles off our coastline when Cuba and China are drilling just outside our boundary at 13 miles? Do we think they drill safer than we do or that any oil spill will stop at the 12 mile limit?

Our country is weakening itself, reducing the living standard of its people, and reducing our ability both to defend ourselves and to help others; and we are doing it based on feelings instead of facts. We won’t build nuclear when others use it quite safely and we won’t drill for oil. We do this out of fear and as a result make the world a far more dangerous place. Not only are we dependant on vulnerable oil tankers but we are empowering our enemies and weakening our economy. We are making food more expensive, especially for the poor and reducing our ability to help feed the world. We place ourselves in more danger and do more harm to the environment because we fail to face up to the reality of the situation.

We may be able to offset some of our oil usage through conservation but a growing economy will soon outgrow our conservation efforts. We may be able to offset more with solar and wind power but it is doubtful that such renewable sources will ever account for more than 10 percent of the power used. Long term we may be able to depend on fuel cells for a large portion but this is still a dream and at least several decades away. Are we willing to dump our economy, our standard of living and our security in the meantime?

We need a balanced and realistic energy policy. We need to look not only at increased drilling but also increased refinery capacity and increased competition in the distribution of energy. Oil companies seem to be satisfied with the status quo because they are making billions. Our government needs to make them work harder for these profits, to instill more competition into the market place and to increase supply. If our economy quits growing we will not have the capital to bring forth new technology that will eventually replace oil. We will end up a third rate power and it will be all the sadder because we will have caused our own decline. We need to remember that people are our most important asset.