Please help me reply to this editorial re:HR 6 and Joe Barton

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.thedailylight.com/opinion/doc476adf12f3fb9504272375.txt

Joe is right
Published: Friday, December 21, 2007 1:36 PM CST
The energy bill approved by Congress this week is long on “feel good” environmental provisions but falls substantially short when it comes to addressing our nation’s energy needs. On the House floor Tuesday, Congressman Joe Barton, R-Ennis, spoke against the bill, calling it a “recipe for recession.”

Joe is right.

While we encourage everyone to become more energy efficient, the legislation mandated in HR 6 does little but provide a false sense of environmental gain while mandating higher prices for everything from cars to homes and all aspects of our lives in between.

More importantly, Joe is right when he said this energy bill contains absolutely nothing that moves our nation closer to becoming self-reliant for our energy needs.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. We are a nation of consumers with an insatiable appetite for energy. How serious are we about saving energy? Just after dusk, drive through any town in America and each one is lit up like the Las Vegas strip. If we, as a nation, were truly serious about saving energy, we all would be driving a Honda Civic Hybrid or a Toyota Prius while reaping the benefits today of being able to achieve 40-plus mpg fuel economy. Why don’t we? Because we like our trucks and SUVs and our sports cars. To paraphrase President Bill Clinton, it’s the “free market” economy, stupid! In a free market, we have the freedom to buy what we want within our means.

For more than a decade, auto manufacturers have invested a great deal of resources into powertrain research and development. Voluntarily, each model year, manufacturers are producing vehicles that are more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly while also developing short- and long-term solutions to meet our transportation needs. Voluntarily, manufacturers have been improving Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. It is possible that when the new regulations take affect 13 years from now, we all could be driving hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles. Well, we could be, had Congress included more provisions to increase our domestic energy production — which will make hydrogen production more affordable for the consumer market.

What we, as Americans, really want is to lessen our dependency on foreign energy. Apparently, Congressman Barton, like the main character in Frank Capra’s 1939 film “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” is the only voice of common sense and reason in a city filled with hubris and charlatans.

Joe is right. We have an abundance of untapped energy within our borders that could, if Congress permitted, allow us to eliminate — or at minimum greatly reduce — our need to import crude and refined oil from an unstable region of the world that is hell bent on our destruction.

We have oil reservoirs waiting to be tapped off our Gulf shore and in Alaska that could meet our petroleum needs for the next 30-40 years. Combined with more nuclear power plants, an abundant supply of coal and new technology that makes its use more environmentally friendly, these resources will not only make us energy independent, but provide us time to develop the technology and implementation of alternative fuel sources — such as hydrogen.

And let’s talk about the ethanol mandates. Hasn’t anyone in Congress studied economics? Ethanol is a short-term, stop-gap energy measure — not a solution. Currently, it still costs more energy to produce ethanol than gain provided from the renewable plant-based fuel source. Additionally, where does Congress think ethanol comes from? It comes from our food supply. At one point, we will reach an economical tipping point, causing our food prices to rise substantially. If we think it’s rough paying $3 for a gallon of gas, how about $5 for a pound of hamburger? The feed used for the cattle that provides those steaks in grocery stores will be competing for the same grain going into our gas tanks. The law of supply and demand dictates that prices will rise.

Joe is right. In 2020 when the new regulations go into effect, we could be going online with new clean-burning coal and nuclear plants and we could be producing all of our petroleum needs domestically. Instead, thanks to this week’s energy bill, we get a warm fuzzy feeling that won’t last.

We can all agree that we should do more to protect the environment. We also should be more energy efficient. But in our free market economy, there’s little doubt that keeping the lights on and an affordable roof over our heads far outweighs a “no-energy” energy bill designed to make us feel good about ourselves. If we truly want to protect the environment, we can all become better stewards of the energy consumed in our homes and lives. If we want to continue to enjoy our American right to participate in the bountiful choices available to us in a truly free market economy, we should demand our government adopt measures that make us energy independent as quickly as possible.

And Joe is right. We can do both.

[mntleo2]

1. Some Points and a Couple Rhetorical Questions ...

...Oil companies have raked in more money than any company in history. Therefore they do not need our hard earned tax dollars to make them any richer, they have enough. And btw shouldn't these companies, who call themselves "individuals" do their civic duty by paying more taxes on those profits in exchange for all the breaks they get and the damage they do? Especially since corporations like oil companies contribute less than 8% of our entire revenue. This is compared to the poor in this country who pay a whopping 20% of their income and middle income citizens pay around 10%, which is paying for the commons (roads, water, electricity, et), that corporations use and abuse? They pay far less than any individual, who would be prosecuted should they dump so much as a gallon of bad gas in a stream, while corporations can dump tons of crap into a river, decimate the environment, and poison entire communities without paying a dime?

And let us not even get into the Iraq war and millions of people's lives torn apart simply to dominate Iraqi oil reserves ...

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

[w8liftinglady]

2. thank you!

[Redbear]

3. Joe B. is an idiot, but they are correct about the energy bil being less than it seems

If George W. happily signed it, the bill makes oil companies happy and it can't be good for American consumers.

Where Joe and the paper are off base is repeating the same myths and lies about ANWR, Florida gulf coast, "clean-coal", and nuclear power.

Its the same old canard of claiming a crisis so that BIG ENERGY can rape our land to increase their profits.