Cheap gas? Why? So we can deplete the finite supply to deprive our children and generations after to feed our own greedy selfishness?
In past days I liked to say that we should keep importing foreign fuel. Use up theirs, I spouted, so that we will have ours when it is scarce, and petroleum is needed for other uses than to burn.
But really, if we let the price come down, what will happen? Waste. And waste now has an additional cost: climate change.
Housing patterns: sprawl, Mcmansions, poor energy use, need to change. If energy costs go up and down, no planning, no long range personal plans, can be made that tend to lower our use of precious resources and conserve our atmosphere and fragile climate. For instancem, inside the beltway houses are keeping their values despite the housing bubble, while houses an hour further out from DC are losing theirs. That is the start of a shift that is driven by fuel price increases. Why is there no small deisel pickup truck available in the US car market? When there is, it will be outselling the megatrucks in no time.
Why is solar, wind, conservation of energy only just leaving the gate? Because fuel prices have been low, and waste a simple, even smart decision. But no more, I hope.
Why is nuclear generation still an antiquated and tiny part of the energy equation? Why is coal burning generation still a dirty business? Energy is precious, and the climate is precious. Value must be ascribed to the latter treasure, the climate (and our future). Just let gas stay high, let's try to even out the pain by creative measures to assure that certain classes are not decimated.
Let's rebuild and upgrade with IT enhancements the electrical grid. Let's upgrade the rail system, in and between cities. Let's use nuclear power to create hydrogen from water, desalinate seawater, pump it where it's needed.
Sequester the carbon from coal, put armies to work making the change. We can.
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It's quite simply because wind and solar are horribly inefficient at generating and transporting power in an on demand fashion. And as far as nuclear it's just too outrageously expensive. It really is just wind/solar for the republicans.
Anthropogenic Global Warming is laughable at this point. Richard Lindzen's work on the iris effect proves the earth has it's own negative feedback mechanisms whereby thermal radiation is dissipated back into space. It's a fraud of the highest order, and nothing more than a large cash transfer from rich countries to developing nations.
The real problem in the world is poverty. That is a very real problem with very real consequences. And by limiting the availability of fossil fuels by artificially ratcheting up the price, some very well meaning people are killing millions of the poorest and most downtrodden people on the planet.
These people still burn animal dung for heating and cooking. Look at Singapore. The rate of malaria in Singapore proper is non-existent because the citizens are not living in poverty and have access to quality medical care. But if you travel 20 minutes in any direction, poverty abounds and young and old die every day from entirely preventable things.
These people need access to cheap fossil fuels to farm and ranch and take their goods to market. This will help elevate them from poverty and ultimately will save millions of lives worldwide.
And I am a conservationist. I hate pollution as much as anyone. But failing to use the natural resources we have while we allow China to slant drill off the coast of Florida, essentially stealing our oil is just plain stupid. Until the free market comes up with a workable solution via alternative energy,the fact remains that the world runs on oil. And for us to artificially jack up the price while our own resources remain untapped is quite literally suicide.
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