U.S. should be oil exporter
Published 10:19 am Thursday, December 23, 2010
Most of what Christian Henry says in his letter is certainly subject for debate. That being about how the wealthy will handle their newfound riches from tax cuts, money and jobs sent overseas, etc. However, to call investing in “green energy projects” the solution is nonsense. If green projects were a viable endeavor, all the rich people he seems to disdain would be investing in them. The very fact that we don’t pursue green goddledygook is because it is not profitable to those who spend the money. Windmills are unpredictable, freeze up in winter, and could be disabled in an instant by some nut in a bulldozer. Solar is no better. A kid with a slingshot and a bag of rocks could wipe out millions of dollars of investment in 30 minutes. Ethanol costs more to produce than gasoline and requires gigantic subsidies from the government to even exist. The whole green movement is “pie in the sky” and any logical thinker would have to conclude it as such.
Here are some more obvious and attainable solutions. The U.S. should work towards becoming an exporter of oil. We should drill, extrude, extract, and explore oil production with a vigor equal to our efforts during WWII. We have vast quantities of oil from which the eco-nuts and their allies on the left have decided we should not benefit. This belongs to the American people and should be used now to bring back our economy. Stop all offshore drilling now. Why go a mile under the ocean, (because the greens won’t allow new drilling on land), risk another BP like disaster, when there are reserves of oil in practically every region of the country waiting to be recovered. This can and should be pursued immediately. At the same time we need to build refineries to the tune of at least one in every state where the oil is recovered from. We should aggressively try to develop synthetic fuels which will power everything currently powered by petroleum derivatives. Another good alternative is generation of power by burning garbage. This has been proven to be a reliable, eco friendly technique that is highly productive and you can bet we won’t run out of garbage to burn. Also, every building in America should have wind turbines attached that feed power back into the grid when the wind is blowing. These are just a few common sense solutions to move our economy forward now, using what we already have and not chasing rainbows in the guise of becoming more green. This green philosophy should be re-evaluated and revealed as what it is: a job killing, progress delaying, ridiculously expensive boondoggle. Let’s go another way. The logical, fast, and less expensive alternative of using existing technologies to their maximum benefit.
Butch Carnes
Poulsbo
