I was a fifth grader when we saw a film about our cooling planet. Scientists were predicting that an Ice Age was on the way within the next 20 years. Because of course humans were putting so many contaminants in the air that they were blocking the sun's rays. And right around that time the scientists were reporting that our average temperatures were cooling.
Sound familiar? Only this time those contaminants we humans keep pumping into the air aren't bringing a new Ice Age - this time they're giving the planet a "fever", at least according to the eminent climate scientist Al Gore.
We also were treated to frequent film strips telling us about overpopulation. Why, if we didn't stop having so many children, the billions of people on the planet would strip it bare of resources.
When I graduated from High School, gas prices were climbing at the pump. We had already experienced the first OPEC oil embargo, which turned out to be sort of a dry run for the new association of middle eastern countries. OPEC was formed by those countries who had nationalized their energy companies and sent their sons to be educated in American universities. Those sons went home and helped their dictator fathers collaborate with the other dictatorships in oil-producing nations to control production in order to drive up prices and make them rich.
Fast-forward to today. American companies have figured out how to get oil out of massive shale deposits in the Dakotas, and the Canadians are producing massive amounts of oil just to the north. So a pipeline was recently proposed to pump the crude down to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, we elected a president who is a soldier for the cause of eliminating fossil fuels as a source of energy. Either he is incredibly naive to think we can power our homes and factories and cars and trucks exclusively with windmills and solar panels, or (more likely) is bent on chopping America down to size, so we're no longer the world's economic powerhouse.
The president has also padlocked all public lands, where in several cases there lie vast untapped energy reserves. He has also ordered his EPA to issue draconian regulations intended to bankrupt the coal industry, which has traditionally provided the majority of electric power to the country. I don't think he's doing all that because he's stupid - rather I'm pretty well convinced he's doing it because he wants to destroy America's wealth and make sure we are no longer a world superpower.
So if I'm in charge, obviously I'd open up public lands for oil exploration, especially ANWR in Alaska. I'd immediately approve the pipeline, and use it to carry Canadian crude as well as the crude from the Dakotas to refineries. I'd flood the market with American oil, effectively neutering OPEC once and for all. I'd reverse all of the Obama regulations on coal, but work hard to find ways to work with the industry to make "clean coal technologies" affordable to keep the pollution levels from rising to those being experienced in China today.
I'd also cut the Federal fuel tax rates and encourage states to do the same. Ordinary Americans need lower gas prices at the pump so they can afford to drive themselves to work every day. We need to make work a better choice than welfare (and unemployment) once again.
Something Obama may or may not understand is that energy drives commerce. We need as much cheap energy as we can produce to transport goods, transport ourselves to work, heat and cool our homes, and run our factories. It's time to stop abusing our rights to cheap energy.
It's also well past time to bring the hammer down on monopolies. Most of our oil production is relegated to about 2 or 3 global companies that earn more than most countries each year. It's time to bring competition back to the marketplace. We need to bring antitrust suits against these mega-companies and break them up. We need to lower the barriers to entry into the marketplace to encourage more competitors to enter.
Ultimately, these are the steps that will bring American prosperity back and improve the lives of every American. The president is on precisely the wrong path, which is already proving disastrous to the American standard of living.
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