Cheap Energy Will Make the US More Economically Competitive

Open e-mail to Rep. Neugebauer:

Randy,


More talk in the News on clean energy. In spite of Solyndra and others, the White House continues to push "clean energy". The latest comment is that we must keep up with the rest of the world.

"Clean energy" are the buzzwords of the Obama Administration for anything that does not release CO2 in its final use. They mean wind and solar energy. The Administration doesn't want to talk about nuclear energy.

If you do the math, one of the problems is that one can't get more than about 10% of our energy needs from wind and solar, even with extensive commercial development. In addition, wind and solar are considerably less efficient dollarwise than using fossil fuels in our traditional generation of electricity from coal burning power plants and the use of gasoline in automotive vehicles.

Why the condemnation of CO2 as a bad actor? There are no data to show that it is detrimental to the environment. In fact, CO2 in air is a raw material source for plant growth.

I strongly suspect that ideology and taxation are behind the Administration's continuing push for clean energy. If the US follows the "clean energy" program, it will be operating an industrial economy at considerably less efficiency, than there would be with use of fossil tools. This would then put the US economy at a level more equal to Third World countries, which is one of the objectives of Marxists ideology.

The Obama Administration is using a twofold approach; throw taxpayer money at the development of inefficient energy processes and simultaneously inhibit production and use of fossil fuels. Inhibition of fossil fuel production has been demonstrated in the continued withholding of oil drilling permits from drilling companies, and the recent postponement (killing) of the Canadian oil pipeline to the Gulf Coast.

Postponement/killing of the Canadian oil pipeline project also does not make available thousands of US jobs for its construction. More importantly, it tends to maintain oil and its associated products, such as gasoline, at high prices. The US labor force is high priced compared to labor forces in most other developed countries, which is why much manufacturing has gone from the United States to those other countries. However, a little noticed fact is that with use of cheap energy, high-priced American labor could actually be more efficient (lower cost) than third country labor.

Randy, we have an opportunity to get the US economy back on track, but it will involve fighting a misplaced ideology of the Obama Administration. Please do your best.