Energy information for Republicans....

Today's post: Wednesday, 11-4-2009

As you can see from the paragraphs below, I think taking steps to stop the growth of fossil fuel use and making huge progress on alternative sources of energy and electricity generation are crucial.

I completely understand that we need to be careful not to create rapid increases in energy costs in the middle of a recession.

Similarly, in any state or district that contains large businesses that are part of the fossil fuel economy, as their representative, you have a responsibility and strong incentives to see to it that their views are represented well and that they are treated fairly and if they must be downsized or their growth slowed, it be done in such a way they can still thrive in some way and not throw large numbers of their employees out of work in the middle of the recession.

However, nearly all Republicans in the United States congress seem not to understand what is happening in the modern world in the field of energy or to realize we need quick action to avoid truly frightening consequences – or they are willing to act as if they don’t.

Instead of seeing to it that reasonable short term protections are given the fossil fuel businesses in the areas they represent and adding to the energy bill things they favor that would increase energy efficiency or our national security they are mostly working to block any bill at all.

1. We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.

(We have global warming. The evidence is in. Most scientists say the huge increases in world wide CO2 levels are the prime cause. And, the increases in CO2 levels are also documented to be real. The effects on emergency services that will be needed and on agriculture and on coastal cities if this warming trend continues are also quite clear.

Could it be that the CO2 is not the prime cause of the global warming? It doesn’t look at all likely. But, given these other facts, it will pay us to try to stop further increases in CO2 levels to help slow the warming even if there is another cause or two that is causing most of the warming.

In addition, virtually all the leaders of the developed countries in Europe believe that the global warming is real and believe that the people in the United States who are failing to act to contain it are under-informed and irresponsible. Worse, leaders in many other countries are even less happy with the United States for these reasons.

Given these considerations, we clearly must do far more than we have. And we must do it soon. Delay is not a good option. Great harm will befall the United States and all the people in the area that you represent will be harmed if we delay.)

2. At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both.

And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.

Further, it’s extremely clear that the most supported and economically beneficial solution to add energy that does not use oil nor burn fossil fuels to release more
CO2 into air that already has too much is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy production, particularly those that generate electricity & to dramatically increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of energy that is now wasted.

And, of those the more important long range solution is to build massive amounts of new renewable energy generation.

(Nuclear energy has enough risks from either the real cost of fail safe nuclear waste storage or fail safe protection from terrorists or both that it is a far less desirable and likely far less cost effective solution than renewable energy if we pay up to do the nuclear additions safely.

But, the need is so great and the ability of nuclear to generate electricity when and where there is no wind and little sunshine -- or none at night -- means that adding more nuclear power plants as a priority likely does make sense.

Large increases in renewable energy AND increases in nuclear clearly gives us & our economy better protection from running out of oil than renewables only.)

Have you ever asked yourself what would happen to the economy of the United States and the people in the area you represent if oil were to suddenly run out world wide BEFORE we have alternatives in place?

It would make the so called “Great Depression” look like a small hill by comparison!

3. Today we send staggering sums of money paid by people from the areas you represent and everyone else in the country to oil producers outside the United States. So do the people in Japan, China, India, and virtually all of Europe. Worse, many of the countries that the oil comes from – and who get the money – are either politically unstable or run by governments that don’t like the United States at all.

If we learn to use far less oil soon and become more energy efficient and add huge amounts of renewables and some more nuclear soon, we can put a screeching halt to this.

Even if you believe global warming is not caused by burning fossil fuels, it seems reasonable to act to protect our national security and get this done soon.

4. Finally, as California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said it well, “You are losing at the Box Office.”

You lost the Presidency in the last election in large part because many people saw that the Republican leadership was under-informed or irresponsible on these issues.

And they saw that instead of adding to the solutions to these problems or working to make the solutions safer to implement economically, Republicans were the party advocating nothing be done at all about them.

Unfortunately, that has as yet changed little. Republicans have become and remained the party of “Just say no.” That’s simply not going to work.

To be fully functional and successful as a political party instead of being a dwindling minority that grows ever smaller, Republicans must do better at implementing and moving forward on actually helping to take action to solve these problems.