On the Jan. 8 Opinion page, Froma Harrop dealt with the political finger pointing regarding U.S. energy. What she didn’t do was deal with the insanity behind much of the political discourse. There is absolute babbling regarding the XL pipeline. We currently produce about 18.8 million barrels a day but we use more than 20.5 million a day. So it’s at best a drop in the bucket and no solution to our impending shortage. Furthermore, being the number one producer of oil is both irresponsible and dangerously shortsighted. We should be saving our limited oil supplies, not squandering them for short-term gains, not polluting our groundwater and not wanting to wear the moniker of being the number one producer. Who would feel secure knowing that we are rapidly racing to a time when we will be dependent on the rest of the world for oil?
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To make matters worse, our electrical grid is both outdated and overwhelmed. We cannot move more electricity very well around the country. Building more grids is going to be a difficult battle, as no one wants to live near high voltage transmission lines. So the obvious solution is to better distribute the generation. And that means generation that really doesn’t pollute or cause other problems. We have a short window to prepare for the energy problems that we will face in the near future.
Fusion is still a ways off and likely being thwarted by opposing interests. We currently are too engrossed in propaganda and political nonsense instead of focusing on the immediate solutions. Access to cheap energy would certainly make us safer and more secure. And generating electricity is certainly far safer than mining and pumping oil, natural gas or coal. Natural gas is currently filling the gap but that can be put to far better use than generating electricity. If the U.S. implemented the entire green energy plan, we would see the first drop in our use of fossil fuels in 2055. We’ll be out of oil long before that happens. It’s sad, but the sky is falling and folks are buying nonsense as policy.
Read More:Letter: U.S. must implement solid green energy plan