The term “energy independence” has a ring to it and is probably something people feel they understand. Maybe the term puts people in mind of the Declaration of Independence; conjures up thoughts of patriotism. Political rhetoric on both ends of the spectrum promote such connotations by railing against those “foreign” sources of fossil fuels and/or some shadowy group of ne’er-do-wells called energy speculators. To me the issue surrounding our current sorry energy situation is our lost dominance in nearly all aspects of energy from extraction of fossil fuels to pushing the envelope on new development of energy production, applications, and products.
Here in Pennsylvania we sit on top of the mother load of natural gas, the Marcellus Shale. Our elected officials should be concentrating on what needs to be done (or not done in some cases) on their part to promote the development of this vast resource opportunity that is vital to the economy of Pennsylvania and the U.S. as a whole. Instead they wrangle over how to add more layers of regulation on top of what already exists and how to tax it to raise revenue for unrelated problems of their own doing. That’s just wrong. This is the USA. We were the country that lead the world in the development of oil and gas extraction, discovery and development of energy applications, electrification, and soared past the rest of the world in the commercial development of nuclear power plants.
Our decline as an energy producer and innovator, a decline that, if unchecked, has the potential to accelerate into a free fall into a third world economic status, cannot be blamed on foreign energy producers or shadowy speculators. The decline is of our own doing. Years of cowardly and inept governance on the part of those that We the People elected to maintain the security of the blessing of liberty have lead to our decline. They have been cowardly in their failure to stand up to environmental zealots and radicals over the years; cowardly in rolling over time after time when frivolous and/or outright fraudulent lawsuits have been filed purporting to protect some wee beastie or piece of landscape. They have been inept or incompetent or both in their creation and oversight of regulatory agencies. Indeed my fellow citizens the problem is us, not those foreigner suppliers of energy and speculators.
American Energy Renaissance
This country has seen a rebirth or revival of interest in what actually made this country great in the first place. A renewed interest in an appreciation for what the Founders did for us, why they did it, what they stood for, and how those founding principles are as relevant and applicable today, if not more so in some cases, as they were at the time of the founding.
For many it started at some point after February 19, 2009 and CNBC anchor person Rick Santelli’s now famous rant that suggested tea party in Chicago.
Here are a few excerpts from Rick’s now famous rant… these don’t do it justice. Worth your time you haven’t seen it already… transcript and video available at NewsBusters.
You know, the government is promoting bad behavior…
How many of you people want to pay for your neighbors’ mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?
We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I’m going to start organizing.
I’ll tell you what, if you read our Founding Fathers, people like Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson, what we’re doing in this country now is making them roll over in their graves.
People that had never taken more than a passing interests in how we should be governing ourselves if we are to have a chance of passing on the blessings of liberty to our posterity have been awakened. They are reading, talking, researching, organizing, and becoming involved in the political process at the very root of our political party system. People are being reintroduced to what American exceptionalism is and how that made us a unique, one of a kind society and a force for liberty and freedom.
This awakening is a beautiful thing but (doesn’t it always seem like just when things are on a role a “but” gets interjected in the conversation) without a companion awakening of interest in the subject of energy it might be too little too late. Without an awakening of interest in how America’s dominance in all aspects of energy development and application has slipped away and been undermined by misguided laws, policies and regulations I’m afraid we won’t be able to afford to boil water. The only tea we’ll be drinking at the party will be sun tea. In short we need an American energy renaissance.
I’ll be the first to admit that, for the average concerned citizen, digging in and becoming well informed on the subject of energy will be more challenging than getting ones arms around the founding principles and why that matters today. In addition to the basics, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist papers, it’s not difficult to find unfiltered source documents related who we are and how we got here as a nation (if you’re looking for some information sources, check out the Reference and Education links posted on this site).
American Energy Renaissance Information Challenges
When dealing with the topic of energy there are two basic challenges; (1) the subject matter can be a tad more complicated than the pros and cons of one form of government versus another and (2) there is a lot of bad information, misinformation, and just plain outright lies to deal with. Sorting out the truth in amongst all of that noise is challenging. This is an introductory article to establish a baseline or reference point for future articles on this and related topics. I’ll do my best to try to explain or break some energy related topics down for you in future posts under the category of American Energy Renaissance and to provide links and reference sites.
Then there’s the political rhetoric to deal with. On the one end the spectrum there’s “drill baby drill” and “all of above” as how to achieve energy independence. On the other end of the spectrum there’s the clean, renewable energy crowd saying “Oh yeah we’re all about energy independence but we can do it with wind, solar, biomass and such while those other guys want to destroy the environment and kill polar bears.”
As for the renewable crowd they would have you believe that we should role the dice betting on their “almost there, just need some government assistance to get over the hump” technologies to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and of course those evil foreign suppliers too. They can deny it all they want but those technologies are (1) unproven and aren’t likely to be able to scale to economically effective production levels or (2) have already been proven to be subsidy sucking scams that clearly can’t stand alone in a free market. Bio-fuel such as ethanol has been a scam preying on government subsidy dollars for over eighty years. The Spanish have documented the disastrous economic impact of subsidized wind power and the Germans are pulling the plug on subsidized photovoltaics and wind.
These green, renewable, guys hate it when facts get in the way of their story. Take these facts for example about the how these technologies are not so green when looked at from the standpoint of scalability:
To generate equivalent of 1,000 MWe (megawatts electric) Footprint comparison examples Construction materials comparison example OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2004, The Industrial Physicist, Big Green Energy Machines:
What about the so-called renewable forms of energy? They may be renewable, but calculating spatial density proves they are not green. The best way to understand the scale of destruction that hydro, biomass, wind, and solar promise is to denominate each in watts per square meter that the source could produce…
When little things like lack of scalability and the massive foot print of these things can’t be defended there are always the emotional red herrings to be tossed about such as: Yes but fossil fuel recovery will kill polar bears and fish and then there’s the rape of the land, blighting the landscape… renewables don’t do that.
Talk about your landscape blighting, take a look at this mess right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Source: Natural Gas and the Jackrabbit (page 47)
I’ve driven by some of these beauties on the PA Turnpike in the western part of the state numerous times. Not only do these things blight on the landscape, I can only recall seeing the blades turning ever so slowly once or twice. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t find these dopey looking Jolly Green Giant beanie propellers any more appealing than a strip mine.
We live in an era of mass delusion about solar and other renewables, which will become an embarrassing collection of stranded assets. But let’s use our intelligence and resources to build what will work on the large scale that matters for decarbonization rather than to fight irrationality. Humans are not rational after all, and the environment for the energy business never will be.
Energy is vital to our economy and to our national security. It’s important that We the People have an understanding of energy issues and challenges before us so we can effectively direct our elected officials to make appropriate choices when it comes to legislation and regulations that affect this critical aspect of our economy. We the People need to be fully engaged in an American energy renaissance and not rely on the media, politicians, or special interests that do not represent our best interests for the information we need to make informed decisions and give direction. I believe we can become a little more rational when it comes to our energy future if we arm ourselves with good information. Check back for future posts on this subject at Our Founder’s Compass.
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