Why is it that we sit by and listen to our politicians talk about energy and how they and their ideas are going to help us out of our problems when they are the very people who have gotten us into the problem?
Where were the Republicans when we were being told in the 70's that we had an energy crisis looming ahead and steps were taken by Jimmy Carter to help secure our future? Oh yea.. . . they were voting for Ronald Reagan who then reversed all those steps. Where were the Democrats as China and India grew right in front of our eyes to become huge oil consumers? Oh yea, they were helping the Republicans make it easy to outsource all our jobs to them so that their economies demanded more. Where were all these politicians like John McCain when we became the largest consumer of oil in the world? Oh yea they were letting Detroit make any gas guzzler they wanted and giving tax breaks to Hummers.
So why should we now listen to these people who say that, today, they have all the ideas that are going to save us from our oil addiction; an addiction they have been gleefully enabling for 30 years? Who goes to drug dealers for advice on how to get off drugs?
Lets talk about ANWR for a second.
The US geological survey estimates that there are 3.2 billion barrels of oil in ANWR. That is a 6 month supply under the current American consumption of 19.6 million barrels per day. It would take as long as 10 years to deliver that oil in the market and it will take 50 years to get it all out of the ground.
On the other hand:
In that same 50 years, If a law was passed tomorrow that required all new vehicles to get 39 MPG, we would be drilling 51 billion barrels of oil out of thin air just by making a small lifestyle change. The effects would begin to be felt within a couple of years and be in full swing before the first drop of ANWAR oil arrived. Conservation is also a method that is 100% sustainable while drilling out of the ground is not.
But now here we are. Gas is $4 per gallon and we realize we have all been sleeping in the car and, now that we are awake, we can see that our "leaders" have been driving us off the road and toward a big tree. Don't worry, though, these same people who have been driving are now here to save us with all their new big ideas about energy. And their first big idea is to put smaller trees in front of the big tree to slow us down. . .
When it comes to energy policy in this country I think it's time we started listening to the right people, not the ones who have already been blowing smoke up our asses for 30 years. Maybe it's just me. . .