We Need A Rational Energy Policy

Some day here in America we're going to have get some semblance of sanity and develop and adopt a rational national energy policy. As a country, we can no longer afford to continue to fund OPEC countries to the extent we are today. Before we can begin to develop a "greener" infrastructure, as a nation we must take advantage of the natural resources that we have here.

Recently the Obama administration decided to invest $2 billion dollars in offshore drilling in Brazil. That would be good for America, but the entire production of the proposed drilling field has been dedicated by Petrobras to the Chinese. The only American to benefit from this will be George Soros, who is a large shareholder of the company.

The Obama administration is going to fund this huge project while forbidding the exploitation of the huge deposits in the Gulf of Mexico, off the eastern US coasts of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. This while we import more than 70% of our petroleum products from OPEC. That's a luxury we can no longer afford. The gradual rise in petroleum prices has forced this country to an untenable position. Especially when you consider the present sharp rise in the national debt.

Simply stating that we must have a "green" economy and implementing any sort of "Cap & Trade" scheme will destroy and already fragile economy. While I would love to see this country redevelop our industrial base but we have to face facts and realize that without a huge investment, "green jobs" will not come to America. A recently developed wind farm in Wyoming was built with Chinese wind turbines because the only othe source of turbine production, Germany, has a backlog of years for their production lines. This administration wants to develop green jobs here in America, at our present rate of industrial decline, there will be no "green jobs" here.

Because our economy has more than a century on the path of petroleum dependence, it will take decades to wean ourselves away from them. In the mean time, instead of sending hundreds of billions of dollars permanently out of our economy, we must begin developing domestic supplies of oil. Alaska, the continental shelves of both coasts as well as the shale oil deposits that stretch from Colorado to the Yukon. Thus, we reinvest much of those profits into alternative sources of energy.

Research must be intensified in making solar panels more efficient. At present the average efficiency of solar panels is about 5%...that's not nearly good enough to be genuinely cost effective. But it is unrealistic to believe that either wind generation or solar power will ever be sufficient to provide this country's electrical energy needs. At best these sources will only supplement our needs, not fulfill them.

While our country does this we can begin to build the network of nuclear power plants that the "green" movement has forbidden us from developing. After all, if France and Japan can get 75% or more of their electrical energy needs from nuclear power, why shouldn't we do so as well. While coal is relatively inexpensive, it is an inefficient source of electrical production. Nor do we have to build huge terawatt production facilities. There are two companies who have developed small 5 megawatt reactors that are very nearly maintenance free and can literally be buried underground until they need to be refueled.

These are just the sorts of solutions that this country needs, but unfortunately, our political masters are not intelligent enough to implement them. So we will continue to bleed our treasure off shore...eventually, it will stop, but by then, we'll be bankrupt.