If we set out to be the most ignorant country in the world on energy strategy, we could not achieve more than we are doing without that goal in mind. A third grade class could design a better energy strategy than our leaders and the always incompetent DOE has done.
To reduce foreign imports, which has always been the clear goal, we will devote 50% of our corn crop to reduce imports by 3%. Thus, raise corn prices all over the world and make enemies in the process. We will use more btu’s making the ethanol then the ethanol contains, so we really imported more oil in the end. We will spend billions in taxpayer dollars to make the ethanol competitive with the gasoline it replaces.
We will stop building nuclear plants while the rest of the world builds as fast as they can. Two and done, that’s our motto. Two incidents at two plants and we decide that’s it. No rational thought, just two and done. One and done would have been enough for our fragile little mind set. After all, it’s one and done for offshore drilling.
We will seize on wind and solar as our energy strategy. We will use foreign windmills and foreign solar panels, we will subsidize the two energy sources with more billions in taxpayer money, we will ask cash strapped Americans to accept much higher utility bills in addition to the tax subsidies since neither are cost competitive with coal or nuclear. Solar uses lots of water which we don’t have. Wind kills lots of birds. Where is PITA? They won’t allow a chimp on a TV commercial, but they will allow hundreds of birds to be killed by wind props because they, PITA, believes in wind.
Where am I going with this? The punchline, that’s where. If you are clueless as a country about energy, but have a smidgen of common sense, what would you think could be the tipping point where most Americans say “enough”? To me it would be where we start exporting energy in any form. We’ve been exporting coal for years, but we have so much it’s going to take several generations to export us out of coal. How about natural gas? Your gas bills have been going down because we have been finding huge amounts of natural gas in the lower 48 states.
Two companies are building natural gas exporting terminals on the Gulf Coast. Freeport will receive it’s first export permits from your federal government in the next few weeks. Cheniere Energy has already received most of the permits needed to export gas.
So, here’s the deal. These companies want to get a fair buck for their gas. Demand in the US is less than supply now with the new finds. Mostly, the new technology that allows gas to be extracted from shale fields. So, to get that buck in the US, suppliers need to send the surplus to the Middle East.
The leadership of our country and our auto industry have decided to force us into electric cars. Electricity from solar and wind. They could just as easily forced us into cars fueled by CNG, compressed natural gas. But, to continue the trend of the past 30 years of always being wrong, we will export our natural gas and you will pay a huge premium to run on electricity.
We have hit the tipping point where we can no longer be wrong. We need to use our natural gas here and not ship it to the Middle East and China. We need it to produce electricity, heat homes, and as a transportation fuel. We can’t accept anymore idiocy from Washington.
Say no to any and all permits to export natural gas.
