Guest Opinion/Commentary*
Tell Washington What You Think About High Energy Prices
By (07/07/08)
Across the U.S. and around the world people and businesses are being threatened by high oil prices. While there is no silver-bullet solution, there are many things the U.S. and State Governments, companies and individuals can do to save money on energy and start the process of lowering oil prices. Other oil consuming countries can take similar actions.
In the U.S., the energy policies of the past aren’t working. They relied on relatively cheap oil and a limitless supply of oil. It is time for our leaders to establish a new energy policy that deals with the realities of oil, the environment and international politics, and to take serious action now. At current prices of oil, the U.S. is spending approximately $800 billion for foreign oil. This is causing inflation, unemployment, a bloated national debt, an out of control balance of payments and extreme pain for many individuals and companies.
The Presidential candidates say we need to take action, but their programs thus far are much too limited. Barack Obama wants to spend $15 billion a year for the next 10 years on alternative energy and he is against drilling for oil.
$15 billion a year is a fraction of what we need to be spending to become energy independent, and we need to become energy independent sooner rather than later for both economic and national security reasons. Obama says drilling won’t produce any more oil for the next five years. The next five years will pass quicker than we think and what will we do then about energy and energy prices if we do not start drilling for oil now, both within the U.S. and off-shore.
John McCain is in favor of drilling for oil and for building nuclear power plants, both important initiatives. He is in favor of having the private sector taking a large portion of the lead in solving the energy crisis. If there was ever a time for the Government to take the lead on an issue, now is the time and energy is the issue. We are at war, an energy war that will lead to an economic disaster worldwide and combat on a global scale if real action is not taken now.
The solution for the energy crisis needs to be a comprehensive plan that includes drilling for oil, more nuclear power plants, clean coal, alternative energy solutions including wind, solar power, geothermal power and other innovative energy alternatives, and energy conservation.
Energy solutions must take the environment and global warming into consideration. That means we need to spend money on research to develop clean energy solutions and reducing carbon emissions from the burning of hydrocarbons such as coal, oil and natural gas. We also need to spend much more money on developing alternative energy solutions and making them economically viable on a global scale, and developing new approaches for energy conservation.
The scale of the energy challenge facing the U.S. and the rest of the world calls for a coordinated plan headed up by the Government, but that encourages and rewards innovation and entrepreneurship in the private sector. Just as the program that put a man on the moon in less than ten years in the 1960s, the energy independence program has to get people excited and involved. Our brightest young people need to go into engineering and the sciences. We need to invest billions of dollars a year in research at our leading research universities and national research laboratories, and within the private sector.
Americans need to put a torch under our leaders. Leaders either need to take action or be replaced with people that will take action. Americans can take action by conserving energy wherever possible, making their business Green, and by contacting our leaders and telling them to take action. Contact the President, your Senators and Representatives in Congress, your Governor and your State legislature, and tell them that you expect them to support sound energy and environmental policies, and that you want the price of oil down now. Tell them what you think about drilling for oil, clean coal, nuclear energy and alternative energy. Here is how you can contact them:
Contact Elected Government Officials – Send them your opinions and suggestions about solving the Energy Crisis and about the Environmental/Global Warming Crisis
- President – E-mail the President or Vice President; call or write the White House. This site tells you how.
- U.S Senators – Search for your senators by name, state, or congressional class; and visit their websites.
- U.S. Representatives – Find contact information for your U.S. representative by typing in your zip code.
- State Governors – Select your state to access e-mail, telephone, and postal contact information for your governor.
- State Legislators – Search for state legislators and topical legislative information, by U.S. states and territories.
Howard Deutsch
http://energychallenge.wordpress.com/
Howard Deutsch is the CEO of Quantisoft, a survey company. Howard’s Energy Challenge blog focuses on the economics, politics and solutions for the energy and environmental crises.
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*Ed: Views are those of individual authors and not necessarily those of American Daily.
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