This isn't something new by a long shot - the problem has been around for a long time - it's just now it has gotten to a point where we are in trouble and the future looks bad.
The environmentalists that demand we all must make sacrifices to save energy don't care what or who has to make the sacrifices. They live in a world where a camp fire is all the need to stay warm and hard tack is enough to eat. They have no clue as to the needs of the rest of us, 99.8% of the population, nor do they care.
The real question is how does such a small group of people have such power to control our lives? What ever happened to majority rule, minority rights? What hold do they have on the liberal Democrats that are the power brokers that make us all live by their agenda? The Democrats are the ones that have killed an bill that allows new drilling leases, new refineries, coal fired or nuclear power plants.
Isn't time that we take back our rights to have a voice in what effects us and our families as the majority? Isn't time we demand majority rule? What in God's name is holding us back? We all see where this is going and yet we do nothing but whirring our hands in despair.
For the foreseeable future the best way to get our energy needs in line with the demand is to not vote Democrat - they are the ones that are holding us hostage by siding with the environmentalist nut jobs. No one wants to destroy the earth. Get real.
They, the liberal Democrats, have no common sense or will to do the right thing for the country. Again, it's all about power.
We must stand together against the tyranny of the few. They want to do us harm and future generations will suffer the most - that is, our children. Think about it while you read the article below!
Keep the faith - the battle has been joined.
*Turning a cold shoulder*
November 25, 2007 - Wash. TimesBen Lieberman -
Millions of Americans are shelling out more than $3 per gallon for gasoline as they hit the roads this Thanksgiving, while those staying home will be racking up big heating bills. Worse, this costly double whammy could last all winter.
This ought to prod the federal government to do the right thing on energy. More likely, Washington will continue contributing to the problem.Despite high energy costs in recent years, so far we've avoided an overly expensive winter. Either energy prices backed off a bit before it got cold, as they did last winter, or we had remarkably mild temperatures, as happened the winter before.
But this year we head into the cold months with high prices and a real possibility for the most expensive heating season ever.Nearly 60 percent of America's homes are heated with natural gas, and current wholesale prices are more than triple the price a decade ago. Though the rise in gasoline prices has attracted most of the attention in recent years, the rise in natural gas has been almost as bad.
Natural gas expenditures this winter are expected to be 10 percent above last winter's levels, according to the Energy Information Administration. That's bad enough, but if temperatures turn out colder than normal, it will be one for the record books.Washington deserves much of the blame. Tough measures in the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments targeted new coal-fired power plants, and few have been built since.
But America's electricity needs kept expanding, so growing demand has largely been met by building natural gas-using facilities. In less than two decades, plants that use natural gas to generate electricity have gone from relatively minor players to providing 20 percent of our electricity needs. About 25 percent of our natural gas supply now goes to electric utilities, rather than residential and other uses.
Naturally, this added demand has raised the price.At the same time federal policy drove up demand for natural gas, it has also suppressed supply. Tremendous reserves of natural gas, both onshore and offshore, have been placed off-limits due to various environmental restrictions.
A report from the Interior Department estimates there is 187 trillion cubic feet of natural gas on federally controlled lands, enough to serve America's residential needs for nearly 39 years. Another Interior report estimates that we can find even more natural gas offshore.However, only some of this energy is accessible.
A 2004 Energy Department report identified "more than 30 environmental policy and regulatory impediments to domestic natural gas production." Interior estimates 27 percent of our onshore natural gas is completely off limits, and another 60 percent is subject to significant restrictions. Similar constraints also limit offshore natural gas production.With Washington simultaneously increasing demand for natural gas while putting the squeeze on supply, it is little wonder prices have skyrocketed. For natural gas-using homeowners, this has meant higher energy bills, especially in the winter.
Another 7 percent of Americans use heating oil, mostly in the Northeast. Along with gasoline, it is made from petroleum and is at or near record prices. Like natural gas, restrictions on domestic production have contributed to the price increases, as have regulations making it difficult to build more refineries.Most of the rest of America's homes use either electricity or propane for heating, both of which have also gone up.Yet Washington is poised to crack down further on the energy sources used to heat our homes.
The pending energy bill would place additional regulatory restrictions on domestic natural gas and oil production. And a number of bills designed to fight global warming would strictly limit energy use and further increase prices.
Rather than untangle its red tape, Washington's answer to high winter energy prices has been the Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Under LIHEAP, the federal government doles out money for state distribution to those who can't pay their energy bills.But that doesn't address the underlying problem.
A better approach would follow the same ethical advice given to doctors — first do no harm. Before the feds give out money to make energy more affordable, they should cease doing the things that have made it so unaffordable in the first place.
Ben Lieberman is a senior policy analyst in the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation (heritage.org).
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