Getting It Right - I’m Having Severe Gas Pains!

This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. By the way, this week’s column is my 100th submission. Now, on to the subject of the week:
I read the actual cost of producing a barrel of oil in the Middle East is under five dollars! They are now charging over $130.00 per barrel on the international market, and the cost is expected to continue to rise. This exorbitant pricing reflects un-tethered greed on the part of the Arab Oil Barons combined with their opportunistic desire to destroy the American economy and democratic way of life. It is a form of economic terrorism from which we currently have no protection.
Whether we like it or not, we Americans are in for at least five years of hardship and frustration. Our inept federal legislators must quit squabbling and politicizing the problems and get serious about implementation of reasonable remedies. Otherwise, our period of decline and hardship will last for an even longer period of misery. It is time for our elected representatives to put patriotism and concern for our nation above partisan and personal foolishness. We can no longer afford "business as usual".
We need to formulate and focus on implementation of a well conceived five year plan, ten year plan, and twenty year plan, which will lead our nation into energy independence. Then we can let those Arab Oil Barons return to camels, hot sands, and tribal warfare.
The Five Year Plan - This short range plan should be focused on all steps that can be taken immediately that require a minimum of development for implementation. This would include consideration of such steps as:
♦ Elimination of all emission restrictions and requirements for any vehicles that can be manufactured that yield a 40 MPG efficiency. After all, if the mileage has been doubled, the emissions are automatically cut in half. Help them produce it by taking away the requirements.
♦ Begin putting federal funds into projects designed to improve the national railroad infrastructure. Some of these funds should be the result of reduced funding for the declining air systems.
♦ Provide tax incentives to assist families in improving the efficiency of their homes in terms of energy consumption.
♦ Provide funding to assist cities and towns in establishing and operating public transportation systems. If the systems are comfortable and operate on convenient schedules, the public will use them.
♦ Provide incentives to encourage conversion of all lighting, public and private, into the most energy efficient types available. This would include all street lights, home lighting, commercial lighting, and sports lighting.
♦ Pass legislation encouraging production and use of flex-fuel vehicles which can operate on a variety of types of fuel, depending on which source is most readily available and most economical.
♦ Provide funding assistance for construction projects which will revitalize housing near commercial centers to reduce suburban sprawl and subsequent commuting.
The Ten Year Plan – This portion of the national energy strategy will involve changes in infrastructure that will require several years for implementation. However, these processes should be put into "works in process" immediately.
♦ A strategy of maxim domestic production of oil in order to begin to move away from dependence on the Oil Barons for existence.
§ Approval of drilling in the ANWR area of Alaska. The exploration, drilling, and pipeline work will require at least seven years before it begins to provide some 100,000 per day in oil to us. Modern techniques today create a minimum of threat to the ecology, and for now we must take those chances.
§ Approval of off-shore drilling in Florida and California. Again, modern techniques of drilling make this a safe decision. As we sit and squabble, China is leasing the Cuba flats and beginning to drill, almost in our back yard.
§ Allow harvesting of oil shale in the Rocky Mountains in remote, non tourist areas. The reserves in this shale are larger than all of the oil reserves in the Middle East. To not use them is ridiculous.
§ Build at least one large national refinery in a convenient location. Federal support should be given to its construction if the oil companies do not want to build it. It should be designed in a manner that will enable it to be converted to other refining uses if demand eventually wanes for oil.
§ Invest in ethanol research. Encourage development of plants and crops designed for conversion into ethanol. Assist in petroleum and ethanol blending technology.
- Build additional nuclear plants, where appropriate, across the nation. To ignore this technology and energy source is political foolishness designed to capture votes.
- Build dams on all water sources throughout the nation where enough energy can be gained to justify the cost.
- Engage in federal programs for rebuilding of the national railway infrastructure. Our future will certainly involve an increased reliance on the increased use of the much more energy efficient rail system instead of highways and airplanes for travel and movement of freight.
The Twenty Year Plan – This plan will focus on emerging technologies. It constitutes a search for the alternate energy sources that will eventually move us away from use of oil as the chief provider of energy. After all, oil is a diminishing resource and will eventually not be available for mankind to use. We need to be preparing for that eventual day at this moment.
♦ Fund research programs for research in all energy technologies. These would include:
Solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, geothermal energy, hydrogen cells, friction reduction technology, insulation technology, heating/cooling technology, transportation technology, magnetic technology, and any other area where improvements would result in significant energy gain or savings.
♦ Provide meaningful incentives for development of technology that significantly benefits the national good. These would include cash prizes for inventions.
♦ Reduce the amount of bureaucratic interference to patent processing and needed research activities.
♦ Assist colleges in developing programs of study in these energy engineering fields. The specialization in this arena of study is essential for the future.
♦ Form international consortiums for large energy technology projects and programs.
Conclusion: "Prior Planning Prevents Pitifully Poor Performance" – That was a management idiom that was taught in management school. Well, our national leadership over the past forty years has engaged in an obvious lack of "Prior Planning", and we are now experiencing "Pitifully Poor Performance". From this point forward, we would be doubly foolish to repeat the process and continue to engage in self serving actions and politically motivated actions that hurt our national good.
Rudiments – Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning:
♦ I find it interesting that our local bureaucracy and County Commission felt the necessity to spend the $17,000 remaining in grant funds out of the $139,000 approved for the sidewalk project out by the new High School. They widened the sidewalk another foot rather than give the State back any of the money. Wise thinking?
♦ At the same time, I commend the same group for coming in $88,000 under the projected cost on the Peanut Road resurfacing project.
♦ When the Commissioners told Ted Lakey to find an alternate location for the county planning department if the developer is interested in buying their building, I had to restrain myself from jumping up and yelling "WAL-MART".
♦ Our School Board isn’t struggling with the impact of state budget cuts as they are in several nearby counties, such as Bay County. From this I would deduce they have been doing a good job of keeping expenditures within bounds.
Quote of the Week: "Those who would give up essential liberties in order to gain temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety", Ben Franklin. Keep this thought in mind as our leaders pass legislation that constantly erodes your personal liberties, and you will be "Getting It Right".