Week #10

March 23^rd, 2013

I will be providing the same answer to this blog post as the question proposed in Week #10s second discussion board in regard to what my proposed energy plan would be.

The first question of this blog post is a loaded question – what defines “cheap?” If you mean the billions of taxpayer dollars wasted on wind and solar energy than the answer is no – it isn’t cheap. If you mean the fact that I can afford to pay my energy bill every month sure. But again, this topic will be tied into my response to the overall picture of this blog – in that no more taxpayer dollars should be poured into ineffective alternative energy ideas like wind and solar. More time needs to be spent developing other, newer, better ideas that WILL work on a grand scale and become affordable for all.

Good old Jimmy Carter – the worst president to date before Obama was elected. He said in a speech as he donned a sweater because we were facing an energy “crisis” and needed to do our part to conserve energy. This is the embodiment of government intervention even though it is laid out to the public that we must all “do our part for the greater good.” Which are words that make my blood run cold.

If it hasn’t been clear so far, let me say emphatically NO on government intervention whatsoever on energy. I believe my first sentence to this discussion board assignment was something to the effect of “I am here to tell the American people that the DOE is hereby dissolved.” When our government was put together I don’t think the framers had visions of creating huge arms of government that was not in their parameters to do so in the first place – including regulating energy.

For the sake of the assignment I will utilize the involvement of the government to achieve mollification of both sides of the political aisle:

Drilling and fracking for the oil and natural gases we have under our feet for the next pick a number – 25-30 years (or more if available). This will provide us time in the interim to develop and study newer more cutting edge alternative energy technology. Toward the end of this time frame we will sustain our energy independently and save billions and billions of dollars to propping ourselves up on hostile nations for oil. The end result is two-fold and a win for everyone (although it will never happen and everyone can never be satisfied simultaneously) as we gain independence from foreign nations AND create efficacious alternative technology that will provide us with many years of better, “greener” days.

I will be taking no steps toward reducing my carbon footprint because man-made global warming is a fallacy. If I was to in the future and I have no way to tell you what I may do, it would be on volition because it would save my family and me money – that’s it. We recycle, I pick up trash if I see it (and won’t get hurt doing so), and I drive a pretty fuel efficient car (not because of the environment but because it saves me money on gas). There is nothing else I wish to do at this point.

This topic is irrational to me because its premise is to guilt you for being alive, that you are somehow evil for being here and being capable of rational thought and reason, for progressing (a term I loathe in the political sense but in the rational sense I’m ok with) as a species through innovation and ingenuity. Indeed we have made huge mistakes along the way and should right them but not by the hands of government.