The most important topics to everyday citizens are the economy, including energy and manufacturing independence; the security of our people on the street and at our borders; and more parental control of the education of their children. Today, I want to focus on the first of these.
Our last two presidents glutted the market with too much money to pay for all their favorite programs. More money with proportionally fewer goods makes inflation. It will take time (at least three years) for the money that has been allocated to be used. To avoid a deep recession, the interest rates are going up. We should not give away any more of our tax money until things have settled.
Let’s look at energy. Is there globaL warming? Have humans contributed to it? We stipulate to both of those questions a resounding “Yes”. The “Green New Deal”, however, is an unrealistic fairy tale solution. If we encourage innovation like we did with the space program, renewable energy should be doable. But there is no reason to punish the farmers and working people when carbon fuels are readily available now.
The evolution of the energy industry is going to happen. But we can not regulate the elimination of this important commodity in the next five years. We should let the market make the transition gradually.
Our national security is dependent on an effective energy program. We have been energy independent. We should be independent again. Canada and our other allies should also be able to benefit from the use of the cleanest energy in the world that was given to this country by the Universe and God.
The destruction of our energy industry with the shutting down of pipelines and over regulation of extracting carbon based energy is a travesty. Democrats play word games with the terms “leasing” and “permits” when they also send out clear signals to the markets that drilling and refining oil based products will be limited or eliminated in the near future. No gas company wants to jump into that situation.
The source of oil and natural gas doesn’t matter. Buying from Arabia doesn’t make the gas cleaner. Add the cost of transport makes it more expensive. This is a market issue, not a regulation issue.
Electricity created by burning carbon based products is not cleaner or more efficient. Allowing for brownouts and blackouts to let people freeze or starve will not end well.
The biggest polluters are to be found in Asia, not North America. Until China can be persuaded to clean up its tons of filth, our improvement of ounces will make no real difference globally. We cleaned up our act once Rachel Carson published her work, The Sea Around Us, in 1951. By 1970, we had clean water and clean air acts. Not everyone followed our rules. But as a society, we were well on the way to a clean environment.
Furthermore, pushing wind and solar power is a disaster waiting to happen. The batteries in cars are too limited unless you commute a short distance. The disposal of those batteries will be an environmental nightmare. The same is true of the wind turbines. They have a 10 to 15 year life and then they have to go into a landfill. One day this fantasy might come true. Maybe in 10 or 20 or 100 years. But it will bankrupt us now.
My next letter will deal with the other items mentioned above.
Holly Geddes
Kent County Republican Party
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Bob Moores says
Holly,
How did our last two presidents glut the market with too much money to pay for all their favorite programs? Our president proposes a budget of recommended spending, but it is Congress that spends the money. Problem is, our government spends more money than it takes in, which increases our debt and the interest we pay on that debt. Interest on our debt (presently 8% of GDP) is money not coming back to us in government services. If our government managed money like any wise family does, we would be a lot better off.
You’re right that more money (or the same money) competing for fewer goods and services inflates the cost of those goods and services. Probably the effect of covid and the Ukraine war is my guess.
What do you mean by “We should not give away any more of our tax money until things have settled”? Are you suggesting that we should stop paying taxes??
I agree that the Green New Deal was unrealistically aggressive. Our use of fossil fuels has too much momentum to be quickly turned off, but that doesn’t mean those goals were not worthy of pursuit.
You’re right that China is the greatest source, by far, in rate of CO2 emissions today, almost twice as great as the US, but in cumulative CO2 since 1850, which has loaded our atmosphere to its present level, the US has contributed twice as much as any other country. And in CO2 presently emitted to our atmosphere per capita, the US is slightly behind Canada as the two worst countries.
When we are faced with a problem of this magnitude, one that threatens all life on Earth, to say that we are not as bad as the other guy misses the point.
Let the market decide what is best? Are you kidding? If that were true we would still have child and slave labor in our factories. There would be no clean water to drink. There would be a lot more plastic in your blood and lead paint in your house. Every citizen could carry a machine gun. We would be killing our planet even faster than we are.
I agree with your statement “Electricity created by burning carbon-based products is not cleaner or more efficient.” But compared to what? What was your point?
How is “pushing” wind and solar power “a disaster waiting to happen”? Battery technology will continue to improve, and the cost of wind and solar is decreasing. It’s called economy of scale, an effect well known by anyone who produces anything.
We can’t shut down the energy industry. That’s not practical or doable unless we have a death wish. But we humans have to transition as quickly and painlessly as possible away from emitting CO2 into our atmosphere and removing trees (which serve as carbon sinks) and move to green energy sources like wind, solar, wave, hydroelectric, and nuclear.
Why do you differentiate farmers and working people? Are they not the same?
Lastly, just because something is economical and available doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Otherwise, I would be eating a Whopper with fries every other day.
Clarke Douglas Bayne says
Very well written thank you Clarke Bayne
Gren Whitman says
Ms. Geddes seems to believe that climate control is just a new form of communism and that parental control is more important.