Posted on 07/03/2008 11:05:22 AM PDT by Pharmer
Dear Senator Specter
As my only local federal elected official from my own party I am calling on you to take action to relieve the current and most unnecessary energy crisis. I have no choice in my energy consumption. I am a research pharmacologist working for a local pharmaceutical. I live in Ambler, but my office is in Princeton NJ. I often go to our main lab in Collegeville which is just as fuel consumptive as Princeton. I already drive a very fuel efficient car. I car pool when I can. But I don’t always have the same work schedule as the colleagues that live in my area. That being said I am doing my part. I have put a large amount of money in my house to make it energy efficient by installing new windows and insulation.
But for the second time in my lifetime we have faced the fallacy that we are slaves to foreign despots for our energy needs. And for the second time we are being told that in conservation we will find relief. So self deprivation is a good thing?
Yet at the same time we hear that we have massive oil reserves and energy recourses right here in our own nation and right off our own coast, yet we fail to even think we could exploit them for one reason or another. When I hear the reasons I am left cold in disbelief. I hear more reasons why we can’t even think drilling for more oil and yet we are paying the price for our inaction at the pump. If I approached my job the same way that our government approaches any new initiative I would be fired in short order. In my line of work I am paid for finding solutions and acting on them, not making excuses. At some time your guys in Congress must face the reality that your inaction is the only cause for the mess we are in.
We live in the most technologically advanced nation in the world. All of our industries employ the most cost efficient technology with a very strong eye on environmental concerns to do their job. We are not the Soviet Union with defective nuclear power plants such as Chernobyl. In 1979, I lived not far from Middletown, PA when the Three Mile Island incident happened. In fact I even worked as a contractor worker there during the cleanup. I can tell you as a first hand witness that the system and the safeguards worked as designed (a line that Jack Lemmon stated in the foreboding film “China Syndrome”), Every study of the populace of Middletown has shown that even after the incident that none of the populace has had any health issue traceable to the incident. And yet we have had few newly constructed nuclear power plants since then go on line and none have been constructed in many years. There is no cleaner dynamic source of electrical power cleaner to the environment than nuclear power. And when I say dynamic I mean an energy source that delivers more energy out than what it puts in. Hydroelectric, solar, geothermal, and wind power deliver energy but the actual energy, be it kinetic, photoelectric, or heat requires more energy into the dynamo or battery than we get out. This is all well and good but very inefficient sources of energy when considering chemical energy. This leads me to carbon based fuels.
Our very civilization is dependant on the life blood that comes from petroleum. Speaking as a scientist with some degree of certainty, I know there is no substitute, nor will there be. No other element in the periodic table has the versatile chemistry that carbon has. Just look at your basic chemistry text books. That big fat one is Organic Chemistry, the study of the chemistry of carbon.
Carbon is the basic element from which life is derived. As long as there is life on earth there will be carbon. We are made of it and consume it to live. The use of carbon fuels goes back to man’s mastery of fire. There is little doubt that the Industrial Revolution was brought about by the efficient use coal and petroleum. And yet there are lobbies that are saying that the solution to our energy crisis is the cessation of all carbon based energy. This is lunacy of the highest order. In the real world of biology, chemistry, and physics, there is no greater abundant source of portable energy than purified hydrocarbons. There is no greater source of hydrocarbons than oil and coal. Oil is the life blood of our modern technology. It no only provides us with gasoline for our cars but the polymers and petrochemicals that we use to make everything from our clothes to the microchips in our semiconductors. They make mass production of life saving drugs and safe medical devices.
Yes the use of carbon results in the release of carbon dioxide. But to say that this is a pollutant is sophistry of the highest order. CO2 is a VITAL part of the food chain. Most of the earth’s biomass uses is a nutrient. All plant life requires it for photosynthesis in which they convert CO2 and water with the help of sunlight to hydrocarbon! That is why there are referred to by ecologists as energy (all energy) producers. And in return not only do we get hydrocarbon but vital oxygen. CO2 is not and cannot be a pollutant. The acceptance of that premise has had and will continue to have catastrophic effects on our very way of life. It has already affected mine.
Senator, this nonsense has to stop. We are in danger of sacrificing the legacy of freedom and enterprise that our forefathers and founders left to us for a radical antigrowth flat earthed agenda born out of guilt. As I said before, we live in the most technologically advanced nation in the earth and there are some that would like to improve on that. There is no reason that we cannot improve on our energy efficiency, make our cars run further and longer on a gallon of gas, and other things. But the bottom line is that we still need oil and always will. If we wish to see the day that man goes to Mars we need a vibrant economy with abundant energy to fuel innovation. If we want to cure cancer we need petrochemicals in abundant supply to create compounds to test. We don’t need just to conserve, we need more. It’s time to drill, mine and pump, here and now. But the first step is yours, sir.
Sincerely
Pharmer (OK so I put in my real name but that is my business)
LOVE ya!
YOU speak the truth.
“And in return not only do we get hydrocarbon but vital oxygen. CO2 is not and cannot be a pollutant. The acceptance of that premise has had and will continue to have catastrophic effects on our very way of life. It has already affected mine. “
We need those ingredients for LIFE!
We don’t want LESS of it and certainly don’t want to be TAXED on this idiotic fallacy.
I don’t understand how people sould be so DUMB!
Kudos to you!
Most Congressional Republicans have been emasculated. None of them picked up on President Bush’s challenge to Congress to open up drilling in the US. The Dimocraps still have control of the agenda via the media. Republicans are too fat and too lazy and too comfortable for trench warfare.
Specter is far too busy with substantive issues such as “Spygate” and MLB.TV to worry about trivialities like energy security.
Yet a scathing letter from you just might empower them. Lets tickle them keyboards!
Actualy I found that on his web site this is a subject he has listed right at the top.
Specter? Phssssh!
Hey, He’s all I got!!!
I figure....Specter stopped reading here.."Dear Senator Specter".....
I am convinced the only thing we should be behind...is TERM LIMITS.
Bump!
Other freepers need to READ this and ACT on it.
Bump!
Arlen only listens to Scottish law don’t ya know?
Good letter, but Specter’s staff will just throw it away.
I know than Specter is a RINO, I get it. But my Congressperson is Allison Schwartz who is a “C” (as in communist). And he is far more consevative than the other RINO’s in neighboring districts.
But that’s not the point. I am not alone here. FR is a nationwide phenomena. All freepers are welcome to cut and paste this letter into your local elected federal officials e-mail inbox and sign your own name. I will be honored if you did. I am glad to do some lifting, but I would like some help here!!!
See the beauty of being a diligent pest?
;)
I recently wrote to my Congressman, Rep. Tim Mahoney, Democrat from Florida. I used his website to write him, and therefore do not have a copy of my letter, but I’ll share his response to me. It’s clear he is more concerned with satisfying his special interest groups than he is in solving or contributing to the solution of the energy crisis.
July 2, 2008
Dear Mr. myname:
Thank you for expressing your opinion regarding increased drilling for oil. I appreciate you taking the time to share your views with me.
As you may know, expanded drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is currently prohibited by both law and an executive order dating back to President George H.W. Bush. Although additional drilling is currently banned, it is estimated that 81% of oil and natural gas resources on federal lands is already available for development. Oil companies, however, are not producing on the nearly 68 million acres of federal land already under their control. Offshore, big oil is producing on only about 20 percent of the acres they hold, while onshore, companies are producing on less than 30 percent of the acres they hold. These unused areas could produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day, nearly double the current domestic oil production. Although this bill did not pass on a recent vote, I will press for its consideration again.
Instead of giving the oil and natural gas companies more land to drill on, I have cosponsored a bill which would require these companies to utilize the land already under their control. The Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act of 2008, H.R. 6251, employs a “use it or lose it” tactic that will require oil and natural gas companies to either produce oil from their holdings or give up the federal onshore and offshore leases they are stockpiling. The bill bars oil companies from obtaining any additional leases unless they can demonstrate that they are producing oil and natural gas, or are diligently developing the leases they already hold.
Increased oil production, however, is only one part of the solution to our energy needs. Congress is holding hearings about the impact of commodities market speculation on oil prices, reducing barriers to the importation of Canadian oil, and investing in alternative energy sources, including cellulosic ethanol.
Finally, we need to reduce any barriers to importing Canadian oil. I offered an amendment to H.R. 6052, the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act, that would reduce those barriers. My amendment passed 421-0, and the bill was approved 221-199. I remain confident that if we work together, America will solve the energy crisis.
Again, thank you for taking the time to share your views with me. I hope you will continue to keep me informed of your views on this issue and other issues of interest to you. For additional information and to stay informed, please visit my website at www.mahoney.house.gov and sign up for my periodic e-mail updates.
Sincerely,
Tim Mahoney
Member of Congress
btt. Come on freeprs get on the bandwagon, Swamp their inboxex!!!
I’d trade you, but then you’d get stuck with McQueeg and I like you too much for that...
Bush urges Americans to get Congress to allow drilling
Another shameless self promoting bump
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