Posted on 04/30/2002 9:38:46 AM PDT by gubamyster
Some environmental policies are feel-good indulgences for an era of energy abundances
NEWSWEEK
May 6 issue — If you have an average-size dinner table, four feet by six feet, put a dime on the edge of it. Think of the surface of the table as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The dime is larger than the piece of the coastal plain that would have been opened to drilling for oil and natural gas. The House of Representatives voted for drilling, but the Senate voted against access to what Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat and presidential aspirant, calls “a few drops of oil.” ANWR could produce, for 25 years, at least as much oil as America currently imports from Saudi Arabia.
SIX WEEKS OF DESULTORY Senate debate about the energy bill reached an almost comic culmination in ... yet another agriculture subsidy. The subsidy is a requirement that will triple the amount of ethanol, which is made from corn, that must be put in gasoline, ostensibly to clean America’s air, actually to buy farmers’ votes. Over the last three decades, energy use has risen about 30 percent. But so has population, which means per capita energy use is unchanged. And per capita GDP has risen substantially, so we are using 40 percent less energy per dollar output. Which is one reason there is no energy crisis, at least none as most Americans understand such things—a shortage of, and therefore high prices of, gasoline for cars, heating oil for furnaces and electricity for air conditioners.
In the absence of a crisis to concentrate the attention of the inattentive American majority, an intense faction—full-time environmentalists—goes to work. Spencer Abraham, the secretary of Energy, says “the previous administration ... simply drew up a list of fuels it didn’t like—nuclear energy, coal, hydropower, and oil—which together account for 73 percent of America’s energy supply.” Well, there are always windmills.
Sometimes lofty environmentalism is a cover for crude politics. The United States has the world’s largest proven reserves of coal. But Mike Oliver, a retired physicist and engineer, and John Hospers, professor emeritus of philosophy at USC, note that in 1996 President Clinton put 68 billion tons of America’s cleanest-burning coal, located in Utah, off-limits for mining, ostensibly for environmental reasons. If every existing U.S. electric power plant burned coal, the 68 billion tons could fuel them for 45 years at the current rate of consumption. Now power companies must import clean-burning coal, some from mines owned by Indonesia’s Lippo Group, the heavy contributor to Clinton, whose decision about Utah’s coal vastly increased the value of Lippo’s coal.
The United States has just 2.14 percent of the world’s proven reserves of oil, so some people say it is pointless to drill in places like ANWR because “energy independence” is a chimera. Indeed it is. But domestic supplies can provide important insurance against uncertain foreign supplies. And domestic supplies can mean exporting hundreds of billions of dollars less to oil-producing nations, such as Iraq.
Besides, when considering proven reserves, note the adjective. In 1930 the United States had proven reserves of 13 billion barrels. We then fought the Second World War and fueled the most fabulous economic expansion in human history, including the electricity-driven “New Economy.” (Manufacturing and running computers consume 15 percent of U.S. electricity. Internet use alone accounts for half of the growth in demand for electricity.) So by 1990 proven reserves were... 17 billion barrels, not counting any in Alaska or Hawaii.
In 1975 proven reserves in the Persian Gulf were 74 billion barrels. In 1993 they were 663 billion, a ninefold increase. At the current rate of consumption, today’s proven reserves would last 150 years. New discoveries will be made, some by vastly improved techniques of deep-water drilling. But environmental policies will define opportunities. The government estimates that beneath the U.S. outer continental shelf, which the government owns, there are at least 46 billion barrels of oil. But only 2 percent of the shelf has been leased for energy development.
Opponents of increased energy production usually argue for decreased consumption. But they flinch from conservation measures. A new $1 gasoline tax would dampen demand for gasoline, but it would stimulate demands for the heads of the tax increasers. After all, Americans get irritable when impersonal market forces add 25 cents to the cost of a gallon. Tougher fuel-efficiency requirements for vehicles would save a lot of energy. But who would save the legislators who passed those requirements? Beware the wrath of Americans who like to drive, and autoworkers who like to make, cars that are large, heavy and safer than the gasoline-sippers that environmentalists prefer.
Some environmentalism is a feel-good indulgence for an era of energy abundance, which means an era of avoided choices. Or ignored choices—ignored because if acknowledged, they would not make the choosers feel good. Karl Zinsmeister, editor in chief of The American Enterprise magazine, imagines an oh-so-green environmentalist enjoying the most politically correct product on the planet—Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Made in a factory that depends on electricity-guzzling refrigeration, a gallon of ice cream requires four gallons of milk. While making that much milk, a cow produces eight gallons of manure, and flatulence with another eight gallons of methane, a potent “greenhouse” gas. And the cow consumes lots of water plus three pounds of grain and hay, which is produced with tractor fuel, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides, and is transported with truck or train fuel:
“So every time he digs into his Cherry Garcia, the conscientious environmentalist should visualize (in addition to world peace) a pile of grain, water, farm chemicals, and energy inputs much bigger than his ice cream bowl on one side of the table, and, on the other side of the table, a mound of manure eight times the size of his bowl, plus a balloon of methane that would barely fit under the dining room table.” Cherry Garcia. It’s a choice. Bon appetit.
© 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
The problem with most articles about America's dependence on foreign oil is that the author's are often woefully ignorant. Some estimates indicate that the tar sands region in northern Alberta could produce enough oil to sustain the current level of consumption in all of North America for the next 500 years. The problem is that it isn't terribly cost-effective to get most of the stuff out of the ground.
Even if ANWR were opened tomorrow, the U.S. would still import oil from the cheapest sources all over the globe. And you can be sure that the high cost of U.S. labor and a strong U.S. dollar will make ANWR oil far more costly to extract than oil from anywhere else in the world.
I am of the opinion that this decision could be easily reversed.
And we wouldn't even need to redefine what the meaning of the word 'is', is.
WRONG! Clinton put it off limits as a campaign cash pay off to Riadi (sp?). Guess who has the 2nd largest reserve... Indonesia!
About ten years ago the company was an active supporter in a grassroots campaign to keep one of the large big-box stores (I think it was Wal-Mart) out of Vermont. The state has always had a reputation for being extremely protective of its rural image (often to the detriment of their own financial well-being).
One of the newspapers did a little research and found out that even as they were opposing the construction of the state's first Wal-Mart store, Ben & Jerry's had already signed an agreement with Wal-Mart giving them the exclusive right to operate ice cream stands within Wal-Mart stores in Vermont once they did get built.
Clinton put 68 billion tons of America’s cleanest-burning coal, located in Utah, off-limits for mining, ostensibly for environmental reasons ........
.....Now power companies must import clean-burning coal, some from mines owned by Indonesia’s Lippo Group, the heavy contributor to Clinton, whose decision about Utah’s coal vastly increased the value of Lippo’s coal.
ostensibly = supposedly = appears to be (but not really)
When I lived in ALaska, I don't remember to many people living that far north, heck for that matter, I don't remember any people WANTING to live that far north! After passing the arctic circle, (Which in well below the ANWR site), there was no desire for myself to even go exploring farther. 
10. Rocky Roadkill
9. Cholesterol Chunk
8. Fudge Wapner
7. It Came from Wolf Blitzer's Beard
6. Contraceptive Crunch
5. Last Will and Testa-Mint
4. Marv Sherbert
3. Richard Simmons' Fruit Swirl
2. Michael Jackson's White Chocolate
1. Cookies 'n' Crack
And as is the case with most hard core lefties, capatilism is fine for them, but not for you. The rules and dictates of socialism do not apply to them, but to the "lessors."
10. Oprah Mocha
9. Raspberry Rash
8. Norieggnog
7. Cholesterol Chip
6. Zsa Zsa Gaboreo
5. Tiny Filaments O'Tungsten
4. Uninhibited by Cher
3. Stuff-Found-in-Ben-&-Jerry's-Pockets
2. Bus Depot Fudge
1. Hitler Ripple
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