Putting Whitehouse into Hard Reality
Posted on: Saturday, 7 June 2008, 15:00 CDT
The May 21 CNBC appearance of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse provided a jaw-dropping revelation of the Rhode Island Democrat's grasp of the energy crisis facing us. Whitehouse pleaded for indisputably needed energy independence, largely via alternatives, but ignored the short- term, one-to-five-year compelling demands of energy consumers.
The Whitehouse solutions: 1. Tax the oil companies, which "have the highest profits in the history of the universe." The big oil companies don't control supply (talk to Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria) or demand (China, India and other emerging markets, which together consume more oil than the U.S.). Shareholders' mutual funds, IRAs, pension and other retirement funds need those profit- driven dividends. 2. Accelerate alternative technologies: DOE data show that 9.5 percent of our nation's electricity derives from alternative fuels, of which 75 percent comes from hydroelectric power; yet, the good senator has no plans for increasing the remaining 2.5 percent of alternatives to a sufficient level to meet increasing U.S. power needs.
Indeed, there is no alternative technology in sight that can keep pace with or even close to increasing electricity demand. Wind, geothermal, solar and biomass lag demand by decades, and hydroelectric growth is controversial.
The senator's circuitous reasoning fecklessly locks him into the status quo, where electricity is generated as follows: 50-percent coal, 20-percent natural gas, 20-percent nuclear and 9.5-percent renewables. These are the sources needed by the fleets of plug-ins soon to cascade upon us. How can rationing be far behind, regardless of price at the pump?
Let it be said that you read it first in The Journal: Whoever occupies the White House will be looking very seriously at the only short-term remedy: the reserves confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey in the Arctic (including the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve) that is driving the Senate's surging interest in ratifying the long-languishing Law of the Sea Treaty, which legitimizes the U.S. claims to the Arctic's seabed reserves.
ROBERT LOCKWOOD
Williamsburg, Va.
The writer is retired counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
(c) 2008 Providence Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Providence Journal
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