High Energy Costs and Politics

This weekend Republican Representative Martha Roby in the weekly Republican radio address, in speaking about energy production rightly stated, “The greatest threat to our economy, job creation, and the future of our children is to do nothing.” She went on to state, “We have to act. It is what we were sent to Washington to do.”

Amen, Ms Roby, amen. A good part of the problem is that too many of her peers spend more energy about posturing, pointing fingers, putting forward great sounding ideas but in the end are empty or unbalanced. Things need to get done.


No one or two magic bullets exist. Due to various logistics, nothing Congress or the White House does today to increase production or supply will make any significant difference for the consumer today or even the next year.

When only one out of four gallons that you and I pump into our cars is produced in the US or Canada, tells us that there is a supply problem. While we would like to blame the Obama administration for the problem, we cannot. The problem has existed for at least five presidential administrations but Congress and the White House year after year has not moved in any serious way.

We need more electricity from wind and solar. These are not primary solution but they do play a part just as more efficient vehicles are making a difference. We need more hybrid vehicles. One out of three cars powered by natural gas and propane, that calls a refueling infrastructure becomes much broader and spans the nation. Free enterprise market forces will eventually build out such refueling infrastructures but it will not take place rapidly enough without national and state short-term incentives.

Our public transportation system is poorly underdeveloped. Too much energy is wasted idling. In the majority of our major cities traffic lights are not computerized to adjust for efficient inflow of traffic during the morning commute and outflow in the evening.

We need to push for greater conservation and more efficient electronic devices. The citizenry as a whole needs to become more energy conscious as to how little things done each day, such as setting the AC two or three degrees higher, and the heat two or three degrees lower, and set-back thermostats can make a big difference.

Clearly oil production needs to be increased. Opening new areas for exploration needs to happen today whether the areas area in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, along the western or eastern coasts. Environmental issues should be duly noted and high care must be taken to manage risks. The assessments must be quicker and approval given even if the risks are not nearly negligible. That said, regardless of the simplistic pontificating and posturing of politicians and lobbyists, we must be realistic. For every well that comes into production there are twelve to fourteen dry wells.

It takes four to five years for new oil wells to come into production which means that lack of current activity rests solely upon the inactivity of the prior administration, not the current. Let’s hope the current administration and Congress will take bold actions rather than be more like the prior administrations in this area...much talk and posturing with no meaningful action. If there is action, it also means that a subsequent administration and Congress will reap the adulation.

Let’s hope that the current Congress and White House will work together to formulate a plan with a broad array of elements that in total will make a difference. A mark of national leadership is the ability to find common ground by setting aside political dogma, and finding a solid solution for the good of the whole regardless of who may claim or receive the credit. In the White House and Congress, do we have statesmen and outstanding national leaders or do we have a collection of bickering politicians who are playing games?