Common sense energy plan

This makes so much sense that it will never get through congress.

Ross bill calls for energy 'independence' on back of oil drilling

A plan introduced Thursday by U.S. Rep. Mike Ross to encourage alternative and renewable energy relies on oil drilling in Arctic wildlife lands and the Gulf of Mexico to meet its goals.


Ross' bill, the "American-Made Energy Act of 2008," also would create tax credits to build new nuclear power plants throughout the United States, with an aim of having 40 percent of the nation's power come from nuclear sources.

Drill for oil on our own shores, build non-CO2 producing nuclear power plants, distance the US from dependence upon foreign energy sources…it all makes great sense. But you know that the environmental weenies will stall every aspect of this plan, will lobby and rail against it as “raping the earth,” and will likely win against a bunch of spineless politicians who see the money (and the votes) raised by the Birkenstock crowd as more important the health and safety of the USA.

"We're not just trying to suck the oil out of the ground for no reason," said Ross, D-Ark. We're trying "to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and take the revenue from the sale of that oil and invest in all of these environmentally friendly and job-creating emerging technologies."

Even as a source of funding for alternative energy sources (and that’s what nuclear power is) drilling along the Florida coast and in places people never go to—and on only a tiny little fraction of ANWAR, at that—will be a difficult sell.

Ross said the drilling in the Arctic and off the Florida coast called for in his bill would raise about $80 billion over 30 years. He said that money would be "more than enough" to fund efforts to expand tax credits to fight global warming, encourage renewable energy operations and help consumers buy plug-in electric and flex-fuel cars.

Ross said the bill's tax credits for nuclear power plants would help wean the U.S. off of fossil fuels as well, though his bill includes subsidies to encourage liquid fuel production of coal. He said that could encourage further exploration of Arkansas' own coal reserves, bringing more jobs and industry to the state.

However, Ross acknowledged encouraging nuclear power and drilling in the Arctic might be a tough sale to Congress.

And that last sentence is just plain sad. Our political class—our leaders on virtually all levels from town council to the president—has lost its vision, its innovative get up and go, for the ability of Americans to achieve anything when presented with a challenge. Instead members of the political class have aligned themselves with those who build obstacles against achievement. As a result problems that are identified are seldom if ever solved but are allowed to ferment until a crisis arises and then either a patch of little or no significance is applied or a particular practice is banned outright.