Filed under: Legislation and Policy
Squandering is roughly defined as . . extravagantly or wastefully using resources (money, time, etc.) Yesterday's NYTimes editorial states that the Bush Administration, especially VP Cheney, have been especially good at wasting time - six years time - regarding energy policy. While most of us did not know about the Global Warming issue back in 1999 and 2000, we know that Al Gore did because he wrote about it - as did the scientific community. No matter. The Energy Policy Cheney came up with after getting input from many in the energy sector emphasized more oil drilling, more coal power plants, more coal mining, etc., with little emphasis on efficiency which he viewed as a "personal virtue."
To be fair, Mr. Cheney's Energy Plan is nothing more than an extension of the energy policies of the 19th and 20th centuries, the policies of John D. Rockefeller and others. "You want more?" "WE do." "OK, we'll give you more. The sky is the limit." That is how the US got to where it is today. But we misunderstood. With pollution and global warming, the sky actually IS the limit.
ABG readers and writers know now about these limits and are trying not to hit them. But others still think like Cheney. That is why gasoline demand has not decreased. Why our refineries can hardly keep up with demand. Why we have troops defending pipelines and oil fields in countries most of us haven't heard of in central Asia. Why the world's temperature and atmospheric CO2 is rising. As a nation, we own about 25 percent of that rise. The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain but we have been energy use leaders for a long time.
So I ask, "How good are we at not squandering?"
[Source: New York Times]
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