Energy "Reform"

President Obama says that he is for energy reform and wants to move the US towards energy independence. But he plans on doing this by funding research into new, "green" energy sources. His actions indicate that he really wants to move the US towards "green" energy... not energy independence. If he really wanted to move the US to a reliance primarily on domestic sources of energy, he would be pushing to build nuclear power plants and opening more areas for oil drilling. There is no feasible "green" or "renewable" replacement for oil. Wind and solar and other energy sources can certainly supplement the burning of hydrocarbons but they will not replace it. We are stuck with coal, gas, and oil as our primary energy sources for a while. Given that we will be burning hydrocarbons, to be energy independent, we should burn domestic hydrocarbons and not foreign hydrocarbons. This would reduce our dependence on foreign countries for a vital resource, reduce the amount of money available to foreign governments who are actively opposing us and actively supporting terrorism, and would increase the amount of money spent in the US economy.

Current oil and gas exporation is taking place primarily offshore. The US only allows drilling in the Western half of the Gulf of Mexico. The Eastern half of the Gulf of Mexico and the coastal waters off of the East and West coasts are both entirely off-limits to drilling for oil and gas. This is insane. There are known reserves off of the California coast and most likely unknown reserves off both coasts and the rest of the Gulf. Right now, we are consuming massive quantities of hydrocarbons bought on a market that includes suppliers such as Venezuela, Iran, and Russia.

As far as "green" energy goes, I am in favor of expanding our use of more environmentally friendly energy sources but we can't put our head in the sand and pretend like we are anywhere close to replacing the burning of hydrocarbons.

Technorati: Drilling, Energy, Environmentalism, Oil,