It's Energy, Stupid!

GUEST COLUMN

BY DON KOPP

“It’s the economy, Stupid,” was Clinton’s campaign slogan in 1992. Today, Democrats are trying to revive the slogan for this election year and of course, blame our slumping economy on the President rather than where it belongs, on Congress. But the majority of our economic woes lie totally at the foot of most liberals, both Democrat and Republicans who have become environmental fanatics.

At the request of Congress, a BLM report submitted by their lead scientist, Richard Wilson stated there are “117 billion barrels of oil on lands managed by the Federal Government with an additional 22 billion on private lands—more than the known oil reserves of Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Russia or Venezuela, respectively. And, “when you consider ANWAR in Alaska, throw in another 7.7 billion barrels.”

At our present consumption rate, and figuring in an annual increase in consumption, we have enough known oil reserves to run our country for 90 years. But wait! America also has the largest coal deposits on the planet, 300 plus years worth!

So why is a nation so blessed with an abundance of energy, more than any single country in the world, transferring its wealth to other nations who hate us? Two words: extreme environmentalism!

Consider the Gulf of Mexico, for example. There is an oil reserve of 85.9 billion barrels of oil lying off shore but we are not allowed to go there because, according to environmentalists, oil spills are too frequent. Because of advances in technology this excuse simply is not true anymore. Little oil was spilled into the Gulf when some our drilling platforms were heavily damaged or completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina; most spillage came from refineries on land.

Senator McCain wants to build 45 nuclear power plants if elected to office. This endeavor would require employing tens of thousands of skilled workers, not to mention billions of dollars worth of equipment and material orders from our factories and small businesses. By itself, this would provide a tremendous increase in American productivity and financial growth. Ask yourself this question: why can France safely produce 85% of its electrical energy using nuclear power and we can’t?

Extreme environmentalists also want you to believe that we can derive our energy needs through the use of wind turbines and solar power, but like their other scenarios, this premise is false. There isn’t enough wind on the planet to provide much more than a fraction of our energy needs since it’s not possible to convert all of the winds kinetic energy into mechanical energy, a simple rule of thermodynamics. Solar power is even less than wind and the two combined will never produce more than a small fraction of our needs.

We have the technology to produce an abundance of energy and do it in a way that is safe for our environment. But to adhere to environmental extremism will eventually pull our country down to third world status. Your kids and your grandchildren could grow up in poverty, still subject to other nations who will continue the blackmail process of draining every bit of wealth they can. Keep this in mind the next time you vote!

No, “it’s [not] the economy stupid,” its energy, plain and simple!


Don Kopp served for 29 years in forestry in South Dakota, including flying fire surveillance for the State Division of Forestry. He is currently a Republican candidate for South Dakota District 35 House of Representatives.