Obama’s Oil Speech
The President will speak to the nation from the oval office about the Gulf oil situation tonight. I am sure that the major purpose of the presentation will be to promote Cap and Trade legislation and call for expenditures supporting alternate energy development.
Using the Rahm Emanuel credo that, no crises should be wasted Obama is sure to make political use of the oil gushing into the Gulf to promote his policy.
The oil problem is obviously serious but is not quite reaching the Biblical proportions that is the description surrounding the crises. There are two things that Obama needs to do.
The first commitment is to give total government support to the people with the capability to find a way to stop the flow. Part B of this first step is to get as many resources on the water as are available to suck up oil
The second commitment required is to organize the program that will restore damaged wetlands and do whatever is possible to protect and rebuild fisheries that have been affected negatively.
Obama needs to take care of the immediate requirements before pumping more costly legislation on the American public. Cap and Trade will reduce employment, raise taxes and give us $5 a gallon gasoline. It all won’t all be bad. Bicycle manufacturers will need to increase production, since this will become the new mode of transport for many Americans.
I am all for finding new, clean sources of energy. I have an idea that Obama might explore. I’ll bet someone could figure out a way to derive power from nuclear energy.
I know that might seem like a radical idea but it even might be a clean source of power.
I understand that we have a lot of coal in the ground. Maybe Obama could find a few dollars to expand research on a clean coal process.
I confess to being facetious? I do confess, but not without some motivation.
A few weeks ago I visited a company that is manufacturing solar panels and installing solar related systems. They are being financially successful and are totally dedicated to the solar concept and working to improve it’s operating efficiency.
I had a conversation with the CEO which helped me understand some of the pluses as well as the problems. If you live in Colorado where we have a lot of sun you will be able to get the best use of Solar. If you live in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago or Seattle Solar is a problematic answer for power for your home and a very expansive contribution to the quest for clean energy.
Even in ideal conditions there can be about a 7 year period needed to get a financial payback on the money invested in a solar system to power your home. This is with the various significant government rebates that are available if you install a solar system.
Think about where those rebates are coming from? Hmmmm!
Wind Power has had a bit of my attention this past winter. There is a large scale wind farm about 12 miles from my home, which I have taken the time to observe about 15 times in recent months.
With the obvious attractive theoretical aspects of wind power there are problems that are not often mentioned by proponents. A farm of giant wind turbines is an ugly blight on the landscape. In all my visits the wind was only blowing hard enough to turn the turbines on two of my trips. It further has been reported to me but not documented that the turbines when working are significant killers of birds.
We have some problems with oil but there are economic and operating problems with the Obama favorites of solar and wind generations of power.
Some smart engineers will make improvements but Cap and trade is not going to help.
We need oil and we need the jobs related to the oil industry. Getting BP to pay for damages is a good idea. Driving them out of business is not such a good idea.
When the President is making his pitch tonight, remember that drilling oil in the Gulf has been happening for about 60 years and this is the first such incident. The focus of great concern should be on the relatively new deep well drilling techniques, not the whole industry.
Afterthought:
Even if a solar panel and windmill can be combined to run my car, what happens on a rainy day with no wind.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
you are a voice of reason, I’m not being sarcastic here. We really do need nuclear power as the major source of energy in this country. France doesn’t have a problem and neither does our own Navy.
I agree that Obama should focus on immediate problems, like the oil spill and fixing the economy, rather than on cap and trade and so on. But he should’ve done that from Day 1 and didn’t.
If anyone is listening tonight and that is a big if prepare to hear the private sector excoriated yet again. Even in the face of what can only be described as government twisting on the ropes, government will one way or another be forced in an ever more intrusive way onto the American people.