By Dale Bowling
Yesterday I wrote about what are the stakes in this election, but one post couldn't even give a short
summary of all that's at risk on Nov. 6. So this is Part II of that discussion.
Energy Independence:
By relying on "Drill Baby Drill" as an energy policy, Republicans surrender both America's chance for energy independence and the leadership in developing technologies for renewable, clean energies of the future.
In the short term, fossil fuels should and will remain part of American good energy policy, but fossil
fuels can't make America energy independent in the long run.
Firstly when fossil fuel companies lease land on which to drill, the companies own any oil, gas or coal they extract, not the US. Energy companies sell on the world market and if there's a disturbance in the Middle East for example, that still affects the price of oil drilled here because it reduces the world supply.
Fossil fuels are world commodities, subject to world economic pressures and therefore don't yield
energy independence for America.
Secondly even if the US did get the oil, there wouldn't be enough to power the US for very long. The US uses 20% of the world's oil, but only 2% of the world's reserves.
Fossil fuels are a non-renewable source of energy. Once we use them, they're gone. And they're going fast.
Democrats support the exploration and extraction of fossil fuels in the short run, but know that the way to true energy independence is in renewable sources of energy.
For this reason, Democrats have invested in clean, renewable energy such as solar, wind, biofuels.
The pioneer of today will be the leader of tomorrow. America will dominate the field of renewable
energy, creating clean sources of power for our economy and the jobs of the future- but only if we
invest in those technologies on the ground floor.
Democrats are here to make that happen.
You can pick up the Republican vision for energy policy on reruns of "Dallas".
That's all the space we have for today, we'll pick this discussion up tomorrow.
Remember if we want a fairer, stronger America - it's up to all of us. VOTE DEMOCRAT on Nov. 6!
You make a really good point. Imagine, in the near future, if America owns the best technology for wind, solar, etc. The energy needs of the world would be owned by us, which would be a huge, huge market. It would make our computer industry look puny by comparison. Now imagine that another country takes the lead in that market, because we're still floundering in yesterday's vision of energy. Yikes!
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