The Energy Wake-up
The more we size up the current energy crisis, the more it seems like we are waking up from a long coma. Yet it turns out that even in our decline we still pump 8 or so million of our 20 million plus imported barrel daily appetite. We have some of the world’s largest deposits of coal, tar sands, and shale. We could get another 5 million barrels per-day off our coasts, off the continental shelf, and in ANWR. And we still are the world’s largest nuclear producer, and could produce 50% of our energy with such clean power plants. Wind and solar will help, especially as in the Pickens’ plan to divert natural gas and/or propane to transportation. Our engineers are the best in crafting enhanced conservation in our homes and cars, and the country is mobilizing to stop the annual trillion dollar wound.
The point? That for all Al Gore’s notion that we will soon be plugging our battery-powered caterpillars and semis into wind-generated electrical sockets at night, the future is still not, well, that bleak. I think if we use ALL our resources, and don’t fall into Gorish fundamentalism, we could cut 14 million barrels of daily imported oil within 15 years through conservation, flex-fuels, natural-gas and electric cars, oil, coal, tar sands, shale, nuclear, wind, solar, and geothermal. Like Obama, though, with Gore it’s a certain pie-in-the-sky liberal fundamentalism from the 1960s: you are either for the apocalyptic vision of current greed and the need for massive government planning, or you are a hopeless naïf.
The Demonization of Oil
I have written for some five years critically of our dependence on oil from the Middle East in general, and particularly the huge cost of buying it from odious regimes. That said, oil per se, like it or not, was the linchpin of the huge creation in American wealth the last fifty years. Oil won WWII (had we not had it, we would have lost). Oil gave us comfortable homes and easy transportation. Oil was relatively clean-burning, easily refined, and a high-powered energy. The recent notion that it somehow heated up the planet and ruined the environment and is thus toxic can only be made by those such as Gore who continue to rationalize their own serial reliance on private, oil-derivative fired jets, and huge waiting SUVs at the tarmac.
The Iraqification of Obama
Irony: Obama opposes the surge, insists its various manifestations were irrelevant to the cessation of most violence in Iraq, and is now, as senior statement in Iraq, safely traveling due to changed conditions, and promoting its benefits—even as the Maliki government (18 months ago on the ropes and desperate for a stubborn George Bush to rescue his country when his own Shiite-dominated security forces could not) compliments Obama on their shared strategy. I wrote a lot of columns predicting, and spoke to a few Democrats in Congress suggesting, that one day wise Democrats would reinvent themselves as saviors of Iraq along the following lines: our principled criticism of “their” war led to necessary changes, which, due to “our” constant vigilance, forced “them” to get out at a pace “we” always advocated.
The Obama enigma
Listening to a rare extemporaneous moment of his, I was struck not that Obama is hesitant, ill-informed, and unsure, but that he sounds exactly like one who had little national experience and drew largely from the echo-chamber of Harvard, Chicago, and Trinity for his world view—no better, no worse.
But one enigma. When one reads about hostile populations in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the West Bank, and Venezuela all rooting for Obama, it seems to be predicated on the notion that, given their impression of his background and career thus far, he will radically alter the course of American foreign policy and at home turn us toward the world’s accepted model of European socialism. Thus the 64K question arises if he is elected: will our belligerents cease their animus, given that we are devolving to their worldview, or is their hatred such that they will sense weakness and try to exploit even Obama’s rehabilitated America. (That’s a rhetorical question, since the answer I think is clearly the latter.)
Obama in Ambar [from the NRO Corner this morning]
The more a coy Obama speaks to enthusiastic crowds and gives soundbites and photo-ops to slavish reporters, the more everyone wants more of a piece of him, especially in interviews and press conferences.
But the more he dispenses his impromptu wisdom, the more he sounds like, well, a rookie senator whose collective experience derives from the utopianism of the Harvard Law Review, the gravy-train of Chicago entitlement politics, and the world view of Trinity Church.
Yet, the more his handlers treat him like fossilized amber, the less experience he gains, guaranteeing that on almost every rare ex tempore moment he will suggest something that doesn’t compute—that he might be president for 10 years, or that we need a civilian version of the Pentagon with the same $500 billion annual budget, or that someone like a Centcom commander like Petraeus doesn’t have his strategic comprehensive view, or that the Anbar awakening and the Surge were not, at least in part, connected (as if the signal that we were not pulling out, [as Obama advocated] or that we were changing tactics to ensure the safety of those in the neighborhoods who would help us, did not reassure tired Sunnis to join with us in expelling al Qaeda.)
For someone who has made the case that Bush in general is responsible for everything from the mortgage to energy crises, it’s jarring to hear such particularism and contextualization about the Surge’s irrelevance.
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21 Comments
Publius:Just to add to a common theme of Victor’s re: our hypercriticism today:
I was just reading about the Second Battle of the Wilderness in the Civil War.
Hundreds of wounded troops were left on the no-man’s land between the two armies overnight (as they often have been into the 20th century).
A blaze erupted from all the dried leaves and kindling on the ground.
All of them burned alive - screaming - while both armies listened.
Can you countenance the reaction to something like that today?
We’ve become so hysterical over flushed Koran’s, dog leashes, and stop-loss - we’ve lost sight of where we’ve come from.
I’m glad our sense of humaneness is so keen, but we’ve lost some perspective methinks.
Jul 22, 2008 - 1:08 pm G.R.Langworth:Dear Mr. Hanson,
Where are the truth-tellers the U.S. voter will listen to about Mr. Obama’s sophistry?
Mr. Obama’s naked ambition dripping from hunger should be exposed every day — in such a way that the always-blinded cannot turn away from seeing it.
There is no “none of the above” or “Time-out” on the ballot.
Jul 22, 2008 - 1:50 pm Cornhead:1. I read “The New Yorker” story on Obama which featured the famous cartoon on the cover. Barack has been running for President his entire life.
2. Obama won an election to become President of the Harvard L. Rev. He allegedly appealed to conservatives. How did that job ever become a popularity contest?
3. VDH hits the nail on the head with the observation about Gore’s and Obama’s pie-in-the-sky thought patterns. We’re paying $4.00 a gallon today. Ten years from now doesn’t help us.
4. What amazes me about liberals is that they say something blatantly false (e.g. “ten years to drill) and then stick with it. The facts never bother them.
5. In the same “New Yorker” story is a quotation from an op-ed Obama wrote in the Hyde Park newspaper right after 9/11. Barack’s bottomline: we don’t understand the poor and uneducated Islamist terrorists.
Jul 22, 2008 - 2:35 pm LSD:As aggravating as it may be, it seems that the possibility of the Democrats ’stealing’ the Iraq victory still amounts to an American victory.
What remains a concern are Obama’s proposed domestic policies such as raising taxes to ‘change’ the economy, strengthening the unions to make the nation more competetive in a global economy, and doing ‘nothing’ to solve the current energy-crunch other than to say that we had it coming.
Jul 22, 2008 - 2:55 pm Ron Kean:Publius…Verdun was rough too.
Cornhead…and liberals give the Nobel Prize to Arafat, Carter, and Gore. We and liberals live in two different mental states.
I still think that if you fill the oceans with tankers the price will crash. Let alone the refining.
I voted for Gore over Bush. That was before 911. Now I’m a neocon.
Sugar burns. Hamas uses it in it’s rockets. Why can’t someone make that work?
It costs over a thousand dollars for a computer. Newspapers are .50 or one dollar. Magazine subscriptions are $25 a year. Do most Americans just get their news from the MSM? Who watches Katie Curic? Millions?
Talk radio has to be converting someone. How do we get the word out that Obama’s an empty suit. Short resume. College kid. Smooth talker. Hippie Mother. Angry African-American spouse. Cute kids.
And where’s grandma? Why is she hiding? Why can’t someone get to her? Where’s the paparazzi? He grew up in Hawaii where the weather makes you cool. Like his friends in Los Angeles. Why can’t money and audio visual guys get together and give him the one two. Give him the what for.
“devolving to their worldview”…and that’s the big question. Bush wouldn’t let it happen (although now I think he’s punch drunk)…I like Bush. I’ll take McCain for sure. But I would have liked Guliani, Thompson, or Romney in that order.
VDH for President. Let’s write him in.
Jul 22, 2008 - 5:25 pm DougW:BHO’s speeches are a good indication of his mental process. He cannot give a coherent speech without reading off a teleprompter. His extemporaneous speeches consistent of a string of “ah,” “um,” “huh,” etc… His speeches consist of vapid, senseless phrases.
Yet, he has a great voice, one that demands we “pay attention” to him.
If he were to win this 2008 election, he would bring great harm to this country, it would be like the impact of Chavez in that country.
Jul 22, 2008 - 5:49 pm Mark:<< I was just reading about the Second Battle of the Wilderness in the Civil War. Hundreds of wounded troops were left on the no-man’s land between the two armies overnight (as they often have been into the 20th century). A blaze erupted from all the dried leaves and kindling on the ground. All of them burned alive - screaming - while both armies listened. Can you countenance the reaction to something like that today?
That was a horrible thing and seen so at the time. US Grant thought it was horrible; he attempted a truce to save them, but R. E. Lee dithered trying to turn it into a political victory. Lee the saint was petty and spiteful, and put his own reputation above even others lives. Many pin it on Grant, but I see no justification for that at all.
Jul 22, 2008 - 5:57 pm Rob Mandel:I used to bemoan our year long (or more) campaigning season, but now have come to the conclusion that it is a good thing. Obamania would have surely swept such a naive fool into office without the proper vetting.
The problem is simply this: Obama’s resume could fit onto a 3×5 index card. He is as unfit and ill-prepared to be president as any candidate I can recall.
Jul 22, 2008 - 7:53 pm Dan:“15 years?”
“15 years?”
Don’t ya’ think we need to tackle this problem like we tackled the problem of our lack of Navy Carriers in the Pacific, circa ‘42, ‘43 and ‘44?
We need to do it, we need to do it all, and we need to do it NOW.
Not in “15 years,” not in 5 years, but within the next 36 months.
We need to construct coal to oil plants, and we need to do it now.
We need to jettison the flirtation with wind, which is nothing but an uglifying gimmick.
We need to cut the crap, kick some butts, cut through the regulatory and legal nonsense, and start making the United States the FOREMOST producer of energy on this planet.
THAT’S what we need to do.
Professor, you need to get a heightened sense of urgency about this situation.
Jul 23, 2008 - 12:20 pm Doug:Yes, Gore is a hypocrite. that does not mean we will not choke on our own carbon emmissions. Flex fuels? A complete farce. Tar sands? Utterly environmentally catastrophic. And interesting how the author seems to consider them a domestic resource. They are in Canada. Shale? Even worse. He does not mention the Bakken oil deposit in the northern plains. It may be the best hope for oil independance. But we will still choke on the exhaust if we burn it all too fast, which we probably will. Yes, oil is incredibly useful, and helped us win WW2. But let’s think about the future. Finding, extracting, and burning oil as fast as possible is ultimately self destructive.
Jul 23, 2008 - 3:06 pm Ken:What gets me is that Obama is proposing a surge in Afghanistan (more troops anyway, nothing about how they will be used) but no one (that I’ve heard) has asked him why he thinks a surge will work in Afghanistan when he didn’t think it would work in Iraq?
Why aren’t we pulling our troops out of Afghanistan to put pressure on the Afghan government to make the necessary political choices to: defeat the Taliban, stop the opium trade, and whatever else needs to be done in that country?
Jul 23, 2008 - 3:15 pm ~Paules:The Obama campaign is reminding me more and more of the Children’s Crusade of A.D. 1212. The event began when a young shepherd boy named Steven proclaimed that he had been charged by God to lead Europe’s children to the gates of Jerusalem. Steven’s eloquence and passion attracted thousands of innocents to the call. They embarked from Marseilles for the Holy Land, but were never heard from again. Years later it was revealed that the flotilla had been wrecked by a storm. The survivors were picked up by Muslim slavers in a pre-arranged deal with the crusade’s leaders. I find the similarities to Obama’s campaign rather creepy. Just say’n.
Jul 24, 2008 - 8:18 am Ivanhoe:One wonders why it is the Left has developed such a thin skin; when I was a Democrat years ago and attended caucuses and other events it was rough and tumble with much name calling and back-biting, but no one seemed to hold a life-long grudge. Obama seems to be shocked that the world outside the faculty lounge can be a bitter and brutal place.
Maybe OBAMA should stand for
Oh
Be
A
Man
Already
And quit whining…………..
Jul 24, 2008 - 9:01 am BRussell:He needs a teleprompter due to the enormous brain damage that he did to himself smoking, in his own words mind you, CRACK COCAINE.
This is not an ad hominem attack. In his book,”The Audacity of Hope”, he discusses his drug use, including crack cocaine.
Why would ANYONE vote for this drug addict to be the man ultimately responsible for enforcing the laws of our nation when he already has shown utter contempt for them by he felonious conduct?
Jul 24, 2008 - 2:22 pm Ron Kean:Reading NRO, VDH’s essay on the 60’s mentality, I’m reminded of a seminal late 60’s song by Graham Nash, ‘Chicago’.
So your brother’s bound and gagged
And they’ve chained him to a chair
Won’t you please come to Chicago just to sing
In a land that’s known as Freedom
How can such a thing be fair
Won’t you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring
[A bunch of 'Yippies' they called themselves, tried to create anarchy at a Democratic convention and got arrested. There was a trial, Bobby Seale kept shouting profanities at the court and he was bound and gagged. Who's we? ]
We can change the world
Rearrange the world
It’s dying - to get better
[They're trying to rearrange things now. Dying? That sounds like Michelle. Change? That's the catch word.]
Politicians sit yourselves down
There’s nothing for you here
Won’t you please come to Chicago for a ride
Don’t ask Jack to help you
‘Cause he’ll turn the other ear
Won’t you please come to Chicago or else join the other side
[Politicians again. Who's Jack? Kennedy? Join the other side? Mr. Nash must have been talking about Republicans. I joined a few years ago.]
We can change the world
Rearrange the world
It’s dying - if you believe in justice
It’s dying - and if you believe in freedom
It’s dying - let a man live his own life
It’s dying - rules and regulations
Who needs them, open up the door
[ Justice? Freedom? Sounds like 'If I Had A Hammer'. Rules and regulations? I think everybody needs them. Mr. Nash's type of thinking started the disorder that we see today.]
Jul 24, 2008 - 5:41 pm Ron Kean:Just a few more lyrics:
Jefferson Airplane ‘Volunteers of America’
Got a revolution Got to revolution
One generation got old
One generation got soul
This generation got no destination to hold
Pick up the cry
Got a revolution Got to revolution
Jul 24, 2008 - 5:51 pm Dan:Who will take it from you
We will and who are we
We are volunteers of America
Paules,
Cut the kids a break.
At least they had the nerve to want to go off and face the savage mohammedan, and eye to eye, wrest control of the Holy Land away from them.
At least they had courage.
Barry, Barrack, B-Diddy, who’s he willing to face?
Jul 24, 2008 - 9:43 pm Jack Marcotte:Essential vdh
To good intentioned Environmentalists. Save the plants and Animals. Increase your carbon footprint.
I think the value of history is to show that humans and humanity itself has not really changed and is subject to many shortfalls. Of course except for the BHOOs and Algore.
Having said that it would be nice if everyone stayed “in the political game” that is now going on and bring to bear some intelligence and knowlege to what is going on.
It will keep us from making stupid statements and judgements simply because history was not needed to pull the lever but knowlege was and is.
This thing about a carbon footprint and reduction of CO2 emissions is due to a lack of knowledge and leadership being ceded to an idiot like Algore and environmentalists who are not.
They would be better described as communist anarchists seeking chaos and eventually power. This would also be described as a liberal left wing Democrat. They believe this can be a lever to bring the US down.
Our very lives depend on a CO2 cycle. The continent of America historically before we “tamed” it would have dumped many times over the current CO2 tonnage into the air simply because all of the plant life, prairies, forests depended on fire to fertilize the soil and the air with nutrients. The animals would have depended on the plant life.
There would have been fires, for example that would have been burning on the great plains that would have covered areas the size of Kansas. Why would they have burned?–Because the prairie grasses would have needed burning to get rid of the choking organic matter that tied up nutrients and sufocated new plant growth.
If the prairie needed burned they burned when lighting hit. If lighting hit a recently burned and rejuvenated section it would not have burned.
After a fire the “growth” spurt and resurgence of the grasses is/was a sight to behold.
The same would have been true of the forests. The red wood trees, the towering Sequoias depended on fire to put nutrients into the soil and to weed out competitive trees that would have stopped them from living as long as they did. It also killed parasites but “not the trees” they liked fire—fire good parasites and competition bad.
People better start pulling their heads out of the sand of ignorance and if an Algore or any other green weenie can take you down the idiot path we will all crash and burn because we will not have a sustainable economy that can grow and create jobs for people to be productive humans.
The burning of carbon fuel does not have to be a bad thing we now have the ability to take out the sulfur and other compounds to make it a “cleaner burn”. Ch4+O2—2H2O + CO2
Jul 25, 2008 - 5:44 am srlucado:While pertroleum has been vilified, and alternatives such as solar and wind are supposed to save us, what I wonder is what will power aircraft? They rely entirely on petroleum for propulsion.
I haven’t heard anyone suggest how aircraft will be powered without burning petroleum.
“Biofuel” won’t work; the amount of fuel required would consume a huge part of the food crop. (Look at Richard Branson’s publicity stunt with biofuel-power.)
I suppose someone will remember that the US Air Force tried putting a nuclear reactor aboard an aircraft (a B-36), but that wasn’t for propulsion and it didn’t work worth a darn anyway.
So how will Al Gore jet around to his latest harangue if there’s no fuel?
I’m just asking.
Scott
Jul 26, 2008 - 9:39 am Sam Loomis:$5 a gallon changes things. People need an affordable way to get to work. People want the government to do everything it can. Instead, Congress just started its summer vacation. It is infuriating that an energy policy which opens up everything would be simple, yet no leader is capable of stepping up to make a coherent statement.
Al Gore’s recent goal is to have 100% of utility electricity production be C02 free in 10 years. That is actually achievable by increasing nuke plants from 100 to 500. (Frightening, but doable.) WSJ has an article “Virginia Is Sitting on the Energy Mother Lode” which points out Virginia is sitting on the 7th largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the world. It is illegal to get at it.
Energy is somewhat fungible. Using nukes for electricity frees up oil, coal and LNG to be used for other things.
Every project is easily shot down by some nit pick environmental excuse, so we need a proposal which expands 20 different energy sources simultaneously. Focus on the big picture.
McCain should cut a deal with the people: Sure we will do all the green projects, even Al Gore’s and T. Boone Pickens’ cockamamie schemes, but only if we move full blast now to tap all abundant sources in the US. Because we have to.
Jul 27, 2008 - 10:42 am TheEnigma47:There are numerous reasons why the Europeans were crawling on their bellies to bow down before “osama” the first. Following WWII, Europeans were fed up with war, and who could blame them. Since WWII, Europeans have almost totally neglected their military and need for a national defense. Instead, they have relied upon the strength and dollar of the US for their protection. They have totally ignored the fact that, contradictory to the claims of “osama the first”, it was the US that kept Berlin alive, kept the Soviet Union from overrunning Europe, tore down the Berlin Wall and in reality, kept Europe alive and free. Europeans forget that the best defense against war is to prepare for war. This fact is now beginning to have grave consequences.
Sick of war, Europeans mistakenly, grasp on to anything or anyone willing to shun even the concept of war, no matter how wrong and dangerous this position may be. In steps “osama the first”; the MSM, and European media’s choice to be the first “anointed” US President. Of course they would prefer that he be the first “royal” leader of the United States. The reasoning behind their choice to have a “royal” leader is that it would forever eliminate the chance of a Conservative US President.
Another reason Europeans have such a hatred for President Bush and a love for “osama the first” is religion. For decades Europeans have walked away from their religious heritage. President Bush not only acknowledges his faith, but also proudly lets others know that he IS a Christian. “osama the first” follows the Europeans model to a great extent. CLAIMING to be a Christian, attending a “christian” church, but in reality a bastion of hatred toward the US, “osama the first” seldom mentions his religion. The question of his religion sticks in the minds of many, wondering, is he really a Christian or is he a msulim in hiding? Europeans would prefer a muslim-in-hiding President to an overtly Christian one.
“osama the first” follows the Europeans concept of national defense, especially when it entails going into the land of the enemy, DON’T DO IT. “osama” prefers, as do the Europeans, to sit back allow an uncontrolled influx of muslims, many of these being extremists, and wait for them to attack us in our own homes, places of work, military installation and infrastructure. After capturing them, reading them their “miranda rights”, providing them with attorneys (aclu types), tried before activist judges, beg them to forgive our “transgressions”, set them free to attack us again.
European media has been on a tear since the 2000 election. algore was their choice, as it was with the US MSM. When he and the dnc failed to steal the election via numerous efforts, it was not a flawed dnc candidate, flawed efforts, and insufficient votes, but a flawed US Supreme Court that kept their candidate out of the White House. After all, algore WAS “Eurpoean” in beliefs and that made him the only logical choice. When kerry, again THE choice of the European media and the US MSM failed, the attacks on President Bush were unrelenting. Vowing not to loose again, the European media teamed with the US MSM to ensure that nothing negative about “osama the first” appeared in print, on the screen or on the air.
These two groups may well have coordinated the recent “pilgrimage” of “osama the first” to Europe. After all, the talking heads of the major networks in the MSM have NEVER before accompanied a US PRESIDENT on such a tour. The unprecedented coverage of “osama the first” by the US MSM and European media cannot be attributed solely to “public interest”, but far more likely to a determined effort to brain wash the American voter and to control his/her opinion on who is the best qualified to be the US President. After all, if “all the world” wants “osama the first” wouldn’t the average US voter think that he/she must be wrong if he/she doesn’t have the same opinion?
The staged events where “osama the first” appeared with NO critical comments about the staging, the softball questions the talking heads and others in the media with their “oh, he’s so great” comments. Where is the “critical eye” of the media? Oh, it has been reserved for President Bush and John McCain; “osama the first” has no flaws.
Jul 30, 2008 - 11:07 am