Energy, the choice before us

One very big reality about energy policy in the United States is it is held hostage to the religion of man created climate change. There are two important thoughts to consider. The first thought is that the United States has abundance of recoverable energy sources including oil, natural gas and coal plus the Congressional Research Center concluded that the United States may have the most supply of energy sources in the world within technical reach. The second thought is that as long as we are blaming humanity for climate change, none of this energy will ever be developed.

The good news is that the Gallup Poll noticed that in the United States, the majority of Americans either believe nature is responsible or nature in combination with man is. This research has been confirmed by the Americas Majority Foundation, an organization I work with. The average Americans understand instinctively that man by himself is not the primary reason for climate change and that nature plays a significant role. The only question is how much man plays a role compared to nature. Actually, this is a common sense approach considering that climate has been changing for eons without the assistance of humanity; so the idea that nature doesn’t play a role is counterintuitive.

Just in the past millennium, we have seen changes in climate with a warming trend around the medieval period followed by a mini-ice age that may have existed for 500 years and another warming trend that probably began in the middle of the 19th century. The past century has seen minor fluctuations with a warm decade in the 1930’s followed by a cooling trend from the 1940’s through the 1970’s; before beginning yet another warming trend. Some scientists even talked of a new ice age in the 1970’s but now we are talking about getting fried, or both; depending upon the weather of the day.

There is much we don’t understand about climate and our planet, but we act as if we already have all the answers, never mind that many scientists have changed their minds radically over the past four decades. Climate science is more hubris than science; man-made climate change is a theory looking for facts and scientists looking for grants.

If the United States is to ever have an energy plan that actually calls for Americans producing their own energy sources like, oil, coal, nuclear, natural gas and yes even a windmill or two, plus a couple of ears of corn for the gas tank; then climate change science needs to be challenged. The Climategate scandal of a couple of years ago exposed the serious questions about the research as exposed through the words of the scientists themselves on emails. These scientists were caught trying to rewrite climate history and their efforts were the equivalent of writing about Joseph Stalin and not mentioning the purges of the 30’s, or discussing Nazi Germany and not bringing up the holocaust. The one consensus that scientists now agree on, that the temperature around 1000 AD was as warm, if not warmer, than today and around 1400 AD, it was colder than today! The question is what caused the deviation of temperature over the past 1000 years since much of the past millennium featured no massive industrial revolution. What climate science has done is slowed down America’s energy development.

Climategate showed scientific corruption, but while much of the media has ignored climategate, the reality is that the science is now shifting as the skeptics are proving to be more correct than their man-made climate change advocates. Which brings us to final point, do we develop the energy located within our borders and create new jobs in the process or do we surrender our opportunity to become an energy exporter?