The Old Way or No Way

Today brought a couple of good examples of the death grip of so many on massive burning of fossil fuels and the idea that has no drawbacks and is the only path to prosperity and happiness.

First, this morning was the syndicated op-ed point-counterpoint run in the Herald asking, "Should the U.S. push fast development of oil resources?" The "con" by A. James Barnes does a nice job of debunking the simplistic idea that more drilling here will ease a load of problems like high gas costs, dependence on foreign oil, etc. that the "pro" by feet-planted-firmly-in-the-20th-century Andrew Morriss made. It is not surprising someone like Morriss makes the case to drain-America-first or that he seems oblivious to issues like climate change or that oil will not last forever.

What is exasperating is the argument by Morriss that development of renewable energy will be slow and cost money, so we should not put effort into it. But development of more oil production will not happen overnight, so we have to pour money into that and start right away.

Current North Dakotans need not worry about the black gold cash cow - it will be providing over the coming decades. However, it is exactly those issues that Morriss ignores like scarcity and climate change that are why we need to start working today for the solutions we need tomorrow that wean us away from burning fossil fuels.

Second, today we got another demonstration that climate science denial is a litmus test in the current Republican party as the Energy and Commerce Committee steps toward blocking the EPA from enforcing climate-related rules.

House Republicans rejected amendments offered Tuesday by Democrats that called on Congress to accept the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, it is caused in large part by human activity and it is a threat to human health.

All three votes fell exactly along party lines.

Of course there was at least quibbling with the science and claims that it was not sure enough for any conclusions. But the brunt of the Republican push is based in the idea that doing something about climate change by reducing emissions can only cripple the economy. Essentially an entire political party think that the only way to use energy is just like we have and refuse to hear reasons why this cannot be so.

This backward-facing view, with a mindset we guzzled gas before, guzzle gas now, and so have to keep guzzling gas, crimps the future. Such short-sightedness short-changes the now too. Imagine energy usage (and thus costs), say, 25% less because of efficiency effort. Imagine pushing to lead on building the clean, renewable energy systems that must be the future. Please imagine anything but pretending the pages of the calendar do not turn or that "have been" means "gotta keep on".