Extracts from a Symposium on Environmental Ethic
Reality 1:
Worldwide demand for energy will grow by 30-50% over the next two decades - and more than double by the time you're my age. Simply put, America and the rest of the world will need all the energy that markets can deliver.
Reality 2:
There are no near-term alternatives to oil, natural gas, and coal.
Reality 3:
You can argue about whether global warming is a serious problem or not, but there's no argument about the consequences of cap and trade regulation - it's going to drive the cost of energy painfully higher. That's the whole point of cap and trade - to drive up the cost of fossil energy so that otherwise uneconomic "alternatives" can compete.
Reality 4:
Even if America does cut CO2 emissions, those same computer models that predict man-made warming over the next century also predict that Kyoto-type CO2 cuts would have no discernible impact on global temperatures for decades, if ever.
Here's the rub: many Europeans today pay up to 20% more for electricity as a result of their failed efforts to sever the link between modern life and CO2 emissions.
So, if Americans aren't willing to pay a lot more for their energy, how do we reduce CO2 emissions? Well, here are several things we should do.
America's known natural gas resource base now exceeds 100 years of supply at current U.S. consumption - and that number is growing.