Our Energy Conundrum
So what are the options? Higher fuel taxes and tighter controls by business. CAFE, the corporate average fuel efficiency standards imposed on carmakers, have barely risen in 20 years. By some estimates, reasonably phased higher standards could save us about a million barrels of oil a day.
On the production side, we are going to have to start building nuclear power plants, particularly since new nuclear technologies are safer and cleaner than ever. We are also going to have to look to find places to drill, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which has become a symbolic issue to environmentalists. The refuge is far from the picture postcard of green forests and snowcapped mountains its defenders would have us believe. It's the Alaskan tundra, and drilling there would involve only a minuscule portion of the 18.5 million acres that are being set aside for conservation. Drilling there makes sense.
This isn't to say that we should overlook the environmental consequences of fuel consumption, particularly when you think about the fact that as China and India explode economically and are able to buy cars, we may have to face the possibility that the number of cars by the year 2050 will go from 800 million today to as high as 3.25 billion then--an unimaginable threat to our environment and a surefire guarantee of global warming.
Any energy program we come up with will involve some cost or controversy. But this is one of the great national issues facing the nation, and there is no justifiable excuse for avoiding the kind of informed debate that must take place if we're to put a coherent policy in place before too much more time elapses.
The failure of our elected officials in both parties to come to grips with this vital issue long before now is a national disgrace. Continued failure is not an option.
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