Does anyone else hear Senator John Thune's cognitive dissonance on energy policy? Check out his comments in this Thursday interview with SDPB:
If oil prices go up to $100 a barrel, or worse yet $150 a barrel, and you see four or five dollar gasoline, a recovery that is starting to emerge and that we're starting to see signs that the economy's coming back could be really hampered by energy prices. But if there is a silver lining in all that, it would be it would get the attention of policy makers in Washington who have for far too long have swept energy policy under the carpet because of the addiction to cheap oil [Senator John Thune, quoted by Kealey Bultena, "Thune Discusses Energy Costs," SDPB, 2011.01.20].
Say what?! Senator Thune complains about sweeping energy policy under the carpet? Thune criticizes our adiction to cheap oil?
I'd cheer, but isn't this the same Senator Thune who vowed to fight the 111th Congress's efforts to act on energy policy "with every fiber of my being"? Wasn't Thune carrying water for exactly the big energy interests who want to keep us hooked on cheap fossil fuels as long as profitably possible?
Senator Thune, if you're serious about kicking America's cheap-oil addiction, you should dust off the American Clean Energy and Security Act and reintroduce it to this more conservative Congress.
The article went on to say, "Thune says the U.S. spends one billion dollars on foreign oil everyday. He says developing American energy resources would keep gas prices lower." To me that means that we should use our own resources (oil, drilling in the Gulf and ANWR, etc) instead of relying on foreign oil, OPEC, Venuzuala, etc. It doesn't necessarily mean that we should only focus on alternative sources of energy. We need to do both.
corey,
Would you support Nuclear power or Hydro electric in SD? What in the heck are we doing with ethanol. Shame on Thune and Noem.
I like the hydro we have. If we could squeeze more out of the Missouri (and if there aren't any hard enviro-impacts I'm not thinking of), I'd be happy to see more.
I'm willing to talk nuclear. Show me a good plan for the nuclear waste, show me numbers that say nuclear waste does less harm per gigawatt generated than fossil fuels, and I'm game.