America needs affordable energy. America needs reliable energy. America needs abundant energy. America needs to be energy independent. America needs fossil fuels.
The Federal government needs to get out of the way, which means permits to drill for oil, permits to develop clean coal options. Permits to take advantage of our vast natural gas reserves and permits to build nuclear power plants.
There really is no efficient alternative for fossil fuels. There is no excuse not to have nuclear power plants from sea to shining sea.
Wind and solar are not clean and are not green.
How much energy does it take to build the windmills, transport the windmill parts, and then fifteen-twenty years later dismantle, transport, and bury the windmills?
The windmills are an eyesore, they are inefficient, and they kill thousands of migratory birds. And when they wear out, what do you do with the carcasses?
They do not recycle them, they bury them in four windmill graveyards here in America, one of which is in Lake Mills Iowa.
Solar panels and solar batteries are no better. Slave labor is used to mine the minerals to produce these solar alternatives. Mining is not exactly carbon neutral.
China uses forced slave labor to build solar panels. And it takes a lot of energy to produce the solar panels and batteries. It is certainly not carbon neutral.
Electric vehicles (“EV’s”) are the same story. Child slaves in the Congo mine the cobalt and Uyghur slaves in China mine the lithium.
Where does the electricity come from to power these EV’s? Wind and Solar produce 10%, that is it, 90% comes for other sources. The rolling blackouts we are seeing in California may be coming here soon.
EV’s are dirty green, and slavery is an abomination. We should consider an Energy Emancipation Proclamation while we are drafting the Energy Declaration of Independence. There should be a moratorium on any product produced by slaves.
Then there is ethanol. This is a hard one for Iowa, but when you consider the energy needed to plant the crop, harvest the corn, deliver the corn to the ethanol plant, process corn into moonshine and mix that moonshine with old fashioned oil-based gasoline, then transport the corn squeezing’s to the pump, it really isn’t cleaner than just using oil.
Estimates are that it takes three gallons of diesel fuel to produce four gallons of ethanol blended gas. Then, you do not get as many miles to the gallon for this blended fuel.
We are going to be looking at food shortages and famine in the not-too-distant future. That will be an inconvenience and added grocery store expense here, but it will kill millions in the third world. America needs to feed the world, not use forty percent of our corn crop for fuel.
And this carbon capture pipeline is bad on so many levels. There is no excuse for using eminent domain to force Iowa farmers to surrender their land for this bad idea. CO2 isn’t even a pollutant. CO2 is necessary for photosynthesis. Every time you drink a beer or a soda you ingest CO2, the bubbles.
World temperatures have not increased in the past eleven years. Why do we need a pipeline for CO2 here in Iowa again? Is this about the environment or is this about money?
Then there is nuclear power, the red-headed stepchild of the energy industry. Nuclear is clean, dependable and produces cheap energy. We have two nuclear power plants in Iowa. We need more and we need one in Central Iowa, it is long overdue.
Natural gas is abundant and burns clean. A by-product of natural gas is nitrogen, critical in the fertilizer we need to grow crops. It would seem foolhardy to pivot away from natural gas.
You know what really comes in handy when it is thirty below zero or one hundred and five degrees outside? Reliable electricity produced by clean coal, natural gas, or a nuclear power plant.
What can our Representatives in Congress do to make America energy independent again? Take action to streamline the permitting process for all traditional energy sectors. Get the Federal government out of the way.
The Biden energy policy is hammering the middle class. Fuel prices impact everything we need to guarantee our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
Higher energy costs are destroying the middle class in America. And without a thriving middle class there is no hope and there is no American dream.
We need leadership now more than ever. We need to make America energy independent again. We need a Declaration of Energy Independence.
