Deregulate the construction of new oil refineries, something not seen since 1976.
Halve the gas tax, making the average gallon 9.2 cents cheaper. Congress would have less to spend, but they should tighten their belts anyway.
To encourage new atomic-power plants, stop debating and start storing radioactive waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain facility. In return, give Silver State residents free electricity.
If it’s too much to drill more offshore oil, at least withdraw more natural gas. At worst, natural gas leaks do not blanket beaches or smother seagulls.
I welcome the day when planes, trains, and automobiles can operate on fuel squeezed from shredded junk mail and pulverized rap CDs. Such alternative sources will deliver minimal benefits . . . eventually. The International Energy Agency’s
2007 World Energy Outlook forecasts that fossil fuels will still generate 82 percent of Earth’s energy in 2030, with 9 percent from biomass. Solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, and other renewable sources will satisfy just 2 percent of demand. Refined petroleum propels vehicles
today, and yet oil languishes beneath our sovereign soil, even as Americans go jobless and our republic meanders into recession.
Will we finally grow up and harness our resources, or will we childishly weep over imaginary threats to wildlife, dispatch supertankers of cash to the Middle East, and watch our petrodollars sponsor bomb belts and exploding aircraft?
Merely asking this question illustrates how desperately this nation needs adult supervision.
— Deroy Murdock is a New York-based columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution. < Back 1 2 3 
