Bush Wrong: House Passed Energy Bill Threatens Economic and National Security
President Bush wrongly praised the energy bill passed by the U S House of Representatives last week. The bill brings national insecurity and threatens to deplete America’s dwindling oil reserves and leave our nation, our freedoms and liberties prostrate before the world’s corporate oil barons and the dictators that control OPEC. But a Senate bill that stops stifiling undepletable energy devopment and levels the policy playing field between undepletable fuels and depeltables may be able to rescue America from the dangers of rapidly approching peak oil.
Bridgeport, CT (PRWEB) April 30, 2005 -- The energy bill passed by the U S
House of Representatives last week threatens to deplete America's dwindling oil
reserves and leave our nation, our freedoms and liberties prostrate before the
world's corporate oil barons and the dictators that control OPEC, according to
CleanPeace, a non profit organization dedicated to building a clean, peaceful,
undepletable, energy future for America.
"President Bush's praise for
House passed energy bill at his news conference was wrong and misguided at best;
the bill extends and enhances the very policies that brought America to the
brink of a severe and lasting energy crisis." said Bill Garrett, Co-President of
CleanPeace.
Garrett continued, ”Geological assessments by independent
groups including the science oriented Association for the Study of Peak Oil and
Gas (ASPO) assess United States oil reserves at less than 3% of remaining world
oil and the OPEC reserves at 61%.”
America consumes about 25% of world
oil and imports roughly 60% of it and becomes more dependent on OPEC supplies
oil reserves and extraction rates of the world’s developed democracies continue
shrinking. The OPEC syndicate gains more control of world oil supplies as this
trend continues and world oil extraction approaches its peak.
“The House
energy bill should be renamed the “National Insecurity Act”. It subsidizes a
dash to depletion of America's vital oil resources and enhances the huge profits
of big oil at a time when national security and pure horse sense demand
replacement of oil with new, undepletable fuels.” said Garrett.
Oil peaks
when conventional oil extraction reaches its maximum and starts a permanent
decline in output of about 2% to 3% per year. After peaking, oil will no longer
meet world demand and must be replaced by new energy sources to prevent
shrinking the world economy. ASPO scientists predict oil’s peak next year and
most other independent assessments within ten years or less.
Worse yet,
a recent consultant's report to the U. S. Department of Energy concludes that a
crash program to replace conventional oil would have to be initiated 20 years
prior to oil's peaking to make a transition to a replacement fuel without
massive economic disruptions. It also states, “World oil peaking represents a
problem like none other. The political, economic, and social stakes are enormous
[and… demands urgent attention and early action.”
“By failing to address
this reality the House passed energy bill fosters energy insecurity and creates
a system that drains the wealth of America's middle class into the pockets of
big oil, the coffers of OPEC dictators and the terrorists to whom they pay
tribute.” Garrett said.
“Every tax dollar the House bill gives to the
highly profitable, oil, gas and nuclear giants, chokes off competition from new,
undepletable fuels capable of economically replacing oil and nuclear energy. But
for sustainable fuels to be deployed in time to avoid the disaster that looms
from peak oil, Congress must provide a level playing field with oil, coal, gas,
and radioactive fuels.” said Roy McAlister, President of the American Hydrogen
Association and Co-President of CleanPeace.
McAlister, a scientist,
engineer, educator and world authority on hydrogen and its production from
undepletable resources said, “As a long term researcher, I can assure the
American public that the proven technologies to produce, transport, and safely
utilize hydrogen from undepletable resources are available today and can be
utilized by rapid conversion of existing internal combustion engines and other
equipment.”
As a graduate student at the University
of Kansas, McAlister converted his first car, a 1937 Hudson Teraplane, to
hydrogen fuel. Today he holds numerous patents on proven hydrogen technologies,
teaches undepletable energy at universities around the world and recently
published The Solar Hydrogen Civilization, a comprehensive book on hydrogen and
a sustainable economy.
China and India hold a third of the world's
population and their fast growing economies demand more oil and intensify
competition for remaining supplies. The U S Energy Information Administration
reports that China's oil demand increased by over one million barrels per day
last year.
According to the U. S. China Economic and Security Review
Commission, China is pursuing long term oil and gas contracts with Iran, Russia,
and Venezuela while its diplomats are improving relations with other oil rich
nations.
As competition for oil continues to intensify, the OPEC
dictators who control it will decide who gets enough oil and maintains a healthy
economy and who goes without adequate supplies and moves into recession,
hardship and conflict.
“The threat of peak oil requires responsible
leaders to plan now to mitigate its impact and prepare for the tsunami of change
it forces. Leaders must also counter plots by oil rich nations to exploit oil
shortages and abuse the increased geopolitical power that comes to them from a
scarcity of oil. The House passed energy bill fails to do either” said Garrett
“It's the Steven Jobses, Bill Gateses Henry Fords and Thomas Edisons of
the world that bring change and progress to humanity. Today's innovators have
the technology and the will to reinvent the energy world for sustainability and
prosperity. Its time for Congress to stop stifling their progress with big oil
subsidies and help unleash their solutions on the energy crisis before it’s too
late,” said McAlister.
He continued, “At a bare minimum any new energy
legislation should include a policy for creating undepletable energy supplies
that are equally subsidized with depletable energy by:
1. Leveling the
tax and policy playing fields with depletable fuels.
2. Providing tax
incentives for the production and use of hydrogen made from undepletable
resources as the replacement for fossil fuels now used in internal combustions
engines and combustion turbines.
3. Providing for construction of a
hydrogen collection, transportation, distribution and delivery infrastructure
including pipelines beneath the interstate highway system (the “Hydrogen Hyway”)
and funding this progress from existing fossil fuel taxes.
“Current tax
policies allow oil and gas drillers to offer their investors as much as 95% of
their investment back in tax advantages even if the well they drill is dry.
Large scale nuclear, oil, natural gas and coal projects get purchase guarantees,
publicly subsidized bond financing and other advantages. Undepletable energy
projects will need the same encouragement if we want to mitigate the impact of
peak oil on Americans and the world.” asserted
McAlister.
Contacts:
Bill Garrett: 203-372-6166 e-mail protected from
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Roy McAlister: 620-474-1156
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/4/prweb234879.htm