The New York Times has an interesting graph that breaks down the different inflation components of the average consumer. Different fuel sources are clearly the items that have seen the largest price increases over the past year. This is to be expected given the current situation in the energy market.
Many people (especially politicians) don't seem to understand the situation with energy. Everyone expects the government to make its choice, just like it made its choice with ethanol a couple years ago (look how that's turned out) and it's decision to ban further nuclear power expansion thirty years ago. We actually have an abundant supply of oil in the U.S. as well as in the Gulf of Mexico and we could get it with little harm to the surrounding environment. We've come to rely on foreign oil because government intervention into the energy economy has made it next to impossible to use different energy sources. Modern nuclear technology has proven to be safe, reliable, and cheap. People worry about the waste, but there are different methods that use most, and sometimes all, of the waste.
A government energy economy is not going to have a happy ending. Look at where it's put us today. We rely on energy from foreign countries, some of whom outright hate us. When governments pick and choose, it simply will discourage the companies and eventually the consumer. This article takes an excellent look into the ignorance of policies like this and why it simply can't work. Well, it may be able to work, but I am convinced that a free market solution would sort out the problems much, much quicker and bring long-term stability than a government trying to decide which "biofuel" it likes best. Politicians do not understand economics (with the exception of a very slight few). Politicians don't know how the market works. Do we really want to leave it up to them which fuel source is best for individual people?
Tags:
economy, energy, government, inflation, nuclear, oil, politics
Posted at: 07:05 AM | Add Comment
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