georgej on January 18, 2007 at 4:26 AM

Good comment.

Environmentalist is another way of saying Socialist.

and at the same time stanch the move to alternative fuels such as ethanol.

Good luck with that.

Privately funded ethanol plants are going up at a record rate in the mid west. In our area, each plant has the capability to use all corn grown within a 30 miles radius and each plant is spaced accordingly. I know of 4 plants going up within an hours drive from my home.

The plant closest to us will go into production at the end of February. It’s entire production for the next 18 months has already been pre sold.

The company that owns the local plant, also has an experimental plant in the early phases of construction. It’s sole purpose is to experiment with different types of energy production.

But I also own an SUV *AND* a 4×4 pickup truck. Because having them makes it possible to plow my 1000 foot driveway in the winter, tow my general purpose trailer, and haul materials (including groceries and “stuff” back from Wal-Mart) and protect my family with surfooted 4 wheel drive and 4000 lbs of steel mass, and that suit MY lifestyle, too

George, ya made me chuckle. Change general purpose trailer to livestock trailer and you have just described MY lifestyle.

People who scream about big bad SUV’s have a tendency to forget that this is a very large country with different types of weather, and different types of people who live VERY different lifestyles and require very different tools.

I live a “renewable” energy lifestyle, in other words. In fact, I get 55 percent of my space heating from solar. If I had the house designed and built today (instead of the late 1970′s — remember the solar energy tax credit?), I’d get 80 to 85%.

Having said that. And also being able to claim that I am more than 5 millennium beyond most of you in “Earth Day” tree planting celebrations, let me pour some cold water on the “oil” and “alternate energy” issues that some of you have brought up.

No matter what the environmentalists say, the WORLD is an oil economy and will remain so for the next 200 years, at least. America has a 300 year supply of COAL, for goodness sake. And you can get refinable oil from coal if necessary.

The USA has enough oil on the continent and off-shore to supply us for decades. All that is needed is the political will to go get it. The liberals do not want that.

Their environmentalist allies don’t want that, either.

The hard-core among the environmentalists view humanity as a “virus” and a scourge on Mother Gaea. Even the late, beloved, Jacques Cousteau advocated mass murder as an “environmentally sound” way of managing the population of the planet. The cadre of the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, etc., including their allies PETA, wants a universal lifestyle on par with that of the mid 19th Century. That includes medical science, BTW.

Don’t let their propaganda fool you. Environmentalism is about power. If you can tell people how to live their lives, and force them to do it, you have achieved the ultimate power.

I recommend that you all do some research about the “Wildlands Project” (a US environmentalist response to the 1992 UN Biodiversity Treaty) that intends to turn 48% of the lower 48 United States into wilderness so that the fox and wolves and antelope can “run free” — without people, houses, or even roads. The founder of Wildlands was Earth First! eco-terrorist Dave Foreman and the goal is the eventual forced resettlement of millions of people to reclaim half of the country for Bambi and his friends.

While the liberals simply want to use energy (costs and availability — read that as “rationing”) as a way to control the people.

In other words, all the nonsense from the Democrats about ANWR, oil, fleet milage reductions, “alternate energy sources,” etc., is garbage.

I have nothing against hydrogen cars (which President Bush advocating development of), electrical driven cars, hybrids, or whatever. Their success or failure in the market place will rest solely on their economics, and not their politics.

The existing world-wide oil economy gets in the way of both liberal’s (i.e., Democrats) and environmentalist’s political goals. Hence the political opposition to drilling in ANWR. Regardless of what they say in public, the left (i.e., the Democrats) and the eco-wacks approve of the economic disruption caused by $3.00/gal gasoline), and new off shore drilling — which the Democrats will attempt to REVERSE in the 110th Congress, BTW.

Do not be fooled about claims that the world’s oil is running out. It won’t happen in your lifetime, nor that of your great-grandchildren, either. Don’t be fooled by bogus “pollution” and “greenhouse gas” arguments against petroleum-based energy, because great strides have already been made in cleaning exhausts and there will be more to come.

And don’t fall for the nuclear energy critics line either. Nuclear generated electricity is pollution free and fuel recycling prevents the current ‘waste’ issues. We ought to bbuild many modern, safe, nuclear energy generating stations.

The high electrical energy cost and oil prices are artificial constructs, whose purpose has more to do with social control than economics, as I note. Under normal economic theory, despite high oil taxes charged by the state and federal governments, crude oil prices should be much lower than they are right now, as supply (in terms of provable reserves) are GOING UP, not down. Not only world wide, but in the USA (or those parts of the off shore that we can reach and control).

The Saudis are boosting production FOR THEIR POLITICAL reasons and for no other purpose. And that political reason may have everything to do with Iran’s potential dominance of the middle east.

OPEC was a scam in 1973-4 during the 1st “oil crisis” caused by Israel’s victory in the Yom Kippur war of ’73. It was a scam in 1979 when Iranian mullahs chopped supply to punish us for our support of the ousted Shah. And it remains a scam today.

I live the energy conservationist life because I choose to do so — because it makes sense to me. Yes, I believe in “alternate energy” sources as well as in the oil economy. And it is my choice as a free American to live any lifestyle I want.

But I also own an SUV *AND* a 4×4 pickup truck. Because having them makes it possible to plow my 1000 foot driveway in the winter, tow my general purpose trailer, and haul materials (including groceries and “stuff” back from Wal-Mart) and protect my family with surfooted 4 wheel drive and 4000 lbs of steel mass, and that suit MY lifestyle, too.

Al Gore would have a cow, but I don’t give a damn what that lying moron thinks, anyway.

Okay. I’m done. Thanks for reading.

- The Cat

Wind is too variable to work for grid provision (it can work for charging batteries, which results in serious storage inefficiencies, and is thus only useful for very remote installations), is a horrible eyesore, and has problematic land use requirements. Solar eats up simply massive quantities of land and the best sites are unbelievably restricted “environmentally sensitive” land that the tree huggers will fight to the death to protect (it’s nothing but sand and scrub, but its “rare” sand and scrub…). Hydrogen isn’t a fuel, it’s a storage mechanism that doesn’t transport well (liquid H doesn’t play well with metals and is hell on pipelines) and requires massive safety investments. Nuclear is great, but is the Devil incarnate according to the greenies.

All in all they’re not environmentalists, they’re watermelons pursuing communism and the destruction of the West by other means. If you are concerned about geopolitical security, exempt oil production from all regulations, taxes, and lawuits, and smite states like California that try to discourage oil production. The Left, as always, are committing treasonous acts by preventing oil production on US soil.

Saudis set to boost oil production capacity Allahpundit Enjoy it; it’s the only good thing that has come or will come from Iran building nukes, explanding its influence, and generally scaring the shinola out of Sunnis. On the great Wahhabist…

Catseye on January 17, 2007 at 4:07 PM

Catseye, you are correct. I have never felt the need to justify my manhood by the size of my ride, so I have never fallen for Detroit’s piss-poor offerings.

Also note, I bought a new vehicle ONCE. I will never give money away like that again. Better to let someone else get soaked driving it off of the lot.

Also, in the past couple of weeks, a cold snap in Iran caused the Iranians to stop gas imports to Turkey to satisfy domestic demand.

Maybe you did, but I will never. Any thinking person will factor OPEC and their shanannigans into any equation involving the Middle East.

hillbillyjim on January 17, 2007 at 3:52 PM

But we as a country did. It was the late 70′s and early ’80 where we started looking at more economical cars. That’s how Mazda made it here. There was a waiting list for the 626 and you didn’t even have a choice of colors, sort of like the Prius is doing now. But up until the last couple of years, what happened to us? SUVs took over. Half the people I see on the road are driving V8s with only the driver in the vehicle. Up until the last year or so, when was the last time you saw a car commercial advertising the gas milage? And the big 3 keep spitting out the big ones. What’s one of the latest…the Nitro? Gets 17/21 mpg. Ford Edge? Gets mid 20s with a V6. Ford Fusion-23/31.
I mean Ford had a Tempo out in the mid-80 with a Mitsubishi diesel and 5 speed that got 60 mpg on the highway. What happened if the consumer didn’t forget once the Sauds started throwing cheap oil at us again? In my opinion, they’re doing the same now.

Someday that mullah mushroom cloud’s going to spout over Manhattan

If the Saudi’s keep this up, the mullah mushroom cloud will spout over Riyadh instead.

By Reuters

TEHRAN – The Iranian government has decided to ration gasoline in OPEC’s second biggest producer in the Iranian year that starts in March 2007, state-owned Iran newspaper reported Wednesday.

We forgot the ‘78 Arab Oil Embargo didn’t we.

Catseye on January 17, 2007 at 3:45 PM

In a word: NO.

Maybe you did, but I will never. Any thinking person will factor OPEC and their shanannigans into any equation involving the Middle East.

hillbillyjim said

I don’t mean to be contentious, Darwin, but I doubt anyone who has to work for a living will forget $3.00 plus a gallon.

I know I won’t.

We forgot the ’78 Arab Oil Embargo didn’t we.