As consumers enjoy record high gasoline prices (and the taxes attached at the pump), governments are scrambling to find other ways to increase our general cost of living.
In the mad scramble to reduce carbon dioxide emissions (that stuff we exhale), North America and Europe have jumped on the scheme of subsidizing and encouraging the production of ethanol. Never mind that a world food crisis has been exacerbated by this process as fields that used to grow food are now seeded for ethanol production. Never mind that ethanol is a net loser in actual energy output once the energy inputs are taken into account. Never mind that when burned ethanol releases carbon dioxide when it is burned just as fossil fuels do. The policies feel good and help to shut up the eco-crowd thus we pursue them.
Tax increases and oppressive environmental legislations are making conventional oil and gas production more expensive than ever. Many of these added burdens usually are justified by pointing out that the world needs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Still to this day, there has not been any actual proof that carbon dioxide emissions are indeed causing climate change or that our reduction of them would have any impact at all on the climate. Why let facts get in the way of good global hysteria though? Al Gore makes a movie laden with untruths and exagerations that a court actually exposed and laid out. Instead of public shunning, Gore got a Nobel peace prize to bring up up to par with fellow winner Yassir Arafat.
So, we have made it increasingly expensive to drive. We are causing food prices to shoot up. Where to next?
Well in Alberta we have decided to go after coal. Alberta has 70% of Canada’s coal reserves and much of it is the cleanest type of coal to be found. Much of Alberta’s electricity is coal generated and we have enough here to keep generating through coal for generations.
Rather than make use of this resource we have decided to make it more expensive as well. While I am hardly a bleeding heart, I do feel for people on fixed incomes such as seniors who somehow have to cope with this spiraling cost of living that comes with feel-good environmental idiocy. If we follow through with Ed Stelmach’s plans, we can look forward to the cost of electrical generation in Alberta to jump by 50%. Rest assured that jump in cost will go directly to the bills of consumers.
Windmills kill birds, dams kill fish, oil and gas eat the ozone, coal is dirty and nuclear is simply evil. There is no acceptable means of large-scale energy generation in the world of environmentalism. The modern world is not going away. We depend on energy and a large part of our daily expenses are directly tied to the cost of energy.
How much longer can we afford to keep shooting ourselves in the feet?
