Ridiculous, The Gang of 10 Energy Plan

As usual, you can expect the Gramnesty branch of the Democrat party to lie through their teeth, with a smile on their face all the while. Like with the lies of the AMNESTY bill, similar lies are being told about an alleged deal in the Senate. Mavericks doing it to the original maverick. How cool is that?

The IER has done the heavy lifting and has analyzed the plan and finds it wanting. IER Analysis: Key Flaws in the ‘New Era’ Plan:

• The Gang of Ten calls for additional offshore production in areas currently under moratoria, but proposes a process that fails to guarantee/deliver any new supplies whatsoever. New production on federal offshore lands is left to the discretion of several state legislatures.

• Production potential is severely limited. Only four coastal states would be granted the ability to “opt out” of energy bans. Arbitrary 50-mile buffer zones would exclude potential resource deposits, such as the Gulf of Mexico’s Destin Dome, which is some 25 miles offshore.

• The plan ignores the urgent national need to repeal the offshore energy exploration and production bans that have contributed to the very problem their plan purports to solve. It may even give the ban the force of permanent law for the first time ever. This is an especially short-sighted, as the Congressional ban is set to expire in less than two months, on October 1, 2008, which will open the entire 1.76 billion acre outer continental shelf (OCS) to energy production.

• Spending $85 billion on tax credits, subsidies, and various other federal handouts in lieu of increasing domestic oil and gas production is the kind of failed approach to energy policy that helped deliver the crisis we find ourselves in today. Government continues to be the source of the problem; government-centered ‘solutions’ will only compound our problems.

• Dedicating additional, inordinate sums to biofuel programs is especially unwise, as they represent up to 75 percent of the recent spike in food prices, according to the World Bank. They are not as “renewable” as their proponents claim, and may not even provide any environmental benefits whatsoever.

Click here for the complete IER analysis.

It's quite simple to understand, there is no alternative to oil, there are too many things that depend on oil. Like nearly all of modern plastics, lubricants and paving materials. Nothing in the next 50 years is likely to change any of this.

They further state, the $85 billion in giveaways are to be made up with in kind offsets -- Translation, taxes on oil companies or direct taxes on you. Either way, you pay for this nonsense. Government cannot make technology appear, cannot make this work the way they would like them to work, and cannot pass laws to increase energy supplies. Jimmy Carter, the dumbest President ever, already tested this hypothesis and found it true. All Jimmy Carter produced was a disaster for the economy. Which is where we are headed with nonsense like this crap.