ENGLISH
FOR
CONGRESS POSITION PAPER (Revised January 2012)
There
has been increasing controversy over the policies regarding the
use of public lands, whether it is for oil drilling, forest
timber sales and attendant forest road building, or the sale of
public land ostensibly to provide funding for the support of
rural schools. Accelerated energy resource
exploitation on public lands or under public waters to satisfy
increasing demand and reduction of dependence upon foreign
energy suppliers is at best a short-term stop-gap palliative,
with no long term benefit to our economy with the risk of
serious permanent degradation of our natural resources.
Yet, the current Administration's just announced programs
emphasize continued production of non-renewable fuels with some
increased funding of non-renewable alternatives. Without
national long-term renewable energy and mineral exploitation
plans (please also see the Energy and Environment issue topic),
continued exploitation of public land resources without regard
to the needs of future generations is tantamount to gradual
national economic suicide as the natural bounty of the land and
its resources is plundered and the natural endowment of
Americans yet to be born is squandered.
The exploitation of non-renewable public land resources for the
production of fuels for transportation and electricity
generation is environmentally destructive (i.e., greenhouse gas
emissions) and economically indefensible when the needs of
future generations are considered. As a society, we are
literally "eating the seed corn" of our natural resource
endowment and will pass on to our children and their successors
a ravaged and looted landscape of impaired
productivity. The hydrocarbon and mineral resources
of our lands and waters will be needed by future generations to
sustain the production of chemicals and materials needed for
everyday living, not for our generation's current fuel and
electricity production needs. Most of our remaining
unexploited natural resources are located on or under public
lands and waters. They should and must be conserved,
managed, and protected for the benefit of future
generations of Americans yet to be born.
European countries are now implementing programs to replace
fossil fuels with renewable energy alternatives. Over
fifteen percent of Denmark's electricity needs are already being
met by wind powered turbines. Iceland is implementing a
national program to replace all fossil fuel consumption by
utilizing its abundant geothermal resources to generate
electricity and then using the surplus electricity to produce
hydrogen to meet its transportation needs. Iceland's
cheap electricity is already benefitting its economy by giving
it a competitive advantage in the production of aluminum ingots
for the European market. Geothermal energy has long
been employed to heat buildings in Iceland's capital. (Please
read the Energy and
Environment issue paper).
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Designed by Imad-ad-Dean,
Inc.