ENGLISH FOR SENATE POSITION PAPER ON:
Public Land Use
There has been increasing controversy over the Bush Administration's
policies regarding the use of public lands, whether it be 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 Bush Administration's programs emphasize
continued production of non-renewable fuels with very little 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 tranportation 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 rsources 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 resouces 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 progams to replace fossil
fuels with renewable energy alternatives. 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. What is
America's plan for transitioning to renewable resources?
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Designed by Imad-ad-Dean,
Inc.