Brunswick Beacon, 03.24.22
Nelson Paul’s March 17 diatribe against his so-called “amoral box of leftist culture” is riddled with falsehoods that demand some fact-checking, so here’s mine:
First, he says it’s about energy policy. It’s mostly insults and an accusation that fake climate change scientists have “a grand plan of evil design” to use “famine as a weapon of mass destruction” and depopulate the world. Who knew?
Big Falsehood #1 claims President Biden is forcing America to rely on “sustainable energy alone.” Factcheck.org says that’s false. Biden issued 34% more drilling permits on public lands in his first year than Trump. He criticized oil companies for sitting on over 9,000 permits and urged them to produce more oil. And he emphasized, “the idea we’re going to be able to move to renewable energy overnight is just not rational.”
Big Falsehood #2 claims Biden “cut off” fossil fuels. PolitiFact.com says that’s false. We produced more crude oil in Biden’s first year than in Trump's, exported more crude oil and petroleum products than we imported, and produced more primary energy than we consumed.
Paul says we should stop pursuing sustainable energy because it cannot replace fossil fuels which make the fertilizers that grow our food. The hole in his reasoning is that it actually proves why sustainable energy is essential. Fossil fuels will get more expensive as they are depleted. The more we can replace with sustainable energy, the more we’ll have to meet the needs that sustainable energy cannot. As Biden said in his State-of-the-Union speech, we need “an all-of-the-above energy policy.”
I remember the 1973 oil embargo. It gave us 55 mph speed limits and the hit song “Convoy.” Fifty years later, climate-change deniers are still tilting at windmills trying to stop sustainable energy. We need sustainable energy now to extend our supply of fossil fuels and lessen emissions. It’s that simple.
Mahlon G. “Lon” Anderson
Leland