Posted by
Yubaduck on Saturday, April 26, 2008 3:13:05 PM
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=294015465776712
I must admit, I have quite a bias on environmental issues. My dad worked in a lumber mill, and after 22 years, he was thrown out of a good paying relatively secure job, and the biggest culprit was the ridiculous spike in timber costs due to environmental regulations placing large swathes of "old growth" forest land off limits to loggers to protect among other things the Northern Spotted Owl. (Ironically, since then this owl has been found to adapt quite nicely to younger forests and even barns, while the protected forests have been major victims of beetle infestations and forest fires) I love to see a clean river or lake, beautiful non smoggy skies, pristine mountains, and such, but I saw as a child and still see that the extremists of the environmental movement don't want good stewardship, they want to see reduced human population. The biggest and most horrific example of this is allowing Malaria to run rampant because of an unwillingness to kill mosquitos with DDT in Africa, but there are far too many to list here.
So here we have Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (VP candidate Mr. McCain?) writing an editorial where she explains the need to modify the Bush passed energy bill that called for increases in Ethanol production over the next 20 years because of growing food shortages and spikes in food prices. I personally think ethanol is pointless, (it takes more energy to make it than it actually provides), but I do think research in renewable fuels is a worthwhile endeavor (though I would not use government funds for it). As you can read in this article, she calls for fuel efficiency standards and for ethanol production to continue but not grow because of the food prices going up. She also calls for new research into Tidal power, (which my dads cousin is involved in researching at Stanford), more nuclear power, and offshore and ANWR drilling to provide not just energy but more energy independence, better security, and a stop to the spike in food and oil prices. She makes a lot of sense, far more than Newt and his "Green Conservatism" that he leaves vague and allows the Dems to exploit for whatever they want it to mean. Her bill seems to me to be balanced coherent, and a good mix of policies and proposals. I would add to it McCains call to suspend the federal gas tax for a year, to provide short term relief on gas prices. After reading this article and doing a little research on this woman, I think she would make a very good candidate for McCain to consider as Veep. I would ask you what you think of this article she wrote (linked above) and what you think of this Senator.
So read her article and see what you think.