A friend of ours once wrote a song based on the old saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
We feel that way about many so-called “progressive” environmental policies that often seem to cause more harm than good.
After all, what did the “Cash for Clunkers” program really accomplish, other than waste taxpayer dollars, remove from the market vehicles that a considerable amount of energy was expended to make, drive up the prices of used cars and deprive low-income people of access to affordable transportation?
What good does it do to spend billions funding “green energy” companies with no viable customer base that will be bankrupt in a few months when there are no buyers for their far-too-expensive products?
And why try to destroy the fossil fuel industry before we have the appropriate technology to replace it with something equally effective at powering the nation’s economy?
Then there are those new-fangled light bulbs—the ones that cost many times what we have spent on Thomas Edison’s old incandescent variety, but aren’t nearly as bright and contain hazardous mercury that can’t be disposed by conventional means.
We’re all for innovation and finding new and more energy-efficient ways to do things. And we agree that ongoing research and development into these areas is necessary and appropriate.
But there must be a more efficient and cost-effective way to go about it. Far too much money is going into the pockets of politicians and their business cronies (ie. financial donors) under the guise of protecting the environment, and far too little into legitimate pursuit of technologies and products that will better serve the needs of mankind at prices we can afford.
We want a cleaner, safer environment as much as anyone and concede that some past environmental policies have helped bring that about. But we could do much better if we kept the greedy bandits away from our public treasury and let market forces play a more substantial role in solving our energy problems.
A lot of viable solutions are probably being overlooked because the short-sighted power brokers in control of the money can’t figure out how to enrich themselves and still find cheaper and better sources of energy.
We need solid answers that benefit us all—not just those with enough green in their pockets to buy the American dream.
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