I received a piece of literature from “Hon. Newt Gingrich”, apparently the unfortunate result of donating $10 to Ron Paul once in 2007. It begins:
“My fellow Taxpayer,
If you're outraged that Congress would rather raise your taxes to solve our energy crisis than let us drill for oil right here on American soil, then please take just 60 seconds to read my letter.”
Already, it's problematic. This suggests that raising taxes will solve our energy crisis, but instead of solving our energy crisis, Newt Gingrich would rather drill for oil. There aren't any specifics about how raising taxes solves the energy crisis, but if it did, wouldn't that be better than pointlessly drilling for more oil? Believe what you will about climate change, but peak oil is a fact. It's finite and we're well on our way to Thunderdome. Accelerating it's depletion does nothing close to “solving our energy crisis”.
“As the former U.S. Speaker of the House, I think we should use America's natural resources to fuel our cars and heat our homes.
Unfortunately, liberals in Congress don't agree.”
I agree completely. We have some of the best solar corridors in the world, not to mention wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric sources. If we had a mind to, we could run the entire country, including battery electric cars, on renewable resources.
“They would rather raise your taxes – and force us to buy oil from foreign dictators in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
It's a slap in the face to every taxpaying American patriot.
That's why I just released a brand-new documentary movie-”
And there's the rub. Newt Gingrich doesn't give a crap about taxpayers, or patriots, or liberals in congress. Newt Gingrich has a film to hawk, and whats this at the bottom of the first page?
“Citizens United
David N. Bossie, President
1006 Pennsylvannia Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20003
800-362-4788 (toll-free) * www.citizensunited.org “
Not just any movie, but a movie bankrolled by Citizens United no less! The letter continues on for several more pages about what a tragedy it is that ANWR and the Outer Continental shelf (seriously guys?) are off limits, generic digs at environmentalists and liberal Hollywood, a suggestion that “left-wing environmentalists are wrong and patriotic taxpayers are right”, which is particularly vexing in that even “left-wing environmentalists” pay taxes and are by definition taxpayers. But here comes the kicker.
“Will you please make your very best contribution to Citizens United today to support this vital movie?
We simply can't do it without you.”
No of course not! Not without me! Thanks to Citizens United you have unprecedented access to corporate money for political activities, and your own 527 “American Solutions for Winning The Future” raised over $17,000,000 in just 5 months of 2010, but you need me! Someone making $22,000 a year! Without patriotic tax payers like me, how could you ever possibly get this factual, accurate, and thoughtful rumination on a serious problem out the door to all the patriotic taxpayers that need to know how drilling more oil will reduce gas prices?
Because the reason prices are high is solely production rates, nothing to do with speculation, right?
Right?
This is a huge pet peeve of mine. The way the energy debate gets framed is extremely frustrating. It doesn't come close to addressing what the actual issue is. We don't have an energy crisis because we're just not drilling enough, there's an energy crisis because our main source of energy is finite and we're using it up as fast as we can. We have an energy crisis because wells are going dry. We have an energy crisis because all the wrong people make the right kind of money from our continued reliance on an outdated method of powering society.
Often, the debate ends up between someone yelling "Drill baby, drill", and someone else arguing climate change and environmental issues, which are absolutely important, but you end up having two separate conversations. The oil is going to run out period, and we can either drill baby, drill while we sit on our hands and feed into all the greed heads making money off the continued status quo while we march blissfully into oblivion, or we can start to really solve our energy problem by investing in renewable resources and battery electric cars.