Kowabunga

Chicago Tribune has this article (registration required) on Barak Osama and his take on America's Energy Policy. Give it a read. It is quite entertaining.

Sen. Barack Obama accused the Bush administration Monday of a "stubborn refusal" to attack the causes of climate change, and said tougher fuel standards, stricter curbs on oil imports and more investment in cleaner energy are essential to avert global catastrophe.

"Saying that America is addicted to oil without following a real plan for energy independence is like admitting alcoholism and then skipping out on the 12-step program," the Illinois Democrat said. He referred to one of the principal themes of President Bush's State of the Union address Jan. 31.

One again, the loons on the left are focused on one aspect of energy and climate. Their mantra is: "Oil is evil, and we're evil for using it."

The loons on the left castrated the development and deployment of nuclear energy in the United States under the Carter Administration. Instead of being able to build new, cleaner running and more efficient reactors, such as the "pebble-bed" design, which are far safer than any other reactor currently in use; or allowing the reprocessing of nuclear fuel rods after use in current reactors, causing a waste problem (okay, it's far more than a problem), and a "gee, now that we have all this radioactive waste, where can we bury it?" attitude.

Getting off the so-called addiction to foreign oil is not as easy as it sounds. We can certainly reduce our dependence on foreign oil by tapping oil resources within the United States, as well as explore and tap oil deposits in the outer continental shelf. Although this would not eliminate the reliance on imports, it would go a long ways toward reducing our need for imports.

Doing so hand-in-hand with the deployment of state-of-the-art nuclear reactors would further reduce America's need for foreign imports.

With the drive to develop cleaner sources of electricity, the power plant industry has switched from coal burning (and nuclear generators) to natural gas. The same stuff most Americans heat their homes with in the winter (I heat my home with a geothermal system). And what has that done? The increased demand on the limited supply has forced increased prices on natural gas.

Obama's solution: redistribute wealth form you and m to big corporations in order to foster the development of cars that are more fuel-efficient. In other words, he wants us to drive vehicles that are less safe than what we drive today, and tax us for it.

Obama also wants to tax us so that the government can take over paying automaker retirees health care, to the tune of nearly $7 billion per year. Taking more money from you and me to the benefit of huge multi-national corporations.

The article concludes with the loony-left line on global warming.

More broadly, he said, the "administration's record on climate change is almost legendary ... Just recently, this is the administration that tried to silence a NASA scientist for letting the rest of us know that, yes, climate change is a pretty big deal."

Sure, climate change is pretty big, it has been going on on the Earth since the beginning of time, and will continue to do so, despite anything mankind does on the Earth.

Climate change is a scientific fact, but the scientists don't understand all of the factors that cause changes in the Earth's climate. It is a dynamic and fluid phenomenon that cannot be controlled by man. (Influenced, sure, but not controlled.) The amount of green house gases dumped into the atmosphere by man is miniscule to what is dumped into the atmosphere through normal geologic processes. (Check out "Satanic Gasses" from the Cato Institute and the works of Edmund Contoski.)

How did this guy get elected? Oh, yeah, for all intents and purposes, he was unopposed!