The U.S. Chamber of Commerce goes off the dirty energy deep end

[marmar]

from the LA Times:



By Bill McKibben
January 18, 2012


At the turn of the last century, Time magazine published a list of what it considered to be the 100 worst ideas of the 20th century. It included Prohibition, leisure suits, the Titanic, cold fusion. You get the idea.

I know it's early, but assuming such a list is composed again at the end of this century, I have a nomination. It was an idea proposed in a speech last week.

Thomas Donohue was speaking. Not just speaking; the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was giving his annual "state of American business" address, in the 100th year of the chamber's operation, from the chamber's Hall of Flags in its office just across Lafayette Park from the White House. He began with the usual boilerplate, attacking "regulations, mandates and higher taxes." But then he turned to energy and what he called a "game-changer" for the nation and "the next big thing." Not solar power, not wind power. He was talking about coal, and gas, and oil.

In fact, he was very specific. "We have 1.4 trillion barrels of oil, enough to last at least 200 years. We have 2.7 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to last 120 years. We have 486 billion tons of coal, enough to last more than 450 years — and we need to use more of this strategic resource cleanly and wisely here at home while selling it around the world." ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mckibben-a-spectacularly-bad-idea-for-energy-20120118,0,6051362.story