Juan Williams is the titular liberal on Fox News and he tries very hard to maintain the impression that the news panels are fair and balanced. To do that he routinely parrots the Democrat mantra du jour on all issues and ofn a recent Fox News Special Report he defended President Obama’s call for new energy policies and cited the need for the government to explore alternative means to reduce our dependency on foreign oil.
I’m a decade older than Williams so maybe he doesn’t recall the Carter administration as well as I do but the Department of Energy was established for that very same purpose and it has produced absolutely nothing towards that aim in over 32 years.
The energy crisis of 1973 was the impetus for President Carter to propose creation of the DOE and the enabling legislation was passed and signed into law on August 4, 1977. The DOE began operations on October 1, 1977.
On its website, this department lists all its awards and achievements but the fact is that hundreds of billions later with a budget of $24.2 billion a year, 16,000 federal employees and approximately 10,000 contract employees, we are no closer to being independent of foreign oil. That’s how a bureaucracy operates — it produces nothing except a mechanism to drain money from taxpayers. Now the banking, healthcare and auto industry are scheduled for the same ‘fix.” Heaven help us!
From the very beginning of the global warming hoax, I’ve been trying to inject some sense into the debate with my columns at the New York Sun, warning readers about environmental scare tactics. You can find others here and here.
During Obama’s State of the Union address, he won applause for supporting nuclear energy options and off shore drilling. He said:
But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies.
After the SOTU speech a fake email made the rounds which had Glenn Beck alleging that Obama signed an executive order for a $2 billion loan for off-shore drilling in Brazil which involved George Soros’ hedge fund. It’s very annoying when conservatives are riled up about fake stories using Beck and other prominent right wingers for credibility.
The truth about this story is that the U.S. Export-Import Bank, approved in 2009 a preliminary commitment to lend at least $2 billion to Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company, to fund the purchase of equipment and services from American companies.
Billionaire George Soros’ hedge fund, Soros Fund Management LLC, does own millions of shares in Petrobras and Soros was a major supporter of Obama’s presidential bid and contributed to his 2008 campaign.
Putting two and two together might be the behind the paranoia of these conspiratorial emailers. I suspect, however, that the fraudulent emails may also be the work of liberal saboteurs who use them to discredit the right wing as “wingnuts” and “lunatics.”
Anyone using the Internet can verify virulent emails and I frequently have to refer my correspondents to the fact checking sites that debunk their email. I am not a particular fan of Beck’s rambunctious tirades but I do know he assiduously does his homework and his allegations are always based on diligent research. He frequently uses videos and quotes of the subjects of his accusations and lets the facts speak for themselves.
Global warming may be a natural occurrence but it is highly suspect that we can do anything about it by the government taking over our lifestyles. Until they can show me the bodies of many more dead polar bears instead of the same live one stuck on an ice floe, I’ll remain skeptical.
When the president orders offshore drilling, new refineries and nuclear power plants, and recognizes that the United States has more untapped oil reserves than the entire Middle East, then I’ll take him seriously on the energy issue. If the DOE had adhered to its original mission in 1977 by now OPEC would be an anachronism.
Finally, rational thought should lead one to conclude that this planet not only does not need rescuing but that the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, and all the other natural disasters prove conversely that humans are the ones needing protection.
Juan Williams-take note.
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