Our Disingenuous President

Many Americans believe that whenever a politician opens his mouth, something pops out other than the truth. But on the issue of energy, this President has really stepped into an issue and now seems able to maintain his political credibility solely with more lies and obfuscation.

We live in an age in which America and the rest of the world has a huge need for electrical power – with no evidence of reduced demand on the horizon. Even though our automobiles, appliances, and tools have become more energy-efficient, we have more devices than ever like smartphones and tablets and our thirst for energy has not and will not subside in the foreseeable future.

President Obama repeatedly attacks his political opponents for not supporting taxpayer-funding of new forms of energy. First he accuses Republicans of being behind the loans given to Solyndra and other “clean-energy” companies – most of which have gone bust during his administration. But then out of the other side of his mouth, he accuses Republicans of being members of the Flat Earth Society for being “against energy innovation.”

This is the same man who enthusiastically extols the benefits of wind-generated power. But when I think of wind energy, I just can’t help imagining a 16th-century Dutch windmill. There’s a reason that this form of energy went out of use – it is grossly inefficient. I’ve had extensive conversations with the owners of wind farms, the quality of whose windmills has vastly improved over the past twenty years. They are far more productive than they’ve ever been, and yet they still don’t come close to the energy density of fossil fuels.

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