Drawing attention to the real issues

Jerry Pournelle raises some points:

The easy way to make ethanol is to import sugar from Brazil and use that. Of course we don't and won't do that.

The easy way to bring oil prices down is to drill offshore and on the North Slope. Of course we don't do that.

The easy way to bring electricity prices down (you can make fertilizer with electricity) is to build nuclear power plants, expensive but cheap compared to wars. Of course we won't do that.

More:

I'd rather send 5 billion to Kansas than 10 billion to the Saudis.  And I'd a heap rather send $50 billion to the Midwest than a trillion to the Middle East. Heck,  I'd rather send a trillion to the Midwest than to the Middle East.

At one time we were paying people not to grow crops.  It was called the soil bank. Perhaps it is time to grow fuels on it?

But that takes fertilizer.

Nuclear power can fix nitrogen for fertilizer.  I'd a heap rather invest a trillion in nuclear power plants than send that trillion to the Saudis.

I also note that there is plenty of oil in these United States, but we would rather sell the nation to the Saudis than drill in Alaska and off shore including out next to where the Cubans are drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.  Does any of that make sense?

Now the discussion can begin.

We can start by asking why no one– the candidates, the Congress, or the MSM– seems to want to make this part of the discussion.

Or maybe we should ask this (from a Pournelle reader):

Can any referee besides foaming revolutionary mobs blow a whistle at this point?

The discussion is here, with real numbers. Read it.


(Via: IP, whose complete entry is also worth your time.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 18:33:04 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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