Friday, July 28, 2006

Mikey On Energy Has No “Juice”

I received an interesting, taxpayer- funded letter from our illustrious 8th-district U.S. House Rep yesterday (fresh from his Delete Online Predators Act "victory").

I would like to invite you to attend a forum I am hosting on Friday August 4, 2006, at Delaware Valley College highlighting the latest developments in renewable energy. The purpose of my Renewable Energy Forum is to explore progressive approaches to reducing our nation’s dependence on high-priced and environmentally harmful foreign oil through investments in alternative energy sources. The Forum will also provide a unique opportunity for the public and policy leaders to see the latest in cutting-edge alternative energy technology.

Energy production and independence is vital to our economy, national security, and quality of life. As the price of gasoline continues to rise, supporting alternative energy technology has become one of my top priorities in Congress. I firmly believe that Congress must aggressively work to advance renewable and alternative energy technology such as hydrogen, wind, solar, geo-thermal, hydropower, ethanol, hybrid, and biomass.
I wonder if “biomass” is code for “nuclear,” as in “revving up Three Mile Island again”? If it is, Fitzpatrick should just say so.

Update: My bad...should have followed up with this.

The Renewable Energy Forum will bring together local business and environmental leaders to provide background and insight into current and future alternative energy solutions. In addition, there will be hydrogen fuel cell, ethanol and hybrid automobiles for attendees to drive as well as exhibits explaining the latest technical advancements in renewable energy.

During my 10 years as a Bucks County Commissioner, I worked hard to develop a progressive record of environmental protection. Protecting our natural resources is not only an obligation to future generations, but it now must be part of the solution to secure our country’s energy future. IT is my hope this Forum will help highlight the need for further investment in our nation’s independence from foreign oil, ensuring the safety of our nation, and preserving our environment for the future. The solutions that come from this forum will further fuel the debate in Washington, D.C.

The Renewable Energy Forum will be held at Delaware Valley College, 700 East Butler Avenue, Doylestown, PA 18901 at 10:00 am on August 4th. I hope you can attend this important event. Please RSVP by August 1st to Meghan Pastorino of my Doylestown office at (215) 348-7511 or contact her via Email.

I look forward to seeing you on August 4th.
Is it too cynical of me to state that Fitzpatrick only cares about this because it’s an election year?

After all, you can view from this link...

- He (Fitzpatrick) voted AGAINST creating a strategic refinery reserve (HR 3893, Vote #517,10/7/05)
- He voted AGAINST the construction of new refineries for additional capacity (HR 3893, Vote #519, 10/7/05)
- He voted AGAINST cracking down on gasoline price gougers (HR 3402, Vote #500, 9/28/05)
Yes, we need to look at alternative energy sources, but we needed YOUR VOTES TO HELP US LAST YEAR, CONGRESSMAN!

And isn’t it slick of Mikey to morph his letter about looking at alternative energy sources into copping a plea on his environmental record, which, for a Repug, actually isn’t bad? However, as you can note here, Bushco's record on the environment is so terrible that Fitzpatrick could have decided to pick and choose from a laundry list of offenses for criticism, and, except for drilling in the ANWR, his silence has been deafening.

Patrick Murphy isn’t a “Johnny come lately” on this stuff, Congressman. At least he has much more than a clue regarding the burden we are facing from price-gouging at the expense of the corporate “betters” of the Republican Party, unlike you. And that’s a big part of this issue also.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Get off it! You need to do your homework about nuclear energy, you are operating on an emotional level, not an informed one. Zero greenhouse gasses, zero acid rain, less reliance on foreign oil, and SAFE to boot. Close your mouth and open you ears and learn, unless of course you diregard the facts; I've already made up your mind!

doomsy said...

Find anywhere in this post where I say that I think nuclear energy should be excluded from a discussion about alternative sources of energy, OK? All I meant to say was that there was a possibility that Three Mile Island could be part of the picture also.

Anonymous said...

Johnnys come lately are fine with me, in the renewable energy scene. So are high energy prices. If we count Gulf Wars, the real price of a gallon of gasoline is about $15.

Nick

doomsy said...

Interesting calculation - would you care to offer more on that?

Anonymous said...

For one calculation regarding "the true cost of oil" which does not include the cost of health effects, global warming, and so on, see:

http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/testimony/2006/
CopulosTestimony060330.pdf

He upped his $10.86/gallon estimate to $15 at the ASES conference in July.

Mike Fitzpatrick is an atypical Republican, since he likes energy conservation, but none of his forum experts mentioned electric vs hydrogen, hybrid, or corn-powered cars. GM's EV1 was a great electric car, but oil companies feel a great need to pump some sort of fuel at all their gas stations :-)

doomsy said...

This is a lot of good information...thanks for passing it along.