Need for a reality check on climate change

Festival UnBound
Ten days of original theatre, dance, music, art and conversation designed to celebrate and imagine our future together!
October 4-13

(The latest in a series of posts relating to the environment, Bethlehem’s Climate Action Plan, and Bethlehem’s Environmental Advisory Council)

Bruce Haines is a Lehigh graduate who returned to Bethlehem after a 35-year career at USSteel. He put together a 12-member Partnership to rescue the Hotel Bethlehem from bankruptcy in 1998 and lives in the historic district.

Gadfly:

With regard to the Student strike for climate change. When is someone going to put some sanity into the climate change mantra? They are espousing to kill the goose that laid the golden egg!!

Our country’s leaders strategically unleashed the fossil fuel industry about 40 years ago to make us energy independent from the grip of the oil cartel in the Middle East as you will recall. Remember the long lines at the gas pumps & sky high energy prices? We finally just now have achieved energy independence thru the creative investments in technology to include lateral drilling & fracking. The industry succeeded in driving down prices by increasing supply—Economics 101!!

Now Bernie Sanders & Elizabeth Warren want to lock up the leaders of the industries that spearheaded this initiative. Prices of fossil fuels have been driven to unprecedented low levels to allow America to become world competitive & actually bring back lost manufacturing from offshore. Manufacturing relies on energy & brings higher paying jobs than the service industries fostered during the Bush/Obama administrations.

Low-cost Natural gas is replacing both coal & oil as the primary fuel for power plants as well as other energy consumption. This is resulting in dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions here in America at a same time of unprecedented economic growth.

Solar & Wind energy is clearly a minor player today & a long term supplemental energy source as it is unreliable & requires massive storage capacity to provide consistent power.

Killing air travel & cows is a wild pipe-dream that would destroy our economic leadership in the world & cost jobs for inner city minorities & for average Americans trying to rise above the middle class.

There needs to be a reality check with these preposterous proposals from our politicians in addition to the brainwashing of our youth in our schools. They clearly aren’t being taught enough history & economics. The leaders espousing elimination of fossil fuels clearly missed these classes along the way or simply want to control our freedom of choice.

Bruce

Gadfly would like to keep our attention on local issues, and Bruce will soon follow-up with comments on our in-process Climate Action Plan.

Festival UnBound