Sunday, April 22, 2012
Obamacare, know the facts
Friday, October 21, 2011
Update - Domestic Fuel
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/blog/id.7985/blog_detail.asp
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Additiona info for Domestic Fuel Article
Here's an astonishing read. Important and verifiable information :
About 6 months ago, the writer was watching a news program on oil and one of the Forbes Bros. was the guest. The host said to Forbes, "I am going to ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; how much oil does the U.S. have in the ground?" Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, "more than all the Middle East put together." Please read below.
The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota, western South Dakota, and extreme eastern Montana ..... check THIS out:
The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska 's Prudhoe Bay , and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5...3 trillion.
"When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.." says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.
"This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years," reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It's a formation known as the Williston Basin , but is more commonly referred to as the 'Bakken.' It stretches from Northern Montana , through North Dakota and into Canada . For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves..... and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!
That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years straight. And if THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from 2006!
U.. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this mother load of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?
They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth.. Here are the official estimates:
- 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
- 18-times as much oil as Iraq
- 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
- 22-times as much oil as Iran
- 500-times as much oil as Yemen
- and it's all right here in the Western United States .
HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy.....WHY?
James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.
Don't think 'OPEC' will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It's all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to. Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?
Got your attention yet? Now, while you're thinking about it, do this:
Pass this along. If you don't take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you complain about gas prices - by doing NOTHING, you forfeit your right to complain.
Now I just wonder what would happen in this country if every one of you sent this to every one in your address book.
By the way...this is all true. Check it out at the link below!
GOOGLE it, or click this link. It will blow your mind.
www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.
Friday, March 4, 2011
American Energy First
Domestic fuel
The reason for the writing of this paper is to outline the problems we have in this country with our leadership when it comes to the pursuit and usage of our own natural resources. Our country has an abundance of natural resources which would allow us to lower our reliance on imported oil from countries that are at the very least unfriendly to us and at the most outright enemies who use our own money to finance terrorism and war against us. It is time for the American people to stand up and demand that we start using what God gave us when he entrusted this country to us. We are the great American experiment and we need to start acting like the country in which so many people have died to come to or to protect and defend.
1, The Problem- The problem begins with the extreme version of environmentalism. I do not disagree that we must be good stewards of the country that God has given us, but I do disagree with the notion that we must forfeit all that God has provided us to ensure we do no harm to the planet. Our technology has come such a long way that we can now do so much more when it comes to resource exploration and use than we could have just 20 years ago. The extreme environmentalist have gained such power that we cannot even provide for ourselves anymore. That goes exactly against what this country was founded upon. We need to eliminate their power through legislation and the electing of public officials who would pursue our natural resources without worrying about this fringe group. They are but a small minority but with extremely deep pockets and we need to show our elected officials that it is they who work for us, not they who work for the environmental lobbyist. This group along with some elected officials has all but eliminated our exploration and use of domestic resources. I will touch on elected officials next.
We have elected people into office who either do not have America as their primary purpose in being there or people who have forsaken their oaths of office in return for money or power. Either way, the country and the people are the losers. There are politicians who have sided with the extreme elements of the environmental movement for one of the reasons stated above and have implemented legislation to prohibit the pursuit of our natural resources or to so inhibit the process so as to discourage companies from trying to find and bring to market our own resources. We need to find who these people are and get them voted out of office. We need people in office who are going to put our country first and stop all this nonsense about being citizens of the world. We need to start reversing the legislation that has been passed and start implementing legislation that allows for finding our own natural resources and bring them to market. After just a little research, you will see the enemies of this country and our way of life within our own country, how they got there is now of no concern. Only getting them out of office and replacing them with people committed to the success of this country can be our only concern. The other groups of people are those who are only interested in seeing America fall in line with the rest of the world and believe the only way they can do that is to hurt the country financially. In this they are correct, by implementing legislation that the ties the hands of America’s energy producers they are forcibly enacting their version of “Share the Wealth”, but in this case not with the poorer of our own citizens but with the entire world. You see, if we are unable to pursue our own natural resources, we are forced to purchase our oil from other countries, most of which do not like us very much. If on the other hand we were producing our own energy, we could tell those other countries that we no longer need their oil and would not have to send them our hard earned money. No, we are being forced to assist these other countries economies by being forced to purchase oil from them. These are the same countries that wish to see us dead and eliminated from the face of the earth, as Iran has repeatedly stated. How much more in control of our own country would we be if we were not subject to the whims of other oil producing countries whose very words can increase the cost of almost everything in our country thereby causing hardship on every citizen. No, truly self reliance is the only solution.
What We Have
Our country has at its disposal an abundance of natural resources that we can start to acquire immediately. Let’s list those resources here.
1, Oil 5, Nuclear Power
2, Shale Oil 6, Wind / Solar Power
3, Natural Gas 7, Hydro-electricity
4, Coal 8, Hydrogen
What I have listed above are four Natural Resources and Four Alternative Energy sources that we can use to get ourselves off of foreign oil. If we were to start using these systems today, we can dramatically decrease the amount of foreign oil we import in as little as ten years. I know this seems like a long time but in the overall scope of time, it is but a drop in the bucket. There is an old saying that is just as true today as in years past; it is “every journey begins with a single step”. We need to start taking the steps necessary to wean ourselves off of foreign oil and once again make ourselves self-reliant when it comes to energy.
Lets examine each item listed above in greater detail and explain how the use of all these different fuel types together can reduce our overall carbon emissions while at the same time increase our own self reliance when it comes to energy. There are many sources out there that you can find to help you confirm the information I am telling you, the one source I am using for this article is a book titled, Drill here, Drill now by Newt Gingrich. Again, not the only source, but one that has much of the information compiled into one source. I recommend you read this book, regardless of your political leanings. Our county’s survival goes beyond political leanings; please keep that in mind when going on in this article. My political views are not important when it comes to the safety and economic success of my country. Let’s get started.
1,Oil- Oil has been and still is the most important part of our economy. In fact, it is the basis for all the worlds’ economies. When most people think of oil, they think of gasoline. Of course they are correct, but there is so much more to oil than that. When we use oil, we are heating our homes, we are making clothing, we are making plastics, we are making tires, and we are making roads and so very much more. Oil is used in our everyday lives whether we drive that day or not. There is not an aspect of our lives that are not touched in one way or another from oil. To say we need to get off of oil is to say we need to commit National Suicide. It is just not feasible. What people really mean is that we need to cut down on the amount of oil we consume for heating and transportation. We have the technology to reduce the oil and coal we use for heating and transportation but have up until now been blocked at every turn. We have oil in Alaska, in ANWR. We have most of Alaska which has been unexplored when it comes to possible oil fields. We have only tapped into 15% of our oil capabilities in the Outer Coastal Shelf. We also have many other areas in the country that have not been checked for oil deposits because of the problems that are incurred with the Extremist of the environmentalist movement. Let me give you some rough numbers as to the amount of oil we have at our disposal in our own lands and water. 31 Billion barrels of oil located on 279 million acres of federal land, unavailable for extraction at this time. The outer costal shelf contains unknown amounts of additional oil in the 85% that is presently unexplored due to government regulations, it is estimated that there is approximately 85 Billion barrels of oil located there. In Anwr, there is 10.4 Billion barrels of oil but we are restricted to extracting just a fraction of what’s available due to government regulations. North of the Artic Circle, there are as many as 90 Billion barrels of oil, this is in addition to the 40 Billion that we already have discovered that are located within U.S. territory. The numbers I have just mentioned are estimates of located but unexplored available reserves located within our own country, now lets look at known reserves already in production of withdrawal and look at their numbers. The Gulf of Mexico was originally estimated to hold 6 Billion barrels of oil but since that time, we have produced 13 Billion barrels of oil. Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope was estimated to have 9 Billion barrels of oil but we have produced 15 Billion barrels of oil from that location. The Bakken Formation located in the Dakotas and Montana was thought to have 151 Million barrels of oil but we have increased that estimate to 3 Billion barrels. What does this mean? It means that all the estimates that were previously mentioned are more than likely very, very conservative, if history proves to repeat itself, we could have double or more of available oil in the known areas and who knows how much more located in the rest of Alaska and other unexplored areas of the country.
2, Shale Oil- What is Shale Oil? It is a type of rock that releases Kerogen, a Paraffin or Wax like substance when heated. To extract oil from the rock, we need to perform a process called retorting. In the past, this type of oil extraction was not cost effective for the oil companies because of the low cost of imported oil. With the recent raise in oil prices as well as the instability of the oil producing countries that we get our oil from, this type of oil is now finding new life. Shell oil has developed a process called in-situ or (on site) oil extraction which basically means that they put heating rods into the ground after constructing a pool or holding tank underneath the area being heated. Once the rods heat the rocks, the oil is released from the rock and is collected in the pool below for withdrawal. With this new technology, this oil would be profitable to the oil companies even if oil was at just 25 dollars a barrel. Now the question of how much is available. Current estimates put the known reserves located in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah anywhere from 800 Billion to 1 Trillion barrels of oil. Take this information and combine it with the information above about known reserve estimates versus actual production and it is easy to see that this reserve could easily be almost 2 Trillion Barrels. Even if the low number of 800 Billion is correct, it is still 3 times larger that the known Saudi Oil Reserves. But again, thanks to the Environmental lobby and the extreme Left Wing politicians, we are not allowed to pursue this oil.
3, Natural Gas- We have 420 Trillion cubic feet of Natural Gas lying undeveloped of our shores. We have 231 Trillion cubic feet of Gas located on Federal Lands we cannot touch. We have an estimated 420 Trillion cubic feel of Natural Gas lying undeveloped offshore in addition to the 60.2 Trillion we already know about. How about the 1.1 Quadrillion cubic feet of Natural Gas located North of the Artic Circle. Let’s touch a bit on known reserves of Natural Gas and what has actually been located compared to what was originally projected. The Gulf of Mexico was originally thought to have about 60 Trillion cubic feet, but have produced to date 152 Trillion cubic feet. In addition, there are is an unknown amount of Natural Gas which is available in the U.S. which has not even been discovered yet. These numbers are staggering but nothing compared to something called Methane Hydrates. In a simplistic description, what Methane Hydrates is, is a frozen form of Natural Gas found on the Ocean floor as well as in Permafrost around the Artic. The U.S. Geological Society estimates that there is approximately 300 Million Trillion cubic feet located in the worlds ice. To put this into perspective, the USGS believes we have about 13 thousand Trillion feet of Natural Gas in non-hydrate form left on Earth, which is equivalent to 2.2 Trillion barrels of Oil. The equivalent amount of oil that would be produced from the Methane Hydrate Natural Gas would be 137.5 Trillion barrels. When you consider that the planet as a whole has used about a Trillion barrels of oil in the last 150 years, you can see how much possible energy is available. The U.S. has approximately 320,000 Trillion cubic feet off of our coast. That is enough to power the entire U.S. for the next 142 years.
4, Nuclear Power- I believe that Nuclear Power is one of our most planet friendly yet most underutilized forms of energy production we have. It gives us unlimited power with zero emissions and yet we are one of the only countries in the civilized world who does not pursue it in earnest. Here are some statistics. We have built only 104 Nuclear reactors ever. We have not built a Nuclear Reactor since the 1970’s. In the 40 plus years we have been using Nuclear power, we have not had one accident in which radioactive elements were discharged into the air, indeed; we have not had a nuclear accident in which any containment was breached. Nuclear power is the cheapest form of energy we can produce, which cost under 2 cents per kilowatt hour. The safety of workers who work in or around nuclear power is the highest of any energy field with an accident rate of 0.2 accidents per 200,000 workers. As I have stated, this is the cheapest, most planet friendly and the most safe of all our active energy sources but the anti nuclear groups would have you believe otherwise and always refer to Three Mile Island as their example. The problem with their argument is that it proves my point. Three Mile Island did have a problem, but the security measures performed as designed and there was no containment breach. In fact, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nuclear power plants have the highest safety standards. In addition to all this, the National Cancer Institute has followed the workers of Three Mile Island since the accident and has found that the workers did not suffer a single death or any other radioactive exposure sickness since the accident. In all, the safety safeguards worked as designed. With that being said, our technology has improved how many times over since the 70’s. How much more safe is the production of Nuclear Energy compared to the 70’s? I cannot even compare the two, it is so extreme. Now we have what is called Generation iv Nuclear power plants coming into production, the first to come online sometime in the 2030 barring any further lawsuits being filed by these Extreme Environmentalist. We also have what is known as Fast Reactors, which essentially use 100% of the available energy whereas the Reactors we have now use approximately 1 percent and the rest is called Nuclear Waste. These new Fast Reactors all but eliminate the mass quantity of Nuclear Waste that is now produced with present technology. These are just some of the advancements we have made, can you imagine what the future holds.
5, Clean Coal- We are known as the Saudi Arabia of Coal. We have about 27 percent of the worlds Coal reserves and that does not even include what is possibly or more likely probably located in Alaska, conservatively could be more that all the 48 lower states combined. We have 1.5 times the amount of Russia, and twice the amount of China. We have enough Coal to provide us with energy for about the next 200 plus years yet we continue to refuse to mine for it. With the introduction of Clean Coal technology, we now have the ability to use our coal reserves in a much more planet friendly way to ensure minimum carbon release into the atmosphere. The process of Clean Coal is basically just a way in which we can capture and store the carbon that is released from the coal when it is burned. With Carbon capture and Storage, we now can trap and pump the carbon back underground where they will be safely trapped for anywhere from several hundred years to millions of years depending on the report you are reading. What this means to us as a society is we can continue to use Clean Coal technology with no fear of increasing our pollution output while at the same time continue to investigate and innovate even better ways of capturing and trapping or destroying the Carbon from Coal. Our technology is always increasing and improving, it only makes sense that we will continue to find better ways.
6.1 Wind Power- A study from Stanford University determined that North America has the greatest wind utilization potential of anywhere on the planet because of the strong breezes that constantly blow on our coastlines as well as the Great Lakes region. It is estimated that we could produce double what the United States presently uses in Electricity if we were serious about using Wind energy. Why have we not been more aggressive with the pursuit of Wind energy? Because there are people and lobbiest I.E. Big Oil Lobby who do not want us to pursue alternative forms of energy in earnest. Sure, they give good lip service to the idea but when it comes to actually pursuing it, they are more than happy to let the environmentalist file objections because of the amount of birds that are killed because of the wind turbines. Then you have the wealthy, who are the ones with the homes on the lakes and ocean coasts who object to the wind turbines being place on the coast because of the eyesore they become and the interruption of the view they want. Then there is the problem of transmission of the electricity they produce, at present we have no transmission capabilities for this type of energy. It is estimated that the cost to put in place the infrastructure for this type of energy transmission is approximately 1.2 Trillion dollars. I believe the American people would fork up the tax money needed for this infrastructure if the government insured through legislation that the money would not be touched or transferred to other projects. The point is, the capability is there, just not the willingness.
6.2, Solar Power- Solar Power is another form of alternative energy that we have the capability right now to utilize. There have been over a million acres of land set aside for the emplacement of Solar panels for the purpose of solar energy collection. Of these, only a small fraction has been utilized due to the ongoing lawsuits the environmentalist movement files in order to block their placement and utilization. They claim these panels would interfere with certain species of animals that call that region of the land home. We need to be good stewards of the Earth and part of that is utilizing alternative energy capabilities whenever possible. I doubt seriously that the emplacement of these solar collectors would harm any species of animals that live there, sure it may require them to move a little, but as the human race we need to worry less about how we are inconveniencing animals and be more concerned with the survival of the planet as a whole. By utilizing alternative energy, we are helping the planet by lower the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere while utilizing the free power of the sun.
7, Hydrogen- The technology behind Hydrogen is the fuel cells. These cells use hydrogen to produce electricity and the only emission from this process is water. Hydrogen fuel cells are 2 to 3 times more efficient than the engines we presently use, and hydrogen is the most abundant element on the planet. At this time, enough hydrogen is produced annually to fuel a quarter of the Worlds cars. Seventy percent of Americans live in areas where a Hydrogen fueling station could be built within two miles from their homes. In addition to cutting our carbon emissions, the use of Hydrogen has an alternative use; they could be used to power homes in the event of a power outage by a simple process of connecting the car to the homes input at an alternate circuit box. In addition, with our present gasoline distribution system already in place, it would take little for owners to incorporate a hydrogen refilling point alongside the gasoline ones they already have. What is needed is for the government to get serious about alternative fuels and then to offer incentives for private industry to innovate and implement these alternative fuels into our already existing distribution system.
8, Hydro-Electricity- We presently use Hydro-Electricity in many areas, Hydro-electricity is electricity which is produce when water moves turbines located inside a dam, the power the turbines generates is transmitted trough electrical lines to distribution and collection facilities who in turn distribute this electricity to the consumer. It is a relative inexpensive approach to energy production because we are using the natural force of nature to produce this energy. As in all other forms of energy, the environmental movement objects to this type of energy because it requires us to build dams in order to house the turbines as well as form a restrictive process in which to produce the force necessary for the water to turn the turbines. They argue that it harms the local fish population. Again, I believe that we can have a minimal impact on the environment while using this technology.
I have touched on the eight energy sources I listed earlier, now I want to discuss one other, The Electric Car. I have mixed feelings about this technology because it takes so long for a consumer to see a return on their investment of this technology. At present, it is estimated that the average car needs to be owned between 7 and 11 years for the consumer just to recoup the additional cost of purchasing one of these vehicles. Then there is the matter of the storage size of the battery and the cost of replacement when the battery no longer is capable of storing the electricity. At present a car can only travel about 100 miles on a charge and the cost of replacing one of these batteries runs into several thousand dollars. If our technology increase the amount of storage the batteries can contain and increase the distance the consumer can drive between charges as well as lowering the cost of the replacement batteries as well as lowering the cost of the overall vehicle so the time of return of investment is much less, then I can see where this technology becomes viable. What I mean about recouping your cost is this, the present electric vehicle cost anywhere from 4 to 7 thousand dollars more that the same vehicle which runs strictly on gasoline. This cost difference takes the consumer roughly 7 to eleven years to recoup in the savings of fuel purchase. Most people in the United States only hold a vehicle for about four years, this means that the person who purchased the electric vehicle never recoups his original cost and therefore the whole concept becomes unviable. There is a solution to this, as the technology becomes better, the cost comes down, and the infrastructure gets put in place, the use of this technology becomes more agreeable. The other consideration is that the electricity has to come from somewhere in order to charge these cars. It either has to come from power plants that run on coal, oil, water, or nuclear energy, all of which we have discussed earlier and all of which are presently under attack from the far left extremist of the environmental movement as well as politicians.
A quick history lesson
There are many in our government who either do not want us to or does not believe we can pursue our own energy independence. I call them the “can’t do” people. They are always the ones who come up with reasons why we can’t do something instead of why we should do it. I want to give you just a quick history lesson to show how wrong these “can’t do” people really are.
World War 2. The time between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the victory over Japan was 3 years and 8 months, to put that into perspective, that is 4 months shorter than a presidential term, less that 2/3rds of a term of a senator and under two terms in the House of Representatives. In just forty-four months we went from a peacetime society to the victors of World War Two, defeating not only Japan but also Italy and more importantly Nazi Germany. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, we had many in government who still wanted us to stay out of the war and others who were of the “can’t do” club that said we couldn’t do anything about it. The American people showed them how wrong they were. In the following forty-four months the American people accomplished the following.
They built 102 Aircraft carriers
They built 3,895 B-29s (these are Bombers)
They built and entire industrial infrastructure from scratch
With the sinking of our tankers at sea at an alarming rate, they ran a pipeline from Texas to New York
Shipyards that had not produced anything but rust produced thousands of transports and fighting ships. At one shipyard, Liberty ships were being produced at a rate of one a day.
Over a quarter million military aircraft were manufactured, from trainers to recon aircraft to the B-29 Superfortresses. Of the quarter million aircraft produced, 30,000 of them were heavy bombers and more than a hundred thousand of them were fighters. In addition to the aircraft, we trained hundreds of thousands of young men to fly them.
Cities were designed and built in deserts and other scarce areas that could hold tens of thousands of people who would provide support for the troops on the frontlines, Floating cities of thousands of specialized ships and ammunition ships kept the battle task forces of hundreds of warships afloat, it was the largest logistical feat ever attempted.
Cities were built from scratch in Tennessee, New Mexico, and Washington State to house hundreds of thousands of people working on the most secret project ever undertaken, “The Manhattan Project”. In under four years Americans cracked the secret of the Atom and produced the First Atom Bomb which was then used to end the war with Japan, arguably saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers both American and Allied Forces combined.
More than 15 Million Americans went into the military and were equipped with rations, medical support and weapons and ammo, they were put on ships and airplanes and transported halfway around the world to fight, return home and create one of the most prosperous times in American History which continue up until this day.
The Pentagon did not even exist when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, but in Sixteen months it went from non existence to a four day demand for an air conditioned building that could hold 40,000 workers. The plan was approved on the fifth day and construction began on September 11th 1941, a short two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was completed sixteen months later, putting under on roof the total of 24,000 workers from seventeen separate buildings thereby eliminating redundancy, waste, time, and making war planning more efficient. All in sixteen months. Wow.
I go through this small but all important history lesson to remind people of one unmistakable fact. We are not the “can’t do” people that the left wants you to believe we are, but indeed are the “can do” people who won a world war and then came home to propel this country to its greatest achievements up to that time in world history and beyond. We need to remind both ourselves and our leadership that we are the children and grandchildren of that “can do” generation and we too, can propel this country to greatness once again. All it takes is for us to remember who we are, where we came from, what we are capable of and most importantly, a CAN DO attitude.
We as Americans can do anything, I honestly believe that. All that needs to happen is that the people pull together like they did in World War 2. They succeeded in all the accomplished listed above because they had a core belief that they could not, would not fail, and the entire country came together to ensure that success was the only outcome. Never before in World History has a country accomplished as much as we did in as little time as we did. It was not an accident, not a fluke, but a success born of determination and ingenuity. We are those people who do not accept failure as a possible outcome. I believe we are winners, we are people who like and want to win, to succeed and the only thing that ever stops us is our government. Lets not allow them to turn our country into a country of slaves who bow to our masters who provide our economic survival, oil. Let us begin to break the chains of slavery that some in our government are all to willing to keep us locked in for the purpose of continued import of foreign oil.
The Solution
Now that you know what kind of Natural Resources are available and How much Natural Resources are really available to us. Now that you know Who is behind the problems we have with tapping our own resources and why they continue to fight against any and all attempts to provide for our own energy, now I offer what I believe is a possible solution to this problem. Remember, this is just my personal ideas based on my own investigations into the problem. You may agree or disagree with my solution, good! Do you own investigation and come up with your own solution and bring it forward or you can incorporate some of my ideas with some of your own, whatever works to get us out of our dependence on foreign oil.
You must remember that this attack on our energy has been a decades long, perhaps even a half century or more attack and it will not be solved in months or even years, it takes time to undo all the damage that has been done, but as a wise man once stated “ A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step”. We must start my taking the first step, then you will see how quickly the other steps will follow. Lets get started.
1, Lawsuit reform- We must reform the present practice as it pertains to lawsuits. The success the environmentalist have had is largely due to the lack of responsibility in our judicial system. What I purpose is that we have lawsuit reform whereas if you file a lawsuit you know is frivolous in nature, and you lose, you must pay all fees associated with that lawsuit. This means your legal fees, the defendants legal fees, the courts fees, the expert witness’s fees, etc. Presently, the environmental movement has carte-blanc when it comes to filing frivolous lawsuits because it has the money to pay its own legal fees. They file these lawsuits knowing that they will ultimately lose but will tie up the company in the courts for years thereby delaying and in most cases succeeding in getting the company to abandon its pursuits because of the length of time and cost associated with its pursuit. But, if on the other hand they have to pay all the fees listed above as well as the money the company has lost in time and construction as well as legal fees, well I think you would see a dramatic decrease in the amount of lawsuits filed.
2, Legislative Reform- We need to start reversing the anti-energy legislation that has been put into place over the past decades. We need to incorporate an energy friendly attitude into our energy policies. We need to change our policy to allow for offshore Oil and Natural Gas exploration and drilling to include the Outer Continental Shelf Region. We need to change the law to allow for increased oil production out of ANWR in Alaska. We need to change the law to allow for the extraction of the Oil Shale located in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado.
3, Our government needs to offer tax incentives to private industry for exploring for oil and natural gas as well as all the other energy producing products. In addition, the government needs to offer citizen incentives like the one in Alaska whereas every citizen of that state gets royalties from the oil company every year they pull oil out of ANWR and Prudhoe Bay. This should apply to all oil taken from a particular state whether it is land based or ocean based oil, if it is in the land or water of that state, the citizens should receive a royalty. By doing this, you gain the acceptance of people who may otherwise be opposed to specific locations of drilling platforms for whatever reasons.
4, Streamline the Regulatory requirements to make the process faster and more efficient for licensing companies to explore and extract energy sources. Place all licensing agencies under one roof so there is no more duplication in the process as well as lowering the time necessary for the evaluation of applications. Hire more people as necessary for the processing and evaluating of energy exploration applications.
5, Allow for states to share in the revenue that is produced in offshore drilling. Presently states that have land based drilling get a 48 percent federal royalties but states with offshore drilling get zero royalties for the oil that is extracted. Imagine the rush of states to accept offshore drilling if they knew they were going to be receiving these royalties. Imagine how much that would help balance the states budgets.
6, We need to start building, and start building now. We need to cancel all existing frivolous lawsuits associated with the building of Oil Refineries and Nuclear Refineries. This is most important because we have not had a Oil Refinery built since 1976 and we have not built a Nuclear Reactor in at least that long but yet we continue to demand more and more energy. These plants as well as Clean Coal plants that are presently planned need to be fast tracked though so construction can begin on them immediately. Can you imagine the kick to the economy, the increase in jobs, the expansion of our capabilities can give our economy the jumpstart it needs.
7, Allow companies to use the tax credits given for increasing the size of their present facilities as well as building new ones in a single year. This would allow the companies to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into these endeavors while knowing they will not be strangling their financial reserves while at the same time allowing them to proceed at a much faster pace that they would otherwise be capable of. Also allow for joint ventures between public and private industry to move these projects along at a quicker pace than would otherwise be possible.
8, Have private industry and the Federal government join in a partnership to offer large cash prizes for energy inventions that would assist us in achieving our energy independence. Personal innovation is one of our most abundant resources and if people know their ideas will not be stolen, but they will profit from their labors, they will produce things we cannot even imagine. Give them the chance. Release the entrepreneurial spirit and watch the magic.
9, Lower the corporate tax rate to bring companies back to this great country. We presently have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, and with China just announcing it is going to lower their corporate tax rate, we will soon be the highest. Why would any company, energy or otherwise, want to come and do business here when we are so anti-business in our tax laws.
10, Make a decision on what type of alternative fuel we are going to use and finalize it. Our companies are not pursuing alternative fuel as aggressively as they could because they do not know what the government is going to do next week. Uncertainty will cause stagnation worse than anything else I know of. We are presently pursuing bio-fuels, ethanol, Hydrogen,etc. We need to pick one and pursue it aggressively.
11, Elect public officials who are pro American and who want energy independence for our country. Some of the people who are presently in office do not have America’s best interest at heart. At the very least they are in it to gain wealth and power through politics and at the worst they are anti-American who want the U.S. lowered in status to a point where we are more like other countries. America has brought the entire world into the present success we all presently enjoy and why should we feel apologetic about our success. WE need people in office who believe in America, not the world. I hate when I hear that we are all citizens of the world and that America is no more special that any other country. I do not believe that, I believe that this country was given to us by God and we have an obligation to make it an example for the rest of the world. We as Americans have given more to the world that all the other countries combined, yet we have people in office who expect us to do more. I say America first, we get our own country back in order, then we can continue to assist the rest of the world.
12, Most importantly, We need to do all the things listed above at the same time. What do I mean? We need to start exploring and extracting all of our energy capabilities we have presently. Oil and coal to start, these are the most available and immediately accessible for use. While we are doing that, we can start streamlining the legislative requirements for the building of refineries and nuclear reactors. Our government can pick an alternative energy it wants to replace our carbon fuel with and show industry it is serious so industry can start aggressively pursuing that technology. We can also start building the infrastructure for wind and solar collection and transmitting. What I am leading up to is a multi source energy economy where we have all the available options being utilized for our energy needs. As I stated earlier, we will never be rid of oil all together, but we can greatly lower our usage of it for energy and transportation. None of this can happen overnight, but it can happen and must happen or we will eventually fail due to nothing other than our refusal to use our own resources. Technology will continue to cause great strides in innovation and discovery and we must be willing to change as the technology becomes available. At some point in the future, who knows, free energy (cold fusion) might be possible. But for now,
we must use what we have and we must start now.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, I hope it has been insightful and educational. If you like what you have read, please pass this site to your friends and family. If you have a better idea, voice them, you may have the answer.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
How to fix Social Security
How to fix Social Security
I have been listening to many people and reading many articles and papers on the subject of Social Security. I have come to the conclusion that this subject is just too volatile and too politically incorrect to speak honestly if you are a member of Congress, Senate or the White House. With that being said, I am going to try and address this very sensitive subject without bias, prejudice or personal connection. My purpose here to try and come up with a alternative to the Social Security problem without causing unnecessary harm to the present recipients nor to the future generations that are now coming of taxpaying age.
Before we can go on to fix the problem that is Social Security, we must know how Social Security came to be, what happened to its original intent, where the system started to go wrong and finally, what can we do to fix it. These are all parts of the same problem but as you will see, the problem is far from unsolvable. Rather, I believe not only is it feasible to fix the problem that is Social Security, but it is in the best interest of both the Country and the citizens of this country to do so as in a timely manner as possible.
The suggestions I make here are for the public’s consideration. I do not claim that this is the only way in which this problem can be addressed and solved but rather, hope that this starts the serious discussion and debate about a subject that has for far too long remained untouchable due to the immense emotional attachment that is associated with it.
If we do not tackle this problem now, it could very well cause the downfall of our great society. I do not make this claim lightly, but do so knowing how other societies have fallen, and what the causes of those failures were. We are on the precipice of the vary collapse of an experiment that was started over two hundred and thirty years ago. Our generation must prevent this from happening. Let’s get started.
CHAPTER 1
Where did Social Security Start?
Back during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration in the year 1935, President Roosevelt decided there needed to be a way to provide for the eventual problem of having a segment of the population living longer than the arbitrary tables indicated they should. The solution was to provide what was then called Social Security Insurance or SSI for short. Basically, what this program was, was an insurance policy set up to provide basic living allowence for the occasional person who outlived the arbitrary tables. The idea was, that the age of retirement was set so high that there would be few people who would actually live to collect on that policy but for those who did, there was a program in place to assist them with their needs should they have failed to prepare for it themselves. This program was never intended to become what it has become, a retirement plan for the masses.
Social Security was an idea that grew from the compassion our people have for their fellow man. It was designed to provide our seniors who were not fortunate enough to have accumulated enough assets to provide them with a minimum standard of living in their final years yet outlived their productive and income earning years. But, as with all other Government programs, once implemented, it only grew. It has come to be in the dire straits that it is presently in because of greed, because of power and because of lack of leadership over the years. Let’s discuss each of these at length.
Chapter 2
Greed. Greed has long been the driving force behind many of our governments’ mistakes. We elect public officials who we think are trustworthy, who are virtuous, who we think can serve our interest and then leave to go back to being a citizen again. What we end up getting are people who are prone to corruption or who are already at their core, corrupt. Our political establishment has been poisoned from the inside out. There are few who are there to do the public’s bidding, but rather, they are there to serve themselves and to gain as much as they can before the people wake up and throw them out. The few who are there for the good of the country are either corrupted through greed, sex, power, or any vice that can be exploited to force them to go along with the status quo or else they are run out by sheer viciousness of misuse of power by those who they would threaten. It is next to impossible to go into the national political arena and make changes that are necessary without giving some concessions that you would otherwise not consider. Once a concession is given, they have you. Period.
Chapter 3
Power. Power has long been the driving force behind men and women getting into political office. If you think I am exaggerating, why else would someone spend upwards of a billion dollars to be elected into a job that pays $500,000 a year unless they planned to get that money back by power and favors.
In Washington, power is more of a drug than any chemical drug you can purchase. The people in office would rather die than to give up their positions. If you believe this to be false, why else would they resort to such hateful tactics at election time? I propose that we have not had a group of sincerely honest people in charge since the beginning. Power is a drug unlike any other, not only is it addicting, but it corrupts not only the person, but the soul.
The politicians who are in office had the taste of power and refuse to give it up lightly. The things they say, or do, at election time gives credence to this statement. We the people have the power to get rid of these corrupted individuals but we have forgotten the power lies with us, not them.
Chapter 4
Lack of Leadership. The lack of leadership goes hand in hand with the other two. With the leaders we have elected throughout history, most all of them have shown just the opposite, lack of leadership. They come to us every few years and tell us what we want to hear and then they go back to Washington and do exactly the opposite. They continue this trend until the people get tired of the lies or finally wake up from their slumber and realize what has been happening. I cannot say honestly that it is their entire fault, we have been negligent in our monitoring of our elected officials. If we the people had remained vigilant in the monitoring of them, the problem would be nowhere as large as it is today. But, as the Japanese general said during the beginning of world war two, they have awakened a sleeping giant. The people are awake, they are aware, and they know that what has been taking place during their slumber has done great harm to both our economy and our country as a whole.
The People are ready to make the necessary changes to ensure the continued prosperity of our people and our country. The problem lies in our leadership. Our leaders feel that it is a suicidal act to announce what must be done to prevent the coming collapse of Social Security, instead, they continue to pass it along to the next administration or the next generation to handle. The problem is, there is no further generations to hand it off to. If we don’t fix the problem now, it will collapse the entire system and the people who were promised their social security will not see it nor will anyone else. We need strong leaders who are willing to say and do the hard things necessary for the good of the country regardless of the political ramification to them. I have always said, the best elected officials are the ones who do not really want to be there but are so because they want to help fix a problem they have experience in. If a person running for office makes a statement to that effect, they will have the support of the people.
Chapter 5
As I have stated previously, the intent of Social Security was to provide for the occasional citizen who outlived their productive years. The beginning of the collapse of this system started with the increase of the population after world war two, the baby boomers to be exact. During the time immediately after the end of the war, there was an incredible explosion of births in the United States. This generation was called the Baby Boomers and they were the largest generation the country had ever seen, larger than any country had seen in recorded history.
With so many people going into the workforce, the government decided that every working person would contribute to this system through the use of the Social Security Tax. This tax was meant to ensure there would be enough money in the Social Security Insurance fund to accommodate the eventual increase of longevity survivors due to the baby boomer generation. What the politicians did not anticipate was the amount of money this new generation would accumulate and grow for the country as a whole. The Social Security fund was overflowing with money.
This is where the problem began. The politicians in Washington started to see how much money was accumulating in the Social Security fund and started dreaming of ways they could get their hands on it to fund others services they thought were important. They decided to use the old I. O. U.
The government started writing iou’s to the Social Security fund as they started withdrawing money from it to pay of other services. Their reasoning was that there was so much money just sitting there that they could put it to use now and return it to the fund at a later date, stating that the baby boomer generation would not be needing it for approximately fifty years.
What we the people know is once the government spends money, it never returns it. The fund has been being systematically reduced by the utilization of these I.O.U’s to the point now where the fund is in the final years of collapse.
If the government would have left the Social Security fund alone and allowed it to accumulate even a minimum of interest, there would be enough money in the fund for all the baby boomers coming of retirement age as well as the coming generation. But they did not. Instead, they have robbed the citizens of this country in two ways. One, by taking the taxes out of their paychecks to pay for the Social Security fund and two, by taking the money out of the fund for purposes in which it was never intended.
The Fund is depleted to the point where some say it will be empty by 2020 or 2030. As of this writing, the year is 2011 and the first of the Baby Boomers will start reaching the age of 65 for the next nineteen years. That puts the last of the boomers at the age of 65 in the year 2029, right at the time when they say Social Security will be bankrupt. So as you can see, unless something is done now, we will have an entire generation of people who believed they had money for their retirement when in fact, they contributed to the biggest ponzy scheme in the history of the world.
Unless we take the steps necessary now, we will have an entire generation of people who will need to be taken care of either by family, by church, by friend, or by other social services that would soon be themselves overloaded. There is no easy fix, there will be suffering, but we can limit the amount of suffering to a minimum by taking action now.
Chapter 6
This is the Million Dollar question. What can we do to fix the problem? What can we do to prevent the collapse of our entire system. Here I can offer a solution. I do not say it is the best solution, nor do I say it is the only solution. I give only one man’s opinion on what can be done to stem the tide that is the eventual bankruptcy of this and countless other social services if the Social Security fund collapses. It will seem simplistic to many. It will seem to easy to be true, but I think it can be done and it can be done immediately with just a couple changes in legislation. Let’s see if you agree, if not, make your own plan and write about it, get it out to the masses and get people thinking about it. This is the way changes happen, one person at a time.
The solution. 1st- We need to change current law to allow all funds presently in any type of retirement plan to be tax exempt. The reason for this is simple, compound interest. We allow the people’s money to work for them for as long as possible. In addition to this, we need to increase the amount of money people can put into their retirement plans to unlimited. The reason for this is simple, the more people can put in their retirements, the less they help they will need from the state or federal government at the age of retirement.
2nd- We need to raise the age of retirement from where it is presently, age 62 to 70. The present retirement age is way too young base on the current longevity tables. I think that age of retirement should be raised to 75. This would give the Social Security fund time to grow. People are living longer and therefore can be productive for a longer period of time. The present practice and making it mandatory to retire is ignorant at the least and should be criminal. Just because people get older does not mean they are any less productive. Yes, they may have to be placed in less physical positions where they are more able to perform according to their age and physical limitation that occur when we get older.
3rd- We need to provide government funded investment education for all ages of people who are presently in the workforce. We did a good thing as a country by changing how retirement is paid for by taking it out of the employer’s hands and making individuals more responsible for it. This allows the companies to use that money to grow, that creates new jobs which offers additional stimulus to the economy. What the government did wrong was fail to educate the people on how to invest for their future. It was common practice in the past for people to be more hands off when it came to their retirement plans because the company they were working for were responsible for the investment and growth of the retirement fund. But now, we have individuals responsible for their own retirement but no education on how to go about it. They are being set up to fail.
4th- Anyone in the workforce who are age 25 or under would be required to still pay into the Social Security fund while at the same time contribute to their own retirement funds. This is where people are not going to be happy. The reason for this is twofold. 1, we still need to provide for the baby boomers who are going to be alive for possibly another 40 years and 2, the present and future generations need to provide for their own retirements. I would suggest that any money contributed to their own retirements not only be allowed to grow tax free but would also be allowed to be exempt from federal and state income taxes. This would be a two generation tax break with a expiration clause built into the bill. This would not be subject to continuation upon a vote of congress but would indeed expire as it is supposed to. We have seen all to clearly what happens when you leave something like this open to continuation with the Bush tax cuts. I think they should have been made permanent at the time of proposal or should have had an expiration date set up like the one suggested above, this would have eliminated any problems like we are seeing in present day.
5th- Another point that will have multiple groups against this plan. I say again that this problem cannot be fixed without some pain; the plan is to make it as painless as possible. We need to start drawing down the amount we put into Medicare, Medicaid and the Prescription drug plan. This will allow us to start balancing the budget of the United States while at the same time start saving a fund for National Emergencies. We need to start making changes to the qualification standards for the above mentioned programs to make it harder for people to receive these benefits from the federal government. If States want to have these types of programs they should have the citizens of that state vote for them and finance them through their state taxes. I see no advantage of someone paying taxes in one state to help out people who made bad decisions in another state. By making these programs state funded, we eliminate the growth of the federal government through taxation. Remember, the closer to the people, the better.
Lastly, We need to start making sure through our vote that the Federal Government does what it was established to do, that means National Security, National infrastructure, and providing for the common good. All the other things the Federal Government is presently doing is beyond its scope of empowerment through the Constitution. This encroachment of power is what is partly to blame for the Social Security fund being on the brink of bankruptcy it presently sees itself. Only through the downsizing of government, the enhancement of States rights, and the encouragement of private citizens once again becoming responsible for themselves can we move this country back to the light on the hill it once was.
We were, at one time, the country that all others looked at for motivation of change, for potential of human spirit and for ingenuity of individuals. We were the shining light on the hill that every one wanted to be part of. We had people risking death, imprisonment, separation of family, starvation and many other harsh realities in order to come here. We can once again be that country, but not without sacrifice. Are you willing? Are you willing to forfeit your dreams of early retirement so that your children will have the same chance at Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness? Are you willing to do the uncomfortable, the hard work, the changes that will be necessary to give the next generations their shot? Only if we as a people say yes to these questions can we truly make the changes necessary for the continued prosperity of our people and our country. The decision is yours, and ours. What will we decide?
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Gun Control
Immediately after the shooting on Saturday that killed four police officers, the liberal bloggers were immediately spreading the rumors on their blogs that the shooter was a conservative and that he was disenfranchised by listening to conservative talk ( can you say Fairness Doctrine?) shows and news like Fox. They went on to mention Glenn Beck as being responsible for this guys actions.
Later, after the blogs were discovered, there were some who went to the video on YouTube to see if in fact it was true about Glenn Beck being instrumental in stroking this guys anger. The answer is unequivocally NO. The shooter was actually upset with Glenn Beck because he was telling people NOT to think of using violence to express their unhappiness with the current Administration or current Economic affairs. He was a nutcase who decided he wanted to shoot people and it was no persons fault that he decided to act on those thoughts.
Beware though, they will start using instances such as these to implement their long awaited policies of Gun Control and Fairness Doctrine. The people of this country need to make themselves aware of what is coming, or they will find themselves slaves to Socialistic Government. If you doubt this, just look back five or ten years. Do you recognize this country as the same one from that time frame? No, it has changed immensely just in that period of time and it is changing even more and more quickly now.
People will try and say it is the ability to have guns that is causing these types of shootings. I have owned guns for many years and can honestly say I have never seen my gun pick itself up and shoot someone. The opposition will say that just having access allows these things to happen. I would argue that by allowing law abiding citizens to arm themselves keeps these types of things from happening much more frequently. I would further argue that if you make guns illegal, only the criminals will have guns (and those of us who the law would make criminals by insuring our safety by acquiring "illegal guns"). In addition, I would argue that this is an insane argument to begin with. IF a person kills with a baseball bat, do we outlaw baseball bats? If a person kills someone with a hammer, do we outlaw hammers? If a person kills someone with their car, do we outlaw cars? Can you see how insane this argument is?
Here's a novel idea, how about we make people RESPONSIBLE for their own actions? How about that? How about we make guns easier for law abiding people to carry so that the nutcases will think twice before doing something stupid because they know there will probably be someone nearby with a gun who will be able to stand against them. How about we do away with "Gun Free" zones so that criminals will no longer have a legal hunting zone. By having gun free zones, you are in fact insuring that if there is a nutcase out there who wishes to do harm, that he will have the ability to do so unimpaired in these zones. How about arming our teachers so that when a nutcase wants to go on a school shooting, there will be someone there who can prevent or minimize the loss of life. These are just a few "How Abouts" to ponder.
The Bowing of America
On April 8th, 2009, Obama was visiting Saudi Arabia and while meeting the King, he made a deep bow towards the king. No American president in history has ever subjugated the American people or the country to another country. This was the ultimate insult to both our country and the American people.
It has been reported by the White House initially that Obama was picking a piece of lint off of his pant leg. Later, when it was shown that the American people were not accepting that explanation they came out with another explanation stating that he was shaking hands with the king with both hands and because he is so much taller than the king, it appeared to the observer that he was bowing. I suggest you go to the numerous videos located on YouTube and make up your own mind.
I personally see him bowing deeply. I also think that people better start rising up and contacting their Representatives concerning all these seemingly independent snafus the President is committing with International Dignitaries, but are most certainly connected. Just three that come to mind. 1, The gift of Videos and toy models to Prime Minister Brown, 2, Giving an IPOD to the Queen of England and now 3, Bowing to a foreign leader. Individually, you might make the case that these are just stupid blunders. But, put them all together and it shows a pattern of lowering the prestige of the Country and the Presidency to foreign leaders.
Make up your own minds, the information is out there. Earl
