Mit Romney, in his quest to become our next president, keeps referring to the “Day by day job killing regulations, bureaucrat by bureaucrat that (are) crushing our dream.” How many dreams were crushed by the dismantling of financial regulations over the past several administrations which caused financial ruin for millions who lost their jobs and even their homes not to mention their retirement funds and it isn’t over yet.

Jonah  Goldberg, the ‘brilliant’ columnist who proclaimed not too long ago that oil and gas were the “True” green fuels, is criticising President Obama for saying we need all available fuels, pursuing nuclear as well as fossil fuels and alternatives such as wind and solar. Goldberg maintains that Obama blocked the Keystone XL pipeline and his policies are responsible for high gas prices now. Jonah is playing fast and loose with the truth. First, it is pretty well known that financial firms, speculating on future oil prices, are responsible for the high cost of gas at the pump. I don’t think the president has been buying oil futures. (Anyone with evidence that he is doing this let me know.) The president stopped the pipeline to allow an evaluation of the proposed route which passed through sensitive areas in which a pipeline spill could seriously harm a vital aquifer. Just a week ago he lifted the block and allowed the start of the lower end of the pipeline. As for not embracing cap and trade, that program does not take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. It just lets big polluters buy credits from a clean industry so they can pursue business as usual. Germany has tried cap-and-trade and found that the system was easily scammed.

The OPEC countries cut off our oil supply 38 years ago when we supported Israel when they were attacked by Egypt and Syria. I don't remember what the price of oil at that time was. Instead of developing a rational energy policy which included alternative energy sources we thanked our good friends Saudi Arabia and continued to allow OPEC to jerk us around. In the recent oil crisis of 2008 a barrel of oil went past $120 per barrel. We drove less by a billion miles in that period and OPEC miraculously reduced the price of oil to around $50 per barrel. Then they said they needed $70 per barrel to be able to survive as producer's of oil so they reduced production and the price went back up. The recent meeting of OPEC just set the price at $100 and change. Saudi Arabia supposedly has the capacity to crank up production much more if they like, although no one really knows as they play it close to their chest. We get a major part of our oil from Canada, Russia, and Mexico but they don't have Saudi Arabia's flexibility. So here we are 38 years later, still dependent on OPEC for the price of oil. When are we going to wake up?

My support of nuclear as one of our choices, although luke warm, has been expressed in Running on Empty and in these blog pages. The recent melt down in Japan, now being called almost as serious as Chernobyl, has made us all spooked about nuclear. Yet even the Chernobyl accident affected relatively few people.

The UN Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation (Unscear) reported that at Chernobyl, 134 suffered acute radiation syndrome and 28 died soon afterwards. Nineteen others died later, but generally not from diseases associated with radiation. Another 87 suffered complications including four cases of cancer and two of leukemia. In the general population there have been 6,848 cases of thyroid cancer among young children, arising "almost entirely" from the Soviet Union's failure to prevent people from drinking milk contaminated with iodine 131. Otherwise they found no persuasive evidence of any other health effects in the general population that can be attributed to radiation exposure. People living in the countries affected today "Need not live in fear of serious health consequences from the Chernobyl accident."

A vigorous discussion about this subject between George Monbiot, a British environmentalist and writer with the Guardian, and Helen Caldicott, the world's most vocal anti nuclear critic appears in Monbiot's blog.

Admittedly new nuclear plants are very expensive, but our addiction to fossil fuels is so pervasive that we will need every possible resource to bridge the gap between them and renewable clean fuels to power our modern world. New technology has produced new safer types of nuclear plants than those 40 year old plants used in Japan. Meltdowns of the type at Chernobyl, and Japan are highly unlikely. Go to www.Monbiot.com to read more about it.

Vitter-Bishop Bill Puts "Foxes In Charge Of the Hen House"
[A Statement from The Wilderness Society]

(March 31, 2011) - The following statement is from The Wilderness Society Senior Policy Advisor David Alberswerth in response to the 3-D, Domestic Jobs, Domestic Energy, and Deficit Reduction Act of 2011 introduced by Sen. Vitter (LA) and Rep. Rob Bishop (UT).

The following is a direct quote from David Alberswerth.

"This legislation puts the foxes in charge of the hen house. Under this bill, the oil and gas industry would essentially run the Interior Department’s offshore oil and gas program and the BLM’s oil shale program. It also mandates the destruction of the fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, eviscerates the Endangered Species Act, allows polluters to continue dumping greenhouse gases and endangering the public without any EPA oversight under the Clean Air Act, and restricts the right of Americans to use the federal courts to enforce environmental laws.

Another needless part of the bill reinstates a number of old Utah leases, even though those leases were deemed invalid in federal court. The Utah oil and gas industry doesn’t need more leases -- it is sitting on millions of acres of idle leases it isn’t using. According to BLM data, 4,855,833 acres of BLM lands are under lease in Utah, while only 1,088,431 acres of these leases are in production. In addition, last year the BLM issued 402 drilling permits (APDs) in Utah, while the industry only drilled 172 new wells on them. The bill is based on the myth that Administration policies are inhibiting oil and gas development on federal lands, while tens of millions of acres of federal leases lands sit idle in Utah and elsewhere, and thousands of drilling permits issued by the BLM go unused by the industry. What we really need to do is develop policies that will wean our economy from its dependence on oil and other fossil fuels, and toward a clean, efficient energy future. The Vitter-Bishop bill would take us backwards toward the twentieth century, rather than forward into the 21st."

The Wilderness Society is the leading public-lands conservation organization working to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. Founded in 1935, and now with more than 500,000 members and supporters, TWS has led the effort to permanently protect 110 million acres of wilderness and to ensure sound management of our shared national lands. www.wilderness.org

Running on Empty was submitted to the 18th Annual Writer's Digest Self Publishing Book Awards. While it didn't win an award it did receive a good rating. The reviewer thought the cover needed improvements  but overall the book got high marks. The following is excerpted from the review. No name was given for the reviewer.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "poor" and 5 meaning "excellent," Running on Empty was rated 5 for structure and organization and 5 for grammar. The cover was rated 2.

Comment: This book is extremely timely, and I'm glad the author has decided to strike while the iron is hot. There's never been a bigger market for original and incisive material in the fields of energy and energy conservation. I urge the author to continue to retool and market Running on Empty to get the notice it deserves. Greene is obviously a master of the material, and I felt in capable hands all the way through. The writing is clear and punchy (though a bit technical at times for a general readership), and thanks to great organizational tools the text is easy to follow. This book has the best table of contents I've encountered among this year's entries, and that's carried through with excellent non-narrative elements including ample subheadings, accessible illustrations, and a fat glossary. Overall, a strong entry that would benefit from a little update of appearance. Best wishes!