NY-26: Chris Lee’s Energy Policy
by Matt at Jul 30th, 2008
From a campaign presser sent out yesterday:
“Talk is cheap, but gas is not,” said Lee. “It’s time for Washington to get out of the blame game business, and start to get in the solutions business. We need American solutions to create American energy and American jobs to secure our economic future and lower gas prices. We can achieve energy independence through exploration, conservation, and the development of American-made alternative energy sources.”
Lee’s plan for energy highlights the need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by exploring for oil domestically which will secure our nation and ultimately drive down the price of gas for consumers in Western New York. Additionally, Lee also called for tax incentives for businesses and families that purchase more fuel efficient vehicles and improve their energy efficiency. Finally, Lee wants to expand research and development of American made alternative energies. Lee cited alternative energy production, research and development being done right here, in Western New York such as the hydrogen fuel cell research at Honeoye Falls and the ethanol plant in Orleans.
“The inability of Congress to deal with this energy crisis is hurting the hard working families of Western New York,” concluded Lee. “We can’t afford to let Congress sit back and do nothing to address our energy needs. It is time we get to work, it is time we bring to bear all the great things Western New Yorkers and all Americans can do to make our country energy independent.”
Now this is a reasonable energy policy, especially in comparison to the No Drilling and Blame Big Oil policy of Jon Powers. Chris Lee clearly understands that energy independence and alternative energy sources won’t just happen overnight. Too much of our economy relies on oil, and Jon Powers and the writers of his talking points don’t understand that. Tax incentives work better than the often unrealistic regulations supported by Powers and the Do-Nothing Democrats in Congress.
As Douglas Turner of the Buffalo News wrote the other day, “Nearly all of the Democrats representing Western New York [...] share in the blame” for the current energy crisis. Jon Powers would simply become part of the problem.
I’m glad there is a candidate with a realistic energy policy… and I’m sure the voters of NY-26 will be glad too.
Who cares who’s to blame. What are we going to do about it. From my viewpoint, there are 2 or 3 options. Sell your car, buy a bike and take mass transit. Drive less or buy an electric car or a car powered by hydrogen. And option 3 is buy a pair of comfortable Nike’s and get ready for some walking. Since all of these options are out of the question for me, I decided to try and do something about it. While looking around, I stumbled across GasBankUSA, located at http://www.gasbankusa.com. The site talks about fixed price gasoline and locking in at a fixed price. An interesting concept and a little better than my magic 8 ball which continually tells me “try again later” everytime I ask it where are gas prices going OR will gas prices continue to rise. Looking through this site, it looks like a way to take control over something we had no control over in the past.
If Buffalo had a real mass transit system I’d use it.
As for the fixed gasoline price, if you’re suggesting this be an idea the government should consider, here’s the problem with it.. If gas prices are at a fix price, when the market price is higher than the fixed price someone has to make up the difference… and that someone is the taxpayers. In addition, since a fixed price would negate any form of conservation resulting from lower supply, it will only increase the amount that will have to be subsidized by the taxpayers.