Failing policies need to be re-examined
When will the citizens and voters of our country put a stop to the costly and devastating environmental charade and green policies being perpetrated by our politicians and environmental activists? Look at what is happening to our country. These policies are taking us back to being a third-world nation. Are these policies improving your quality of life, or are they actually there to control and tell you how to live?
Because of failing environmental policies, we are seeing a significant decline in our ability to provide electricity on a stable, cost effective and efficient basis. I am all for utilizing solar (which I have) and wind power and protecting our environment, but we have to do it on a sensible and wellthought-out basis. Shuttering efficient nuclear and gas-fired power-generating facilities when we aren’t even close to having sufficient alternative power sources to meet current needs is ludicrous. There aren’t enough precious metals close to being available to make batteries to store, supply and meet our current power needs. As it is, we are unable to meet current power demands much less converting everyone to electric cars. Current energy policies aren’t working.
Folks, use your critical thinking skills here. Why is it OK to import power from other states at excessively higher rates when we have the ability to produce our own dependable and clean power? Who do you think is paying those higher rates? You are. Are existing energy policies, in addition to shutting down our own significant oil production and refining industries, actually reducing greenhouse gasses? I think not. Importing millions of barrels of oil via tankers from around the world is increasing emissions, not reducing them. So, are we saying it is OK for others to create more greenhouse gasses because of our political ideologues so long as we think we are improving our environment? At what point does the cost benefit come into play here. Answer this question: Why don’t we want to be energy self-sufficient rather than being dependent on others at a higher cost? In addition, this doesn’t even address the economics of sending millions of dollars out of our economy and canceling good jobs in our local economy.
One other detrimental environmental policy gone awry is the mismanagement of our water resources. Over the past 25 plus years, millions of acre-feet of water have been released into a rising ocean from water projects that were built to serve a growing state and to mitigate over drafting our aquifers as our population and agricultural industry expanded to provide us with needed food and fiber. Did this political and environmental maneuver result in saving any fish or did it ignore other factors contributing to a decline in the delta smelt? The answer is no.
Whether you like the political decisions implemented by our government back in the 1950s and 1960s, they made policy decisions needed to meet the growing needs of our state. The millions of dollars being spent on trying to restore the environment back to those earlier days, while well-intentioned, has been a failure for various reasons. Instead, we now have additional costly and massive bureaucracy and processes to try to manage an overdraft problem created by bad environmental and government policy.
My final question is this: Do you want to be food self-sufficient or do you want to depend on foreign food producers at a greater cost? If you want to be food independent, then you need to lobby and vote for politicians who support common sense, affordable and practical solutions meeting our environmental needs and resulting in dependable and reasonably priced food.
I think we can all agree we want to protect our environment — but at what cost? Using double standards will not work. Using common sense approaches to protect our environment, standard of living and quality of life makes the most sense. Which way do you want it?