It’s absolute insanity that we are ignoring one of our greatest natural resources. When it comes to coal, oil and gas, America is the Saudi Arabia of the western world. President Biden visited Saudi royalty and literally begged them to increase oil production when his green energy policies kick-started record setting inflation. What did we get in return by shaming ourselves to OPEC? We got decreasing oil production. Before Biden, we were energy independent. We were exporting more oil than we used. Inflation was nearly zero.

Technology has turned fossil fuels into a clean energy source. When the electric grids become overloaded from the increasing demand of all-electric vehicles, it will be nuclear, gas and coal plants meeting that demand, not solar and wind. If you do the math, you’ll discover that building a horde of massive wind and solar farms all over our beautiful landscapes won’t come close to meeting our future electrical needs.

Many argue that immediately shutting down fossil fuels will prevent future catastrophic climate events. To this day, no working scientific mechanism demonstrates the relationship between CO2 use and rise in global temperatures. In the 1970s, we were told that another Ice Age was coming. In the 1990s, we were told the greenhouse effect will scorch the earth. Today, we’re told severe climate events will cause death and destruction. Scientific credibility is dependent upon concrete facts, not computer-generated climate models where input data is easily eschewed to achieve a desired result. To assign Hurricane Ian as the conclusive truth of human-induced climate change, as Biden just did, is foolish and reeks of political spin.

Someday, we may cut our dependence on fossil fuels, but to turn it off like a light switch will be more threatening to human life than the knee-slap-conclusions of fossil fuel use.

George Pikoulas, Butler