National Energy Plan

America must have an energy policy that plans for the future, but meets the needs of today. I believe we can develop our natural resources and protect our environment. – George W. Bush

What is America’s National Energy Plan? Does anyone know?
The White House, that is our leaders, supposedly has one.
Here are some excerpts from this ‘Wonderful’ Energy Plan.
The United States Is Reducing Dependence On Oil By Diversifying Energy Supply, Increasing Energy Efficiency .
The United States Is Increasing Renewable Fuels And Reducing Its Dependence On Oil Through Improved Energy Efficiency.
You see the Bush Government knows what it’s doing. Somehow I don’t think it’s making you feel any better especially with Oil at $135 dollars a barrel. I hate to rain on your parade but get ready to pay $5 to $12 Dollars a Gallon within the next six months.
Let me throw some numbers at you.
$7 Dollars, $11 Dollars, $.45 Cents.
What are those numbers?
Well the first one is the price per gallon in Great Britain, the second number the price per gallon in Germany and the last number, you’re going to love this is the price per gallon in Saudi Arabia.
Now, here’s a couple of more numbers.
20 Million, 17 Million, 1 Billion.
Okay, no, that’s not the price per gallon in the future.
The first number is the number of Chinese who come from the Chinese country side looking for work in the Coastal City. That’s 20 Million a week.
The next number is the numbers of cars sold in China in 2007 from only 1.3 Million in 2003.
Finally, 1 Billion is the population of India at this time and it’s getting ready to begin the same march of economical growth that China has seen in recent years.

Recently the Bush Administration came up with an ENERGY FOR A NEW CENTURY, it’s an interesting but boring read but here’s the gist of it.
According to the Report by the Government, ENERGY FOR A NEW CENTURY, its chapter on Increasing Domestic Energy Supplies states:
Economic factors will help determine the future development of our nation’s energy sources. These factors will be shaped not only by conservation, energy demand, and the cost of energy development, but also by the regulations that federal, state, and local governments put in place to balance energy needs with legitimate competing aims, including the protection of the environment. A number of factors will make it difficult to increase domestic energy production in response to the growing demand for energy: economic and technological factors associated with depletion of the fossil fuel resource base in the U.S.; regulatory uncertainty; limitations on access to federal lands with high potential for new discoveries; infrastructure constraints, such as electricity transmission and gas pipeline bottlenecks; and conflicts with legitimate land use, environmental, and other public policy goals.

Summary of Recommendations
Energy for a New Century: Increasing Domestic Energy Supplies
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretaries of Energy and the Interior to promote enhanced oil and gas recovery from existing wells through new technology.
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretary of Energy to improve oil and gas exploration technology through continued partnership with public and private entities.
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretary of the Interior to examine land status and lease stipulation impediments to federal oil and gas leasing, and review and modify those where opportunities exist (consistent with the law, good environmental practice, and balanced use of other resources).
• Expedite the ongoing Energy Policy and Conservation Act study of impediments to federal oil and gas exploration and development.
• Review public lands withdrawals and lease stipulations, with full public consultation, especially with the people in the region, to consider modifications where appropriate.

★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretary of the Interior to consider economic incentives for environmentally sound offshore oil and gas development where warranted by specific circumstances: explore opportunities for royalty reductions, consistent with ensuring a fair return to the public where warranted for enhanced oil and gas recovery; for reduction of risk associated with production in frontier areas or deep gas formations; and for development of small fields that would otherwise be uneconomic.
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretaries of Commerce and Interior to re-examine the current federal legal and policy regime (statutes, regulations, and Executive Orders) to determine if changes are needed regarding energy-related activities and the siting of energy facilities in the coastal zone and on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretary of the Interior continue OCS oil and gas leasing and approval of exploration and development plans on predictable schedules.
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretary of the Interior to consider additional environmentally responsible oil and gas development, based on sound science and the best available technology, through further lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Such consideration should include areas not currently leased within the Northeast corner of the Reserve.
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretary of the Interior work with Congress to authorize exploration and, if resources are discovered, development of the 1002 Area of ANWR. Congress should require the use of the best available technology and should require that activities will result in no significant adverse impact to the surrounding environment.
• Energy for A New Century: Increasing Domestic Energy Supplies 5-20
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretary of the Interior to work with Congress and the State of Alaska to put in place the most expeditious process for renewal of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System rights-of-way to ensure that Alaskan oil continues to flow uninterrupted to the West Coast of the United States.
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretary of Energy to propose comprehensive electricity legislation that promotes competition, protects consumers, enhances reliability, promotes renewable energy, improves efficiency repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act, and reforms the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act.
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President encourage FERC to use its existing statutory authority to promote competition and encourage investment in transmission facilities.
★ The NEPD Group recognizes the importance of looking to technology to help us meet the goals of increasing electricity generation while protecting our environment. To that end, the NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Department of Energy to continue to develop advanced clean coal technology by:
• Investing $2 billion over 10 years to fund research in clean coal technologies.
• Supporting a permanent extension of the existing research and development tax credit.
• Directing federal agencies to explore regulatory approaches that will encourage advancements in environmental technology.

★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct federal agencies to provide greater regulatory certainty relating to coal electricity generation through clear policies that are easily applied to business decisions.
★ The NEPD Group recommends that the President support the expansion of nuclear energy in the United States as a major component of our national energy policy. Following are specific components of the recommendation:
• Encourage the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to ensure that safety and environmental protection are high priorities as they prepare to evaluate and expedite applications for licensing new advanced-technology nuclear reactors.
• Encourage the NRC to facilitate efforts by utilities to expand nuclear energy generation in the United States by up rating existing nuclear plants safely.
• Encourage the NRC to relicense existing nuclear plants that meet or exceed safety standards.
• Direct the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to assess the potential of nuclear energy to improve air quality.
• Increase resources as necessary for nuclear safety enforcement in light of the potential increase in generation.
• Use the best science to provide a deep geologic repository for nuclear waste.
• Support legislation clarifying that qualified funds set aside by plant owners for eventual decommissioning will not be taxed as part of the transaction.
• Support legislation to extend the Price–Anderson Act.

NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY
★ The NEPD Group recommends that, in the context of developing advanced nuclear fuel cycles and next generation technologies for nuclear energy, the United States should reexamine its policies to allow for research, development and deployment of fuel conditioning methods (such as pyro-processing) that reduce waste streams and enhance proliferation resistance. In doing so, the United States will continue to discourage the accumulation of separated plutonium, worldwide.
★ The United States should also consider technologies (in collaboration with international partners with highly developed fuel cycles and a record of close cooperation) to develop reprocessing and fuel treatment technologies that are cleaner, more efficient, less waste-intensive, and more proliferation-resistant.
★ The NEPD Group recognizes there is a need to reduce the time and cost of the hydropower licensing process. The NEPD Group recommends that the President encourage the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and direct federal resource agencies to make the licensing process more clear and efficient, while preserving environmental goals. In addition, the NEPD Group recognizes the importance of optimizing the efficiency and reliability of existing hydropower facilities and will encourage the Administration to adopt efforts toward that end.
• Support administrative and legislative reform of the hydropower licensing process.
• Direct federal resource agencies to reach interagency agreement on conflicting mandatory license conditions before they submit their conditions to FERC for inclusion in a license.
• Encourage FERC to adopt appropriate deadlines for its own actions during the licensing process.

So, what does it all mean?
It means that the Bush Administration is either on some hallucination drugs or it believes that Disney and Tinkerbelle are the answer to the energy problem.
What do we need?
We need to raise the price of oil so that we force our citizens to cut off from oil. We tell Detroit, only Hybrids or Diesel cars and small cars please. We also look for another fuel for warming out houses in the winters. Oil can no longer be used to heat homes. And most important of all, get rid of this Corn wasted fuel. We need the corn to eat for ourselves or to feed the animals we eat, not to make some farmers happy to get rid of their corn products.
What got us into this problem to begin with?
Well, a lot of Chinese and Indian drivers demanding to fill up their cars, as well as greedy speculators, greedy Arabs who realize that without Oil they have only sand.
Our own citizens who have not looked to cut back on use for the past forty years, Detroit wanting to avoid changes in engines and gas mileage targets and last but not least Congress.
Yes, those impeccable leaders who are quick to blame the market when their constitutions complain about paying too much at the pump.
Congress is just as much to blame, changing all those gas mileage estimates for cars.
If they had let it alone we probably would have 80 miles or more per gallon.
Thanks Senator, thanks Congressmen. When I’m paying ten dollars a gallon I will be thinking of you.