NWIPs and Other Radicals Fail To Understand America's Challenges

Fred Upton (R) speaks after MLK Jr. Day Parade

A few days ago, the incompetent leader of our local tin foil hat dozen (Faith Jones) sent out an e-mail asking people to oppose the nomination of Congressman Fred Upton (R) for Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  Why?  Because he wants to force energy efficient light bulbs on Americans... and because Glenn Beck said so.

Jones and her idiot followers say this makes Fred Upton a big-government progressive.

In fact, at the face value of Upton's record, this is probably one of the strongest messages she's sent out in over a year.  Unfortunately, her understanding of the issues concerning the Energy and Commerce Committee is almost as shallow as she is.

This country is on the verge of an energy revolution that will greatly diminish our dependence on oil... you know, the life blood of Venezuela, Iran, and Islamic terrorism across the Middle East.  However, for this revolution to take place, we need as much electric power as possible.  Yes, I'm talking about electric cars, among other innovations.

The problem is that President Bush dropped the ball and, as a result, power supply is going to lag dramatically behind power demand for at least a decade.  President Obama, to his credit, is ignoring liberals telling him not to allow or provide government support for nuclear power plants - the 60-year-old answer to our energy problems Democrats thought they buried years ago.

So while we're catching up, the government has a responsibility to do everything it can to protect the general welfare of the people by protecting our supply of electricity from wasteful, inefficient practices in the free market.  As we all know, the new light bulbs actually SAVE consumers money in the long run.  If they totally replaced the incandescent light bulb nationally, it would have an enormous impact in lowering our national consumption of electricity.

The argument against this is the same as the argument against improving fuel economy in vehicles.  "If someone wants to drive a car that gets 40 gallons to the mile instead of 40 miles to the gallon," they will argue, "that's my right as an American."  But when your ridiculous consumption goes to increasing the global demand for oil and putting money in the hands of our enemies, you've got a problem because the government has the responsibility to protect us from those enemies you're helping to finance indirectly via your stupidity.

Power plants don't magically appear overnight.  And if we wait for demand to cause the "free market" to increase supply, we're going to be hosed really bad.  A lot of Upton's "big government" record comes from his attempts to improve our national power infrastructure by using taxpayer dollars to more quickly increase supply and encourage individuals and businesses to do their part to decrease demand in anticipation of the upcoming power grid crisis.

The worst case scenario if Upton were to have his way would be that we find a way to fuel ourselves with the every day crazy ideas of Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, and Northwest Indiana's tin-foil hat club.  As a result, we'll have an increased supply of electricity and dramatically decreased demand. 

Economics 101: What happens when supply goes up and demand goes down?


Answer: People can afford their electric bills.