At least GOP has come up with a plan

Published 9:00 pm Monday, December 8, 2003

Mr. John Lindstrom is correct in his guest commentary of Nov. 26, in which he says that the United States must abate its thirst for foreign oil. Regrettably, he compromised his credibility when he attacked the Republicans and President Bush by accusing them of starting the Iraq war for the sole purpose of taking Iraq’s oil.

The United States has never had a legislated, documented energy policy. For many years, Congress and the presidency was controlled by Democrats. The Democrats have just defeated the only energy bill ever to pass the House and they’ve never submitted an energy bill of any kind for debate and passage.

President Bush has set a timetable to turn over government to Iraq by next June. Let us consider why the United States went into Iraq in the first place. The president determined that there would be no more 9-11’s where thousands of U.S. citizens (and others) would die at the hands of terrorists. If 9-11 had not happened, the United States would never have liberated Iraq. There have been no more terrorist attacks on American soil since 9-11.

The most serious and lethal attacks were planned and almost all of them conducted during the Clinton administration, where appeasement and concession was the operative policy. If the Democrats do not like the energy policy, they have the obligation to come up with a plan of their own. They’ve never done this.

It is clear that there are many candidates for alternative energy sources, including wind, coal, nuclear, solar, gas, ethanol, biomass, fusion, etc. The Republican bill supported research and development into all of those and more. The problem is there is no one in charge and no plans or target dates. In the meantime, the United States continues to ride a driverless bus to energy Armageddon. Who should take the blame for this?

Edmonds