Where will your power come from? Chattanooga Times We Americans are addicted to electric lights, gasoline-powered cars, warm homes in winter and cool ones in summer, and jobs that maintain our way of life by using a great deal of energy in various forms. Our power demands are increasing faster than our production of energy. And we have been reminded unpleasantly that we are dependent upon foreign sources for 57 percent of our oil. It is anticipated that by the year 2020, our dependence upon foreign oil will be 65 percent if we don't take remedial steps. We aren't building nuclear generating plants any more. The old coal-burning steam plants that generate electricity are not only obsolete, but are subjects of lawsuits over pollution. Natural gas is efficient and clean but limited. Rivers offering opportunities for dams and hydrogeneration of electricity are few -- and in the Northwest, champions of fish are demanding some existing dams be destroyed. You may see a few solar panels here and there. And windmills are exotic, but are unsightly if you see a huge forest of them. So where do you suppose we should get the great increases in energy we are going to need not many years from now? There will be no single solution. Our needs will require a combination of many answers. The current oil situation should emphasize the immediate need to establish a broad, far-ranging energy policy. There should be development of the known oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It can be done with minimal environmental problems. After all, the area from which we need to pump oil constitutes only 1.5 million acres of the 19 million-acre refuge. There are also offshore oil fields ripe for use, if unreasonable regulations were just relaxed. We need more refinery capacity. We need to develop more use of cleaner coal, but much of it has been put off-limits by President Bill Clinton's "executive order" dictation in the Far West. Alternative fuels will be needed. But it should be realized that such things as ethanol, for example, require use of much energy to produce the corn whose products are mixed with petroleum derivatives to create a fuel that costs more. In the end, a big part of the solution should be smaller, compact, one-design, economical nuclear plants that can produce safe, nonpolluting power at reasonable cost and in large quantity. Someone can find some objection to anything that may be proposed. No objection, however, can compare with the disaster of not facing our energy needs in multiple ways to assure us all the power we need for homes, businesses and industries -- and a rising standard of living for our growing population.
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