A righteous rant from Rand Paul, speaking to Kathleen Hogan, DOE deputy assistant secretary of energy efficiency:
“Light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets, you name it. You can't go around your house without being told what to buy,” Paul said. “You restrict my purchases. You don't care about my choices. You don't care about the consumer.
“Frankly, my toilets don't work in my house, and I blame you and people like you who want to tell me what I can install in my house,” Paul said. He added, “I find it insulting.
[. . .]
Back to abortion, he said, “I think there should be self-examination from the administration on the idea that you favor a woman's right to an abortion but you don't favor a woman, or a man's, right to choose what kind of light bulb, what kind of dishwasher.”
Amen, brother, amen.
Comments
Nope. There is a logic to forcing people to conserve scarce resources: When a resource runs low, its price goes up.
In other word, even if you can afford the gasoline bill to run your SUV, you (and others like you) deplete gasoline faster, thereby increasing its price for people like me, who drive economy cars because we can't afford expensive gas. You also, BTW, befoul the air I have to breathe.
Littlejohn, When low flow toilets require two or three flushes, it's pretty hard to make the case we're saving any resources. Same with light bulbs that don't actually last any longer but do have a frickload of mercury to dispose of, wait until we get the bill for that in 10 years or so. Residential mercury remediation will be a booming business.
As for the gasoline, how much my suv uses as opposed to your scooter is pretty immaterial in the big picture. If not for ridiculous government regulations gas would be cheaper than sh*t all the time, drill baby drill!!!
Tim, I absolutely agree with your examples. My CFL bulbs often burn out too quickly, and yes, the newer toilet in my home sometimes needs an additional flush.
What I'm talking about is the general philosophy. Overconsumption isn't simply the right of those who can afford it, which I think is Leo's Libertarian position.
My point is that overconsumption can affect others.
The US has only a tiny percentage of available petroleum, so drill baby drill simply won't work. There is a finite amount of oil in the world, even if we disagree about the exact amount. I will eventually run out.
Yes, your particular SUV contributes little to the problem, but SUVs as a general rule, contribute much, to use the Kantian ethic. If, say, China were to start buying enormous amounts of oil on the world market and simply setting in on fire for the hell of it, I think we'd all object, and rightly so.
Well Littlejohn, I would submit there is a provable abundance of oil in this country and the claim by the "environutz" that it's running out is absolute bullsh*t. There is drillable oil all over this country, and even more natural gas. The only reason we don't have access to it is because of asinine heavy handed regulation in place passed by democrats and their misguided "green" disciples.
I can recall since I was a kid being told every year of something that was going to end the world or kill most of us from DDT to Fluorocarbons, to leaded gas, to cyclamates, to butter, then margarine, then back to butter, to smoking, to sunspots, to diesel engines, etc etc etc...the list is endless.
The point is, damn near everything this government and their environmental lobbies have told us and created legislation to control has turned out to be bullsh*t.
We are literally standing right on top of the solution to our energy problems and we always have been. DRILL HERE DRILL NOW!!
Tim, I said we could disagree on when we'll run out of oil. Are you saying that the oil supply is infinite?
You also seem to have some sort of special inside information about the abundance of oil. Please share it with us, along with the supporting evidence.
Are the geologists just lying to us, or are you better educated about the subject? Do you hold a degree in a relevant area, such as geology or mine engineering?
Or are you just repeating stuff that noted intellectual Sarah Palin likes to say?
No Littlejohn, I did NOT not say it's infinite, now did I? I said there is a "provable abundance", how did you interpret that so badly? I thought having a degree made you smarter?
There are literally scads of untapped reserves all over North America, which is easily verifiable, no "inside" information or geology degree necessary, just try "google".
I don't think the geologists are lying to us, the activists and their paid for politicians (did ya hear Teh One today?) are.
Whoa. Calm down. If it's not infinite, then we're eventually going to run out.
Google doesn't help - I can use Google to show the Earth is flat. Any crackpot can set up a website. Um, sorry, nothing personal.
Yeah, I know, nothing more unreliable than them there high-falootin' websites like Forbes, Newsweek, Kiplinger, etc...they's mighty unreliable.
I don't blame you son, them tech thingies is intimidatin'. You stick to that book learnin' like yer woman teaches to them youngins'!
Small-place-to-take-a-pee: We all hope your comment at 2:11 today where you say," I will eventually run out" comes true in the very near future.
And for your information, it is stated that the oil sands of central Canada can take care of the world's oil needs for over 100 years - yes it will cost about what the present world price for oil ($100/barrel) - but it beats every other presently-known alternative.
LittleJohn:
?"We can't escape the fact that we control only 2% of the world's oil." This is a common refrain among anti-drilling Democrats and environmentalists, and it's repeated enough that many people accept it as true. In reality, it's 100% false. The number comes from a highly conservative estimate from the Energy Information Administration totaling America's proven reserves where we are already drilling. It does not include the 10 billion barrels available in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It does not include most of the 86 billion barrels available offshore in the Outer Continental Shelf, most of which President Obama has placed under an executive drilling ban. And it does not include the 800 billion barrels of oil we have locked in shale in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. Those shale resources alone are actually three times larger than the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia, so the claim that the U.S. only has 2% of the world's oil is clearly false.
http://www.americansolutions.com/drill/2011/03/top-3-myths-in-obamas-lecture-on-gas-prices.php
I'm sure you'll take issue with the website, but the info provided can be backed up from numerous other independent sources.
To ignore our own resources on purpose just so the progressives/democrats can enslave us all in an eternal poverty stricken and dependent voting block is abhorrent to thinking, free, and (real) hard working Americans.
Tim, I guess this is the problem with the Innertubz. You can find a site that supports whatever view you already had. Here, for example is what the Sierra Club thinks about oil shale:
http://www.sierraclub.org/dirtyfuels/oil-shale/
I realize you consider them a bunch of left-wing propagandists, but your site opened with Newt Gingrich asking me to sign a petition.
BTW, did you see Newt last week, explaining that he cheated on his first two wives because he loves his country too much and works too hard? I don't think my wife would buy that.
Oh well. He'll be easy to run against. Who do you think the Republicans will nominate? A sitting president is always vulnerable in a crummy economy.