Energy Independence

The latest issue of the Denver Business Journal had a good editorial on the energy business in Colorado, and by extension, the entire Rocky Mountain region of North America. It concerned the current battle locally over allowing drilling on the Roan Plateau north and west of Rifle, Colorado.

The editor, one Mr. Westergaard by name, made a serious point. Energy independence is important to the US. A lot of the energy we need and rely on is controlled by political entities that are unstable at best. Because of that fact, we are forced to be "friendly" to some rather odious people. And when they step too far over the line, we are forced to put our people in harms way. Balanced against that brutal reality, we obsess over whether some fly fishermen will need to drive past pipeline scars on the way to their fishing hole.

As it happens, our local paper ran a five part series on the energy industry in Colorado last week. It was well done and ran to some 25 pages. As these things go, it was balanced and fair. But as so much of modern media, it was long on emotion but short on reason and logic.

Energy use is not an addiction, it is not a morality issue. Human life without access to large quatities of cheap energy is brutal, unpleasant and often short. A priviledged few live well at the expense of multitudes whose muscle power feeds that priviledge. "Green" renewable energy may be a reality in my grandchildren's lifetimes, but they are stalking horses for political agendas today.

As a culture, we need to continue to explore and work on better ways to generate and use the energy we need. But to pretend that we will not continue to require ever increasing quantities of hydrocarbon energy into the foreseeable future is to lie to those who depend on us. Those of us who are professionals have an obligation to speak the facts to the public on this issue.