Energy: A Pro-Life Issue
http://22nd.org/catholicsforkerry
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JoeUser Forums
In my last essay, I listed the Three Big E’s of Energy, Environment, and Education as the most important issues to me in this election. In this essay, I will focus on one, Energy. I will admit that many will see it as a stretch as to how Energy policy relates to Catholic teaching, but please bear with me for at least 5 minutes, and I’ll do my best to help you see why.
What Is It?
As a physicist, I’ll cite one of our most famous equations: E=mc2 (I promise this will be the only equation I’ll use.) In layman’s terms, this equation basically means, “It’s all energy.” In a more religious context, I think it means that everything in the universe can be broken down into the same mysterious thing that physicists call “energy”, but you might just as easily call it “spirit”, “mystery”, or “life-force.” Physicists don’t really know what energy is, we just know we can do useful things with it.
Why Do We Need It?
Energy is at the root of nearly everything we try to do in our society. First, energy obviously fuels our economy. It is required to produce the goods we make, drive our cars or take the bus to work or school, ship the goods we produce across the world, and in our modern economy, run the computers, printers, fax machines, and other electronic technology that are essential to our economy.
Still, energy goes beyond our economy and into our private lives. It gives us light, heat, and AC in our homes, powers our TVs, microwaves, telephones, and cell phones, and of course runs our home computers, including the one on which I’m now typing and probably the one from which you are now reading. But what’s my point, why is energy necessary to be good Christians?
The reason is that we have come to a point of development in our society, where without a huge source of energy, we can not have our way of life. Without an enormous amount of energy entering the U.S. every year, many people in the U.S. would no have no job, older people would have trouble surviving harsh winters or summers, and many of our communities, separated by great distances in this country, would probably break up. Simply put, we could not support nearly all the people who are promised freedom, equality, and the hope of economic success by this country.
Who Do We Get It From and How?
Perhaps even more important for Christians, we need to consider how we go about getting the energy that is so vital to our daily lives. First, we are far from being independent in our energy production. We currently import about half of all our oil and about 15% of our natural gas (http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rm/2003/19447.htm). So if we believe our call as Christians is to provide security for our children, we should understand that dependence is one of the worst breaches of security our nation can have. Our dependency on other countries for the most important resource for our security, energy, is growing each year.
Exploring this issue more deeply, as Christians we have look specifically at where we get our energy. Our second largest source of oil imports is Saudi Arabia, which has a government with some of the worst human rights abuses and religious persecution on Earth. Yet by buying their oil, they can maintain power from the billions of dollars we put into their coffers each year.
We also have political and economic involvement in almost every country in the Middle East, despite the widespread lack of democracy and personal freedoms in that region. This is for the simple fact that 2/3 of the world’s proven oil reserves are located there. If we remain “addicted” to oil, we will remain involved in these countries whether we like it or not. We have no choice as to where God placed the world’s oil.
How Does Our Energy Policy Effect Life?
If we look more closely at our involvement in the countries to whose oil we are addicted, we will find that many of our actions are truly unchristian and undemocratic. Take for example Venezuela, one of our largest sources of oil. Venezuela has been a Catholic country for its entire existence and has been a democratic country since 1959 (a very old democracy in Latin American terms). Its leader, Hugo Chavez, although far from perfect, is enormously popular among the poor and lower classes. He was democratically elected in 1999 by the largest margin in four decades of Venezuelan history. Yet, in 2002 there was a coup to overthrow Chavez, and it is widely believed that the Bush Administration played a large role in supporting it (even the leaders of the coup have admitted US involvement.)
Apparently the Bush’s energy policy is the following: Oil, oil, and more oil. Either get it from regimes who oppress their people, or overthrow our neighbors’ democratically elected leaders to get it at the price we want. (The US tried to get natural gas, too, from Bolivia, but that plan failed miserably and resorted in a coup, a largely peaceful one, when Bolivia’s President suggested they export natural gas to the US through their rival Chile.)
I won’t even go fully into my thoughts about the Bush Administration’s true motives for invading Iraq. You can make your own assessment there, but I just want to point out three facts that might point you in the right direction.
1. Key members of the Bush Administration were leaders of a group called, “Project for a New American Century”, which argued for invasion of Iraq well before 9/11 and the Bush Presidency. One of its top Foreign Policy goals was to seek “access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil.” This group, which includes Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, is now running our country. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/etc/wolf.html)
2. Two of the first objectives in the invasion of Iraq (as stated by the Pentagon) were to secure the oil fields in Rumaylah and Kirkuk, which happen to be two of the top ten oil fields in the world. (http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/cf55c1082925aac485256cf40063eff8?OpenDocument)
(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/24/iraq/main545717.shtml)
3. Despite widespread international opposition, the Bush Administration fervently attempted to keep control of Iraq’s oil revenues through a UN resolution, which eventually passed, yet the Administration continued to violate even this resolution (after using violations of UN resolutions as a justification for invasion). (http://www.christianaid.org.uk/indepth/406iraqoilupdate/Fuelling_Suspicion.pdf)
Lastly, we have to also look at what our Energy policy does to our environment, which effects all of God’s creation, including humans. Even if we ignore the global warming debate (which is a false debate), US Energy policy, especially under the Bush Administration, has an increasingly clear effect on the health of US citizens. I will discuss this issue fully in my next essay.
What is Bush’s Record?
Bush has failed to enact any significant energy policy during his four years in office. His Energy Department is packed with CEOs from the oil, gas, and coal industries. In fact, Bush’s Administration is packed with more CEOs than any other Administration in history. As informed Catholics, we need to understand that a CEO’s primary motive is profit (for some, it is their sole motive) and their sole constituency is shareholders. One of the most fundamental purposes of government is to protect the public from the abuses of the private sector, yet Bush has enlisted the wolves to watch the sheep.
Near the end of the Clinton Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency was wrapping up a number of lawsuits against coal companies who were in clear violation of our Clean Air and Clean Water laws. When Bush came into power, he promptly dropped these lawsuits. Several prominent officials in the EPA resigned in protest to this and other egregious actions of President Bush.
Bush’s Energy Task Force was also packed with oil, gas, and coal CEOs, some of them hand-picked by Bush’s friend Ken Lay. After the Enron scandal, the public demanded to see notes from the meetings of this task force, but the Bush Administration refused. What is it they have to hide? Let me ask you this: If your boss asked you to see the notes from a meeting you attended on his or her behalf, and you said, “No, I won’t let you see them,” what would happen? You’d probably get fired! I know I’m going to remind Bush and Cheney that I am one of their collective bosses and fire them both on November 2!
Bush has not just run a failed policy in an area that is screaming for reform (remember the blackouts of last summer?), but, in terms of energy policy, he has led our country in an immoral and destructive direction that, as Christians, we should vehemently oppose.
What is Kerry’s Plan?
John Kerry has a detailed plan to revolutionize energy use in the United States. I’m not going to go into too much detail here because it is easily available at http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/energy/, but the basics of the policy center on a plan he calls the “20/20 Plan.”
Under this plan, he will fund the research necessary to have 20% of our energy come from renewable energy sources by the year 2020. He will also cut the Federal government’s energy bill by 20%, saving us over $14 billion in taxes over the next ten years. (Who knew Kerry was a conservative?) He will provide incentives for the automobile energy to improve fuel efficiency, as well as tax benefits for anyone to use towards buying a more fuel efficient car. He will set us on a path towards energy independence and responsible energy usage.
How Should Catholics Vote on Energy?
I hope I have demonstrated that Energy is an important issue of life, social justice, and general Christian morality, and vital to our future as a nation. As Catholics, we have a responsibility to vote in a manner that upholds our Christian values. The competing paths between Bush and Kerry for our country’s energy policy are widely divergent. One is addicted to the oil economy of the past. The other is committed to the promising new energy economies of the future.
Although you can clearly see which choice I would like you to choose, I’m not going to tell you to vote that way in so many words. I am just trying to give you the most accurate and important information I can give. I hope that you deeply examine your own conscience and decide what is best in your own mind. I pray that God guide you in deciding what is best for our nation, our children’s nation, and our grandchildren’s nation.
What Is It?
As a physicist, I’ll cite one of our most famous equations: E=mc2 (I promise this will be the only equation I’ll use.) In layman’s terms, this equation basically means, “It’s all energy.” In a more religious context, I think it means that everything in the universe can be broken down into the same mysterious thing that physicists call “energy”, but you might just as easily call it “spirit”, “mystery”, or “life-force.” Physicists don’t really know what energy is, we just know we can do useful things with it.
Why Do We Need It?
Energy is at the root of nearly everything we try to do in our society. First, energy obviously fuels our economy. It is required to produce the goods we make, drive our cars or take the bus to work or school, ship the goods we produce across the world, and in our modern economy, run the computers, printers, fax machines, and other electronic technology that are essential to our economy.
Still, energy goes beyond our economy and into our private lives. It gives us light, heat, and AC in our homes, powers our TVs, microwaves, telephones, and cell phones, and of course runs our home computers, including the one on which I’m now typing and probably the one from which you are now reading. But what’s my point, why is energy necessary to be good Christians?
The reason is that we have come to a point of development in our society, where without a huge source of energy, we can not have our way of life. Without an enormous amount of energy entering the U.S. every year, many people in the U.S. would no have no job, older people would have trouble surviving harsh winters or summers, and many of our communities, separated by great distances in this country, would probably break up. Simply put, we could not support nearly all the people who are promised freedom, equality, and the hope of economic success by this country.
Who Do We Get It From and How?
Perhaps even more important for Christians, we need to consider how we go about getting the energy that is so vital to our daily lives. First, we are far from being independent in our energy production. We currently import about half of all our oil and about 15% of our natural gas (http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rm/2003/19447.htm). So if we believe our call as Christians is to provide security for our children, we should understand that dependence is one of the worst breaches of security our nation can have. Our dependency on other countries for the most important resource for our security, energy, is growing each year.
Exploring this issue more deeply, as Christians we have look specifically at where we get our energy. Our second largest source of oil imports is Saudi Arabia, which has a government with some of the worst human rights abuses and religious persecution on Earth. Yet by buying their oil, they can maintain power from the billions of dollars we put into their coffers each year.
We also have political and economic involvement in almost every country in the Middle East, despite the widespread lack of democracy and personal freedoms in that region. This is for the simple fact that 2/3 of the world’s proven oil reserves are located there. If we remain “addicted” to oil, we will remain involved in these countries whether we like it or not. We have no choice as to where God placed the world’s oil.
How Does Our Energy Policy Effect Life?
If we look more closely at our involvement in the countries to whose oil we are addicted, we will find that many of our actions are truly unchristian and undemocratic. Take for example Venezuela, one of our largest sources of oil. Venezuela has been a Catholic country for its entire existence and has been a democratic country since 1959 (a very old democracy in Latin American terms). Its leader, Hugo Chavez, although far from perfect, is enormously popular among the poor and lower classes. He was democratically elected in 1999 by the largest margin in four decades of Venezuelan history. Yet, in 2002 there was a coup to overthrow Chavez, and it is widely believed that the Bush Administration played a large role in supporting it (even the leaders of the coup have admitted US involvement.)
Apparently the Bush’s energy policy is the following: Oil, oil, and more oil. Either get it from regimes who oppress their people, or overthrow our neighbors’ democratically elected leaders to get it at the price we want. (The US tried to get natural gas, too, from Bolivia, but that plan failed miserably and resorted in a coup, a largely peaceful one, when Bolivia’s President suggested they export natural gas to the US through their rival Chile.)
I won’t even go fully into my thoughts about the Bush Administration’s true motives for invading Iraq. You can make your own assessment there, but I just want to point out three facts that might point you in the right direction.
1. Key members of the Bush Administration were leaders of a group called, “Project for a New American Century”, which argued for invasion of Iraq well before 9/11 and the Bush Presidency. One of its top Foreign Policy goals was to seek “access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil.” This group, which includes Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, is now running our country. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/iraq/etc/wolf.html)
2. Two of the first objectives in the invasion of Iraq (as stated by the Pentagon) were to secure the oil fields in Rumaylah and Kirkuk, which happen to be two of the top ten oil fields in the world. (http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/cf55c1082925aac485256cf40063eff8?OpenDocument)
(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/24/iraq/main545717.shtml)
3. Despite widespread international opposition, the Bush Administration fervently attempted to keep control of Iraq’s oil revenues through a UN resolution, which eventually passed, yet the Administration continued to violate even this resolution (after using violations of UN resolutions as a justification for invasion). (http://www.christianaid.org.uk/indepth/406iraqoilupdate/Fuelling_Suspicion.pdf)
Lastly, we have to also look at what our Energy policy does to our environment, which effects all of God’s creation, including humans. Even if we ignore the global warming debate (which is a false debate), US Energy policy, especially under the Bush Administration, has an increasingly clear effect on the health of US citizens. I will discuss this issue fully in my next essay.
What is Bush’s Record?
Bush has failed to enact any significant energy policy during his four years in office. His Energy Department is packed with CEOs from the oil, gas, and coal industries. In fact, Bush’s Administration is packed with more CEOs than any other Administration in history. As informed Catholics, we need to understand that a CEO’s primary motive is profit (for some, it is their sole motive) and their sole constituency is shareholders. One of the most fundamental purposes of government is to protect the public from the abuses of the private sector, yet Bush has enlisted the wolves to watch the sheep.
Near the end of the Clinton Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency was wrapping up a number of lawsuits against coal companies who were in clear violation of our Clean Air and Clean Water laws. When Bush came into power, he promptly dropped these lawsuits. Several prominent officials in the EPA resigned in protest to this and other egregious actions of President Bush.
Bush’s Energy Task Force was also packed with oil, gas, and coal CEOs, some of them hand-picked by Bush’s friend Ken Lay. After the Enron scandal, the public demanded to see notes from the meetings of this task force, but the Bush Administration refused. What is it they have to hide? Let me ask you this: If your boss asked you to see the notes from a meeting you attended on his or her behalf, and you said, “No, I won’t let you see them,” what would happen? You’d probably get fired! I know I’m going to remind Bush and Cheney that I am one of their collective bosses and fire them both on November 2!
Bush has not just run a failed policy in an area that is screaming for reform (remember the blackouts of last summer?), but, in terms of energy policy, he has led our country in an immoral and destructive direction that, as Christians, we should vehemently oppose.
What is Kerry’s Plan?
John Kerry has a detailed plan to revolutionize energy use in the United States. I’m not going to go into too much detail here because it is easily available at http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/energy/, but the basics of the policy center on a plan he calls the “20/20 Plan.”
Under this plan, he will fund the research necessary to have 20% of our energy come from renewable energy sources by the year 2020. He will also cut the Federal government’s energy bill by 20%, saving us over $14 billion in taxes over the next ten years. (Who knew Kerry was a conservative?) He will provide incentives for the automobile energy to improve fuel efficiency, as well as tax benefits for anyone to use towards buying a more fuel efficient car. He will set us on a path towards energy independence and responsible energy usage.
How Should Catholics Vote on Energy?
I hope I have demonstrated that Energy is an important issue of life, social justice, and general Christian morality, and vital to our future as a nation. As Catholics, we have a responsibility to vote in a manner that upholds our Christian values. The competing paths between Bush and Kerry for our country’s energy policy are widely divergent. One is addicted to the oil economy of the past. The other is committed to the promising new energy economies of the future.
Although you can clearly see which choice I would like you to choose, I’m not going to tell you to vote that way in so many words. I am just trying to give you the most accurate and important information I can give. I hope that you deeply examine your own conscience and decide what is best in your own mind. I pray that God guide you in deciding what is best for our nation, our children’s nation, and our grandchildren’s nation.
