Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Protecting Investment in Oil Shale the Next Generation of Environmental, Energy, and Resource Security Act

Have you signed up with Megavote yet?  You should!  It's been getting interesting.

Recently passed the House:
H.R. 3408 - "Protecting Investment in Oil Shale, the Next Generation of Environmental, Energy and Resource Security Act".

Donna Edwards voted against it.

Granted this bill seems to have no impact on Maryland (not much oil shale here, ya know) but in reading about the bill, and reading both support and opposition to it, I'm unsure why she would vote against it.  The opposition seems to be based on the idea that oil shale isn't worthwhile, therefore we shouldn't release any land for it, and there are fears of environmental impact -- unsubstantiated, vague fears, as far as I can tell.

Support seems to be based on the idea that if oil shale can be made viable, it will bring a lot of jobs (and thus federal dollars).

I generally support domestic energy production.  Conversion to renewable resources is a cute idea, but still ahead of its time -- America's ability to stay competitive (assuming we still are) in the global market is going to depend partially on cheap energy.  In 30 years, when solar technology may have advanced to be superior to fossil fuels, then we can switch.  Until then, we should probably be thinking about increasing our domestic output.