Ben Childs

Commentary - Ben Childs

This is a reprint of an article published May 27, 2009. Not much has changed.

Here are the first two paragraphs of a Rueters article dated May 19, 2009, by Jeremy Pelofsky and Susan Cornwell.

“U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday moved to cut $80 million earmarked for closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a fresh setback for President Barack Obama's efforts to move beyond the Bush administration's anti-terror policies.

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Commentary - Ben Childs

The greens have tried introducing ethanol into the fuel stream for cars. President Bush gave a moving speech about harvesting switchgrass from the swamps and prairies to make ethanol. Midwestern politicians were totally on board to guarantee a market for their corn products, as long as foreign sources of ethanol were banned. Ethanol is a total economic failure in the United States. Biodiesel, same thing. In Brazil the Alcool is about half the cost of gasoline. The ethanol in Brazil is made from the sugar cane waste product. Big incentive to use flex fuel vehicles there. In the United States, E85 is about the same price as gasoline. Since ethanol is about 15 percent less efficient than gasoline, when the costs are the same there is no incentive to buy E85.

Coal is too dirty. Tar sand is too dirty. Natural gas reserves are dwindling. Crude oil reserves are mainly located outside of the United States. Hydrogen fuel cells are not commercially viable. As frequently happens in life, just when the game seems to be about over, a bright spot appears.

On May 30, 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that nuclear fusion was achieved at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. If it's true, this is HUGE. As in the total solution to all of mankind's energy demands. Since we haven't heard any more about this, it probably isn't true.

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Commentary - Ben Childs

After reading endless articles about government funding shortfalls at all 
levels, it suddenly hit me that there is one untapped activity which has 
never been taxed. Taxing alcohol and cigarettes and pornography are popular sin 
taxes. Sure they punish bad behavior, but they're so 20th-century.
Hotel taxes are always easy to impose and increase because the people being 
taxed don't live in the state or locality where the tax is imposed. Airport 
departure or arrival taxes are common in other countries for this reason, 
plus they only impact the wealthier citizens, since poor people can't afford 
to travel by plane. 

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Commentary - Ben Childs

Environmentalists and global warmists want to stop people from burning coal, oil and natural gas. High oil prices discourage the burning of oil, and result in more conservation. If it costs more, people won't use as much of it. Simple supply and demand. High oil prices also make competing energy sources like wind, solar and nuclear more economically competitive.

A year ago I wrote about a front page article in the Wall Street Journal on June 24, 2009 that described how Iraq was preparing to auction off its mineral rights again. The last auction was 30 years ago. With 115 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, this is a huge injection of crude oil into a world market where demand is already soft due to the recession. Only 20 of Iraq's 80 known oil fields are either fully or partially developed, and most current production comes from only three giant fields.

At the end of 2007 Brazil announced the largest oil discovery in 30 years. The find is estimated to be 40 billion barrels, although it is located in deep water in the Atlantic Ocean.

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