The Minority Party's Energy Plan

Media Matters has an interesting assessment of the recently released House Republican energy plan. The upshot is that it looks a whole lot like the Bush Cheney energy plan. The same energy plan that resulted in an increase of over $1100 per household in fuel and energy costs and was widely considered to be failed policy.

Here are what the House Republicans are suggesting:

- More drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, though it has already been established that drilling won't solve our mid-term or long-term energy needs.

- More oil refineries. Huge construction costs to refine a resource that is rapidly disappearing

- More nuclear power plants. They're costly and we don't know what to do with the waste, but full speed ahead!

- Open the Arctic for drilling. Devastating to the ecosystems and we are still going to run out of oil, but in the meantime, drill baby, drill!

- Increase production of oil shale. It's environmentally devastating and still, we are going to run out of oil sooner rather than later, but why invest in renewable energy resources when you have oil lobbyists paying for your next campaign?

I don't want to be a total cynic, so i will say that they designate some revenue for renewable energy but the basis of the plan is deeply flawed. We have tried this before and it has failed. We cannot drill our way out of the energy crisis. And we cannot continue to rely on foreign oil for our energy needs. It is costing us our future and our security. Even if you don't believe in climate change, it only makes sense to switch to energy sources that are domestic, widely available and non-polluting.