A coalition of Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians rallied today in Las Vegas to call for affordable energy and an end to government favoritism toward so-called “clean” energy sources. Speakers at the Affordable Energy Summit 8.0 explained wind and solar power championed by Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and renewable power activists at the rival Clean Energy Summit 8.0 are prohibitively expensive, yet producing few if any net environmental benefits.
Obama is keynoted Reid’s annual Clean Energy Summit at the Mandalay Bay hotel on August 24. The Affordable Energy Summit, co-sponsored by The Heartland Institute, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, the Nevada Policy Research Institute, and the Libertarian Party of Nevada, served as a counterpoint to Reid’s summit.
“Energy is the lifeblood of our economy,” noted Heartland Institute senior fellow for environment and energy policy James Taylor. “Government programs that force expensive wind and solar power on energy consumers reduce living standards and drive people into poverty.”
“Tragically, the unnecessarily high electricity prices caused by poor political choices inflict their greatest harms on people living in poverty, who spend a disproportionately high percentage of their budgets on energy,” said Taylor.
“Forcing Americans to spend increasingly high amounts of money on energy deprives us of the means to purchase health care, education, better nutrition, and a wide array of goods and services that make life happier and healthier,” Taylor added. “It also kills jobs throughout the entire economy when people have less money to spend on these desirable goods and services.”
Minorities Suffer
Niger Innis, representing the National Black Chamber of Commerce and the Congress of Racial Equality, confirmed minorities and people living in poor, inner-city communities get socked with higher energy prices but receive none of the purported benefits of wind and solar power.
Democratic Arizona State Sen. Carlyle Begay, whose district represents much of the Navajo Reservation, explained Obama’s Clean Power Plan will destroy jobs on the Navajo Reservation without any promised replacement jobs.
No Climate Benefit
Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, through surrogate Victoria Seaman, said although scientists disagree on many climate and environment issues, it is indisputable unilateral U.S. action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions will have minimal impact on global temperatures.
Seaman was joined on stage by several Nevada state legislators calling for more affordable energy and less government infringement on consumer energy choices.
In his address closing the summit, political commentator Wayne Allyn Root pointed out other nations have already learned the hard way a so-called clean energy economy is actually a death blow to economic growth. Root highlighted Spain’s experience with clean power initiatives driving the nation’s unemployment rate to 30%, from merely single digit unemployment rates just a decade ago.
The website www.affordableenergysummit.org provides an overview of affordable energy issues and will be updated throughout the year.
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., ([email protected]) is the managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., is the Director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy and the managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
