Energy, Environment And Economics

   There is a general rule that applies to today's world when it comes to pollution of our environment. It is counter intuitive, yet the statistics support it. The less prosperous a nation is, the greater the negative impact per person on the global environment. Large poor or emerging nations produce the most pollution. With that in mind I think any rational energy policy has to consider what is the best and most effective way to encourage the production of wealth in all nations. When an energy policy restricts or hampers economic progress it is exacerbating the pollution problems that already exist..The richer a nation's citizens are; they invariably are more empowered to protect the environment in which they and their families live.
   Promoting economic prosperity and political freedom is the first step towards a healthy living environment, for all the peoples of the world. If an energy policy is to narrow or impatient in its scope, it becomes a greater polluter and inhibitor of environmental progress than no policy at all. When we look at the prosperous nations who consume more resources than underdeveloped nations; they are almost universally a healthier and environmentally safer place to live. Policies that are proposed that weaken the worlds economies should be rejected off hand. A free market in a politically free nation is the greatest safeguard against catastrophic harm to our environment..
   As far as what fuel we should use, subsidize or prohibit, the market is a much better arbiter than a small group of people who may, or may not have a vested political or economic interest in any decision.. Because all people have to live, work and raise their families somewhere, they are in the best position to make those decisions. Freedom of information, freedom to choose and remove leaders, freedom to make our own informed decisions is our environment's best protection.
   There is a role government can play in this debate. It is their duty to protect us from those who have no regard for our safety and existing laws. It is not government's job to choose for us what is in our best environmental, and economic self interest. Government's job is to make sure all technologies have a chance to prove their merit, and a fair market place in which they are allowed to prosper or fail based on that merit. To let someone else make all our decisions is not only bad for us, but potentially catastrophic for our environment.
   One thing I am certain of;  the poorer we are the less options we will have...The more of our money we keep in our own country by developing our existing energy resources, the more we will have to spend on finding cleaner, cheaper and more efficient sources of fuel..The government can help us, and our environment by making it easy and cheap for us to produce and sell our own home produced energy..Subsidies are not the answer; removing as many government imposed financial and regulatory barriers as possible is..WE CAN PRODUCE OUR OWN ENERGY AND PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT !  All we need is to elect politicians that will let us do it..