The Entrepreneurial View #490                                                               

Nothing Is Good Enough

by Raymond J. Keating

Practically by definition, radical environmentalists aren't known for calm reasoning or clear economic thinking. Unfortunately, these activists hold considerable sway with elected officials - from the federal level down to the smallest of localities.

There are grave consequences to this influence. For example, in the face of dire needs to increase energy production, this movement keeps the pressure on policymakers to prohibit energy exploration and development on most federal lands, such as in ANWR, and in offshore waters. This despite the fact that vast improvements in technology make such production quite safe for the environment.

These activists simply do not want any further development of fossil fuels. Instead, no matter the costs involved, they want energy to come from other sources. Don't they?

Nuclear? Well, many of these same environmentalists are not too keen on nuclear power due to the waste issue.

Wind? Of course. Well, maybe.

A June 14 report in The Monitor noted that developers building a farm of wind turbines in Raymondville, Texas, have faced opposition from an alliance of environmental groups. The problem? The threat of "catastrophic bird kills."

Solar? Naturally. Sort of. It depends.

A June 15 Associated Press article noted that San Diego Gas & Electric Co. is working with partners who want to "build one of the world's largest solar power operations in the Southern California desert and surround it with plants that run on wind and underground heat."

Sounds like environmentalist heaven, right? But assorted environmental activists are opposed. Why? Transmission lines would have to be built to get the electricity to customers. Those lines would go through parkland. That's a deal breaker.

Do you see a pattern here of contradictory thinking and nothing ever being good enough for these radical environmentalists?

Consider that the environmental movement has gotten, as AP noted, 29 states and the District of Columbia to impose renewable mandates on electricity producers. Yet, even when utilities move to conform to these mandates, they often face new opposition from environmental groups.

Cranky, never-happy environmentalists carry a disturbing degree of influence in political and policy arenas. That explains why the nation suffers from counter-productive and often contradictory energy policies.

But it should be increasingly clear that this movement is generally opposed to any activities requiring increased energy consumption - such as building and running businesses, traveling to a job, erecting homes for families to live in, and so on.  In this view of the world, people in general can be so inconvenient, can't they?

Here's a crazy thought: How about policymakers basing energy policy decisions on environmental reality rooted in science (as opposed to sky-is-falling declarations of green radicals), energy needs, sound economics and basic common sense? Hey, it's just a suggestion.

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Raymond J. Keating is chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.