Open letter to Senator John Cornyn (R, Texas) on US Energy Policy

Senator Cornyn,

I must admit to being a little disappointed with the general direction of your recent Dallas Morning News editorial on energy policy. While I concur that free markets are the solution to the current energy crisis I would have hoped that a political leader of your stature would have focused on a little more than expanding the domestic supply of extractable oil and gas.

Economic fundamentals tell us that an imbalance between supply and demand can be addressed in one of two ways – we either increase supply or we reduce demand. The elegant simplicity of the pricing mechanism within a free market system is that a rising price will usually restore balance by simultaneously reducing demand while increasing supply. Perhaps the largest issue with the pricing of fossil fuels is that we exclude waste sequestration from the cost. In other words, as consumers we get a free ride on the pollutants that we presently pump free of charge into our atmosphere. The problem isn’t that the price is too high. The real problem is that it has been far too low for far too long.

Let’s take a moment to consider global warming. There is little doubt that the earth is presently in a periodic warming cycle. The real question is whether or not the billions (yes, billions) of metric tons of carbon we are dumping into the atmosphere each year might be accelerating and/or exacerbating that cycle. While the scientific debate on this issue is not closed most credible skeptics are willing to concede that it is probable the burning of fossil fuels is having some impact. Only a fool (or an ideologue) would dismiss the data out of hand given the downside risk of inaction. Should the Greenland ice sheet actually melt then we lose two thirds of Florida - not to mention most of our coastal cities.

The global warming debate is a high stakes game of climatological Russian roulette. The downside risk in terms of economic loss and human misery so utterly dwarfs the economic costs of migrating away from fossil fuels that it is difficult to believe we are not already taking draconian steps to encourage that migration. One can only conclude that our political leadership no longer has the moral fortitude to make the difficult decisions needed to set us firmly and irrevocably on a path toward sustainable development. Far easier to take the position that because the data remains (diminishingly) inconclusive it is better to do nothing substantive and wait until the data is incontrovertible. Unfortunately by then it will almost certainly be too late. In essence by our continued inaction we are spinning the chamber, pulling the trigger, and hoping that the gun is empty. This would be bad enough were the gun in question aimed at our own heads but it is not. It is pointed right at the collective heads of our children and our grandchildren.

Let’s return to the debate on energy policy. You are absolutely correct in your position that supply and demand should be allowed to solve the problem. The role of government is to ensure that the common good is not lost in the process. This is why we no longer allow our factories to employ children and/or to spew toxic waste into the rivers and streams of this nation. Provided the price of fossil based fuels includes the estimated cost of carbon sequestration we should let the free market reign.

What is the answer if it isn't more domestic drilling? Well, we could start by imposing a carbon tax on all fossil fuels and then using the proceeds to subsidize the cost of revamping the nation’s fleet of automobiles and trucks from gasoline to hybrids as well as perhaps commercializing the carbon sequestration technology needed to turn the words “clean coal” into something other than an oxymoronic marketing ploy. It isn’t going to be easy however when Toyota sells a 55 mpg 4 passenger sedan for around $25K it is clear that the solution is well in hand if we have the courage to make the tough choices.

Senator Cornyn, we need real leadership on this issue. Your leadership. You can (and must) do far better than pushing to lift current restrictions on domestic oil and gas exploration.

Sincerely,

Andrew B. Thorby
Principal
Azima Health Services
214-978-3240 direct
469-835-8929 cell
athorby@azimahealth.com