Energy
For a complete statement on energy policy, click here.
Nader/Gonzalez would no longer subsidize entrenched oil, nuclear, electric, coal mining, and biofuel interests.
Instead, Nader/Gonzalez would invest in an energy policy that is efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Nader/Gonzalez would invest in a diversified and proven energy policy including renewable energies like wind and other solar power.
The American people have been held hostage for too long by the oil, coal and atomic power industries.
Over seventy percent of our petroleum is now imported at a cost of $600 billion a year – the highest rate of dependency ever.
The nuclear power industry is demanding 100 percent federal government loan guarantees because Wall Street won’t loan the money for new nuclear plants without those taxpayer guarantees.
We are long overdue for the changes that need to be made.
Nader/Gonzalez would:
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End subsidies of entrenched oil, nuclear, & coal interests.
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Curtail price gouging with strict law enforcement.
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Invest heavily in renewable energies, including solar and wind technologies.
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Invest in more efficient homes, automobiles, businesses and government facilities.
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Put renewable energy before the wasteful corn ethanol.
Last year Big Oil made record profits. The price of oil has quadrupled since Bush took office and the distribution of wealth has become more polarized.
A new clean energy paradigm means more jobs, more efficiency, greater security and energy independence, environmental protection and increased health for all people.
Nader/Gonzalez will work to create an energy policy that is in the best interest of all the people and the environment we share.
Nader/Gonzalez would cut corporate welfare programs propping up the corn ethanol industry.
From the beginning, Ralph Nader has been opposed to the subsidized ethanol industry as inefficient, environmentally damaging, inflationary, and as the primary fuel sustaining the corporate welfare kings.
In September 17, 2004, the Des Moines Register article reported that Nader took on the ethanol industry while he was campaigning in Iowa.
In April 2008, Nader was in Illinois telling students that corn ethanol is devouring huge acreage, shortening the supply of wheat, soy and other food, and resulting in the increased prices being seen in the U.S. and abroad.
Historically, food prices have been a source of consumer revolt. It has toppled governments in other countries.
It takes as much or more energy to create corn ethanol — the ethanol includes the burning of coal — than the energy actually derived from the ethanol.
The production of one gallon of ethanol requires between three and four gallons of water. In a world already plagued with water shortages, this is simply unsustainable.
Since February 2006, the price of corn, wheat and soybeans has increased by more than 240 percent. The price of corn has gone from $1.86 a bushel at the end of 2005 to $4 in 2007 to nearly $6 today.
This dubious “food to energy” policy does the American people no good.
This is hardly a green technology, and it is certainly not sustainable.
As the Berkeley Chemical Engineer Tad Patzek puts it, “in terms of renewable fuels, ethanol is the worst solution — it has the highest energy cost with the least benefit."
