Consider the “alternatives” by John C. Street
 
It’s been a good long while since I’ve felt the need to jump on my high horse to rescue fellow Blood Sporters from the clutches of the environmental crusaders, especially the ones who are running many of the – heretofore – highly respected, national “Sportsmen’s” groups. And there’s good reason for my inactivity.
 
Despite draconian – but, alas, now documented - efforts by the lame stream media to hide, discredit or deny the “Climategate” revelations, enough Blood Sporters had learned the truth that I’ve felt no need to (forgive the puns) either flog a dead horse or get on a high one.
 
Unfortunately, the Green Team’s scheme isn’t as dead as I’d surmised. And worse, the leaders of the crusade are still clutching at Blood Sporters in a last ditch effort to bring credibility to their charade.
 
And so, I saddle up.
 
Much has been written of late about the enormous pockets of gas that lie deep beneath this grand old Commonwealth. Likewise, much has also been written of late about mind boggling quantities of carbon based fuels (coal, gas and oil) that lie beneath many other states.
 
In total, and not counting off-shore resources, the United States of America has more energy reserves than any other nation on earth. Furthermore, some informed people have even opined that the United States of America has more “accessible” energy reserves than all the other nations on earth combined.
 
Quantity and accessibility specifics aside, no one – not even members of the Green Team – denies that the United States of America has enough known and available reserves to become energy independent in a relatively short (literally months, not years) period of time and to stay that way well into the next century.
 
However, while the Green Teamers (which, forgive the repetition, includes many of our national “Sportsmen’s” groups), are finally acknowledging – by their actions if not their words – that the whole “Anthropogenic Global Warming” crusade has become more of a lightning rod than a rallying cry, they have no intention of abandoning their fallacious argument for “alternative energy.”
 
Which brings me back to my high horse.
 
The thrust of the Green Team argument is that harvesting this nation’s energy reserves will inevitably lead to excruciating damage to our wild places. What the Green Teamers forget to mention, however, is that their “alternative sources of energy” (wind, solar and bio fuels), will make past indiscretions look like a kid’s game of hop-scotch scratched on a sidewalk compared to their proposals.
 
For example, consider this information provided by Mr. Paul Driessen (Vita information on Mr. Driessen available at www.cdfe.org, under left hand column tab titled “Staff and Advisers):
 
“Turbines and solar arrays would have to cover millions of acres to provide power for cities. They require ultra-long transmission lines and backup gas generators, and consume millions of tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass, polymers and rare earth (lanthanide) minerals – all of which have to be extracted from the Earth and processed into finished products, burning fossil fuels and generating mining wastes and air and water pollution.”
 
In a lucid and logical article (“Destroying Biodiversity,” also available at www.cdfe.org) Mr. Driessen unmasks the alternative energy argument for the environmental disaster it really is. Again, in Mr. Driessen’s words:
 
“Con Ed had to generate some 13,500 megawatts to meet New York City’s air conditioning and other electricity needs during the recent July heat wave. The 600-turbine Roscoe wind farm blankets 100,000 Texas acres to generate 780 MW at full capacity. That means NYC would need a wind farm 1.6 times the size of Connecticut (5 million acres or 2 million hectares), if the turbines are running at an average 30% of capacity. But during the heat wave, there’s barely a breeze.

”Now multiply that habitat demand times the world’s biggest cities, and calculate the biodiversity impact. No wonder the wind industry wants exemptions from endangered species rules and environmental impact studies that hyper-regulate fossil fuel and nuclear companies. No wonder Senator Diane Feinstein has introduced legislation to prohibit solar panel installations in the super-sunny Mojave Desert.”


And one more quote from Mr. Driessen to put the “bio fuels” rhubarb to bed:
 
“Every 7 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol requires crops grown on an area the size of Indiana (23 million acres) – and Congress now wants the USA to produce 20 billion gallons of [ethanol] annually by 2020. In addition to expropriating vast crop land and wildlife habitat, ethanol production requires billions of gallons of water, millions of tons of fertilizer and insecticides, and enormous quantities of natural gas and diesel fuel to power tractors, tanker trucks and conversion plants – to distill a fuel that gets 20% fewer mpg than gasoline.”
 
No one, least of all any of us who participate in the Blood Sports, wishes to see our remaining wild places despoiled. And everyone, most definitely including participants in the Blood Sports, needs to advocate for both responsible extraction and use of natural resources.
 
The Green Team desperately wants to co-opt Blood Sports participants in order to give an aura of legitimacy to the charade of their crusade.
 
Blood Sporters need to give thoughtful consideration to the “alternatives” they are proposing.