Cut DOE budget, with a meat axe.

Vic Biorseth, Monday, April 25, 2011
http://www.Thinking-Catholic-Strategic-Center.com

(This article, and others like it, was written as part of the Shut Down Unneeded Bureaucracy effort to cut spending.)

Regarding the US Dept of Energy (DOE) – Energy is not listed under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, so why is the US government concerning itself with energy? Did America not have any energy, and was it not doing well, before we had a DOE? Does American energy need the US government to continue to exist and be utilized? Other than nuclear, how is any energy source the proper business of the federal government? Was non-nuclear energy cheaper and more abundant before DOE, and was it more expensive and scarce after formation of DOE? I submit that the American federal government has hindered, harmed and crippled energy, primarily through strangling regulation by DOE and by Presidential executive orders.

First, let’s take a brief look at the original purpose, make-up and history of DOE. DOE is a Cabinet-level department of the federal government, concerned with nuclear weapons, nuclear waste, reactor production for the Navy, and now, non-nuclear energy production and conservation. DOE is administered by a Secretary of Energy.

During World War II the government started the super-secret Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, utilizing the US Army Corps of Engineers. After the war ended, the Nuclear Energy Commission was created to control future nuclear development. In 1974 it became the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with the task of managing weapon and large reactor development programs, and the reactor program for Navy ships. So far, so good.

On April 18, 1977, then President Jiminy Carter, politically a Democrat and philosophically a Marxist-Redistributionist, delivered a televised speech announcing an energy crisis of epic proportions threatening to doom the nation. It was a flagrant categorical lie. The crisis was a pure invention, intended to gain support for his proposed Cabinet-level Department of Energy through hysteria generated by his false claims of global oil and gas limitations. He was heroically creating the DOE to save us from his invented crisis.

Carter said “The oil and natural gas we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are running out.” That was a lie. There are more proven reserves of oil and natural gas in the ground today than ever, and ten years from now the proven reserves will be higher, just as they have been shown to be every ten years throughout all of history, since oil and natural gas were first discovered. We haven’t even scratched the surface. That is why gasoline today, in constant dollars (adjusted for inflation,) is the same price or cheaper than it was the day the automobile was invented.

Carter indicated that the new DOE would replace some 50 existing energy regulating federal departments. Why did those 50 departments exist in the first place? They were the reason we had problems producing oil and gas for our own consumption. Carter and his fellow Democrats had already regulated domestic energy production nearly out of existence, and, I submit, they did it on purpose. This was the infamous era of Carter’s wage controls, price controls, interest controls, “put on a sweater and turn down the thermostat” advice, “park the car and ride a bicycle” advice, double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment, double-digit interest rates, shortages, and long gas lines.

Among the many new un-constitutional (not in the Constitution) government responsibilities Carter included in his new DOE was, of course, Environmental Protection, as another means to further strangle energy and free enterprise.

Let’s look at the component parts of DOE and what we’re paying for.

1. Secretary of Energy
1. Deputy Secretary of Energy
1. Under Secretary of Energy for Energy and Environment
1. Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management
2. Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability
3. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
4. Office of Environmental Management
5. Office of Fossil Energy
6. Office of Legacy Management
Office of Nuclear Energy, Science & Technology
2. Under Secretary of Energy for Science
1. Office of Science
3. Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security
1. National Nuclear Security Administration
1. Office of Secure Transportation
4. Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence
5. Energy Information Administration
6. Bonneville Power Administration
7. Southwestern Power Administration
8. Western Area Power Administration
2. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

1. The Marxism-dominated Democrat Party does not see the American Constitution as a fixed legal document that says very specific legal things, and that restricts and restrains the power of the federal government. The Democrat Party sees the Constitution as a “living, breathing, organic document” open to broad interpretation, which interpretation, conveniently, may radically change from issue to issue and from moment to moment.
2. The Democrat Party sees America, as founded and as currently existing, as fundamentally flawed, unfair and in need of complete re-design from the ground up.

The rest of the functions of DOE, those that have nothing whatsoever with nuclear weapons, reactors, fuel and waste, have no business being addressed by DOE or by the federal government at all. DOE was brought into being by a philosophical Marxist who was a Southern peanut farmer. It is now under the control of a philosophical Marxist who is a Chicago street thug. Carter did a passable job of pretending to be a Christian of the pro-abortion, pro-sodomy, pro-anything-goes variety; Obama can’t play that game, because no one in their right mind would believe he was any kind of Christian at all.

DOE has been doing injury to Democrat – demonized “Big Oil” and free enterprise since creation; now, under Obama, it has gone on steroids. His 2010 budget request included $26.4 billion for DOE, including $2.3 billion for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which is to say, a complete fraud. The 2009 stimulus, euphemistically called American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, dumped $38.3 billion into DOE increasing the budget by 75%. There was no recovery, and this was not any kind of investment or reinvestment. The goal was to do further injury to America.

Citizens have reason to worry about the new so-called “smart meters” being installed all around the country, which can monitor electricity and gas usage without approaching your house or looking at your meter any more. These meters also have the ability to limit your usage, and turn off your electricity or your gas after a certain usage level is detected. Not to worry, say the utility companies; they would never do such a thing; the technology was only developed because government needs the ability for future, but extremely unlikely, “emergency” situations. And, it’s the utility companies, not the government, who is monitoring and billing you for your household energy consumption.

Marxocrat-controlled government has amply demonstrated that it is very good at creating false crises and then taking political advantage of them. It is not beyond the realm of Marxist planning to one day nationalize our utility companies, for our own good, of course, and thereby assume full government control over our energy consumption.

Obamunism is determined to force us all to use his stupid little light bulbs, to drive little modified lawn-mowers with propellers and multiple seats, and to teach us some kind of lesson. Obama has done everything in his power to stop drilling, stop mining and stop producing energy in America, and that trend will only increase so long as he is in office. He is doing it all on purpose; he knows exactly what he is doing. He is anti-American to his bones.

No government entity at the federal level, including DOE, has any legitimate business whatsoever controlling, regulating or strangling American energy production. That portion of DOE needs to be cut, completely. The whole goal of the Democrat Party is to convert “flawed” America from a free enterprise system to a planned economy, where government controls everything.

DOE is the perfect vehicle for achieving that Marxist goal.

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Date: Mon Apr 25 12:31:14 2011
From: AJ
Email:
Location:
Comment:

Shouldn’t we be concerning ourselves more right now with the ongoing budget crisis and the need to shut off all funding? This looks like a “down the road” strategy. We need to stop all spending, and we need to do that first.

Date: Mon Apr 25 12:48:16 2011
From: Vic Biorseth
Comment:

(Also, Paula and Robert: Three submissions came in within the first hour of my posting this page, all with essentially the same observation.)

The Republican leadership has already proved that they are not packing the required equipment to shut off the funding. They kicked the can down the road again, and the next time kick the can time comes round again, they will kick it again. They are tough-talking nutless wonders.

Current Republican leadership will not cut off funding. They will talk a good game, and then they will compromise with evil again. The first step, if America survives long enough, is going to have to be to replace the Republican leadership with all new Republican candidates.

We have got to get Obama out of office before he destroys us, the Democrat Senate is never going to vote to impeach him, and the Republican leadership is never going to learn how to actually fight like the best Republicans in sight, who are all women.

If Republican leadership had any sense of honor it would step aside.

Regards,

Vic

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