URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/guest_columns/062145521948opinionguestcolumns07-06-09.htm

Monday, July 06, 2009
A Big Price Tag for an Economic Maybe
By Ronald G. Toya
Albuquerque resident
   
   
    For eight years Democrats with Sen. Jeff Bingaman leading the charge fought President Bush's energy policies. Now they are in power and can do what they want. With the recent House vote on energy legislation, the public can only ask: "Is this the best they can do?"
   
    We're in a recession or worse, and the Democrats are making it more difficult for families and businesses — for families by raising the direct costs they pay for energy like gasoline, heating and air conditioning, for businesses by making it more expensive to produce their products and get them to market. Families get hit again by paying more for these products. This will make it more difficult for America to emerge from the recession, stretching out recovery time, which means longer waits to find a job and a longer time unemployed.
   
    New Mexico elected three new guys to represent us. Is this what voters had in mind? Did we want them to vote for higher taxes and make energy more expensive?
   
    Our policies are only driving more jobs overseas as our costs of production are going up. If you create 1,000 jobs in one sector but lose 1,500 jobs in another, is that really a job-creation policy you want to brag about?
   
    Furthermore, these policies do not generate more energy for the United States but instead make us more vulnerable to foreign oil producers. We're taxing and limiting traditional energy sources thereby cutting production while waiting for alternative energy to become feasible by subsidizing them, and then hoping they will produce enough energy for America. What happens when these subsidies go away?
   
    The Bernalillo County Commission has the right idea.
   
    They are reducing businesses impact fees, making it cheaper to build homes. This creates construction-related jobs, makes homes cheaper for families to afford and causes a multiplier effect in the community, thus creating more jobs.
   
    Why can't Democrats in Washington understand this type of on-the-ground economic logic?
   
    Remember a year ago — gas prices were well over $4 a gallon, even over $5 in some places, and the public was saying that we need energy production from all our sources. Then, the Democratic candidates changed their alternative-energy-only strategy to a do-it-all — oil, gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, even geothermal — campaign.
   
    That was just to get elected. From their actions, the Democratic candidates including Udall really meant "tax it all." Oh, except alternative energy companies where we'll give them money we don't have.
   
    Our country, its businesses and its citizens desperately need economic relief. You can blur the facts any way you want, but the truth is that these energy policies are politically driven and they are economically counterproductive.
   
    Neutral observers including the Government Accountability Office in its report last December question the ability of these legislative initiatives to meet their stated "green" objectives. That's a lot of money and a lot of hurt for a maybe.