When e ≠ mc²

by Kerry Thomas

August 9, 2007

Albert Einstein formulated the equation e=mc² in order to explain the relationship between energy, mass and speed. But Al lived in a time before political correctness permeated every aspect of public discourse, before the founding of the High Church of the Environment and it’s even more radical sect, the Hoy Order of Global Warming.

Energy is the force that fuels free market capitalism. When energy is cheap and plentiful, capitalism thrives. Freedom flourishes. Economies expand. Everyone benefits.

When the supply of energy is constrained, the cost of that energy goes up. Basic supply and demand. Opportunities shrink. The economy contracts, along with personal Freedoms.

You may remember learning that energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is merely transformed from one form of energy into another. We’ve always had energy in one form or another. We just haven’t always had the technical means of harnessing the available energy.

During the Industrial Age, Man found new and innovative ways to harness energy. Machinery transformed the way we lived, the way we created products, and the actual products we were able to create.

Now, as we enter into the Information Age, artificial limits on the availability of energy threatens our future, our livelihoods, our capitalist economy.

Our omniscient government bureaucrats are promising to limit the availability of our energy supplies. They are threatening to impose limits on the way energy is collected and utilized. And they are promising to impose even higher taxes on the energy that they, in their infinite wisdom, are allowing us to use.

Already we’ve seen the Eco-Politicians prohibit energy production off our coasts. They will not allow our private sector to utilize the energy resources we have in Alaska and Utah. They’ve made it prohibitively expensive for the private sector to build new energy production facilities. And there are many regulations restricting expansion of our energy distribution infrastructure.

Many years ago our government bureaucrats began to meddle with the free flow of energy supplies. Certain forms of politically-correct energy were given subsidies and tax breaks. And as with any form of government subsidy, these once-blessed energy supplies somehow were transformed into evil forms of energy.

Our omniscient government bureaucrats have changed their minds. Now, these bureaucrats want us to derive our energy supplies from such products as corn or other “renewable” sources. We’re now seeing billions of our tax dollars being poured into development of these resources. In many cases, we, as consumers of energy, no longer have a choice in the kind of energy supply we are allowed to purchase.

Ah, wherever would we ignorant peons be without the guidance and direction of our omniscient governors? Where would we be without the learned guidance of the elders of the Church of the Environment? How did this planet ever manage to survive before they enlightened us about how American energy usage destroys Earth?

Maybe, instead of pouring billions into different forms of energy production, and changing the blessed energy de jur every couple years, maybe our government should get out of the energy equation all together. Maybe a little mechanism known as the free market should determine the energy supplies we use and the price we pay for such energy.

It used to work that way.