Reid overstates success of renewables

Allen Hawkes, Las Vegas

Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

Sen. Harry Reid’s upbeat commentary in Sunday’s Las Vegas Sun about the future of the “New West” is severely undercut by his reference to the “booming clean energy industry.”

All citizens naturally prefer a pristine environment to pollution, but there will always be some necessary compromise to provide for the needs of mankind and ensure reasonable comfort.

The government and private industry have tried hard to invent, develop and improve sources of clean energy. Their efforts have been particularly intense since our nation’s first energy crisis in the 1970s. More than three decades, billions in tax-funded subsidies and incentives for clean energy have created a rich industry, but it is clearly not “booming.”

None of the clean energy potential touted by environmental extremists comes close to being able to replace existing energy sources before 2040, about the time federal entitlement programs are projected to bankrupt the nation anyway. Were it free of unreasonable political interference, the nuclear power industry would surely boom, but Sen. Reid has provided little encouragement to that clean energy source.

As long as 51 percent of the voters believe a politician can satisfy human needs more effectively than a free market, Harry Reid will be OK, but his definition of a booming industry will leave our children cold, in the dark and broke.