Defeat extremists, get real on energy

Bob Jack, North Las Vegas

Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.

This is in response to Dave Starr’s Aug. 6 letter, “Keystone pipeline is long-term loser.” Starr was responding to my letter dated July 26, “Obama is a threat to energy industry.”

In my letter, I pointed out the numerous ways in which President Barack Obama’s anti-fossil energy resource regulations and policies are destroying America’s long-term energy interests, resulting in devastating job losses for coal miners in West Virginia and undermining the privately financed, innovation-driven, robust boom in America’s oil and gas production on private lands using fracking technology.

Starr’s vehement attack on the Keystone XL pipeline and his support for Obama’s highly oppressive environment regulations and policies are excellent examples of why people such as Starr and other far-left environmental extremists must be soundly defeated in favor of realistic energy initiatives that help lift the nation’s long-term energy prospects and lead to job growth.

Starr’s assertion that the Keystone oil would belong to the oil companies, and not America, reveals his personal disdain for private oil companies and, by extension, America’s private enterprise system, which has historically been our nation’s engine of prosperity.

I assume that Starr would be more content with the government’s ownership not only of the XL pipeline and the oil but also the remaining factors of production.

It appears that Starr has forgotten he lives in America, where private enterprise and private capital are the backbone of society, not an unwieldy, out-of-control government.

Obama’s energy policies are misdirected and self-defeating. His political pandering to his “green energy” cronies is well-publicized and has been a scandalous waste of taxpayer dollars.