Patterson Irrigator | Your Local Paper - A power hungry-nation tigtens the belt

September 8, 2008 Patterson, CA

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A power hungry-nation tigtens the belt

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Written by Elizabette Guecamburu - Hometown Girl
Friday, 30 May 2008
It’s the American way to want more of everything. Money. Food. Beanie Babies. You name it, we want it. So, it really should come as no surprise that Americans, although only 5 percent of the world’s population, consume 26 percent of the world’s energy. Elizabette Guecamburu / Hometown Girl It doesn’t take a mathematician or IRS auditor to say that those percentages don’t match up — and no amount of creative accounting will hide the fact that we take more than we should. The combined energy consumption of China and India — the two largest countries in the world in terms of population — still don’t meet the rate of American power use. Let’s not forget that Enron had its day of reckoning. When will the U.S. be taken to task for its energy greed? Something tells me we’re beginning to pay for our addiction now — with our pocketbooks. And if you’re like the other millions of Americans, you’ve probably got a hollow wallet, making you question why on earth you bought that SUV that only gets 15 miles to the gallon. Our current president’s policies to alleviate our dependence upon oil have been meager at best, pathetic at worse. Besides going to the Middle East on his hands and knees to beg for more oil (which he has recently done in Saudi Arabia), Bush’s other grand energy plan, corn ethanol, has been a disaster. With millions of tons of corn and other grains being diverted for ethanol fuel, dairies and other food producers who depend upon the feed for livestock can’t afford the grain. As a result, food prices have risen sharply, further heightened by the increased cost of the diesel trucking that gets your favorite brand of bread and yogurt to the supermarket nearest you. Now, average American families are finding their budgets stretched by the price of food and the price of gasoline. Even though we might want more Beanie Babies, it’s impossible without taking out a loan on the house — the house that the bank has already repossessed. A lot of a good a bunch of Beanie Babies do if you have no house to keep them in. Anyway, I know one thing for certain: We can’t go on this way. Something has to give. I think it’s time for us to take a long look at our energy policies. After all, gasoline won’t be around forever — and neither will food if we keep turning it into fuel. What will feed our hunger then? Elizabette Guecamburu was born and raised in Patterson. Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Hits: 174 Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment smaller \| bigger Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.