Day: June 7, 2011

The Wall Street Journal editorial page observes in “Alaska’s Ebbing Oil“:

…In its 1980s heyday, the 800-mile pipeline pushed some 2.2 million barrels of oil a day from Alaska’s North Slope to the port of Valdez. Yet as the rich fields of Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River have declined, oil flow has dropped to one-third of that volume. The drop-off is now causing serious technical problems, as slow-flowing oil drops in temperature and clogs and corrodes the pipe. Failing a technological fix, or more oil, the pipe’s near-term viability is at risk.

Environmentalists know that if the pipeline is shut down, by law it must be dismantled. If they can starve the pipeline of supply, they can kill Alaskan drilling….

To parapharase John Donne’s Meditation XVII:

Any energy source denied diminishes us, because we are involved in an energy intensive society and therefore never send to know for whom the gas pump tolls it tolls for our standard of living.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced a revised energy “master plan” for New Jersey that embraces natural gas, energy efficiency and economically failing renewable energy technologies (i.e., solar and wind), merely “considers” nuclear power, and shuns more coal, which currently produces 14% of the electricity used in the state. Did Christie miss the 20th century’s lessons about central planning? You can watch Christie’s press conference here.