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Heritage
Foundation
What's
Actually Good for the Environment May Surprise You
Amy
Payne
April
22, 2014
Good
news for Earth Day: We can boost energy production and economic
growth without harming the environment!
Thanks
to years of empty promises from the Left, politicians in Congress and
the White House have installed all sorts of harmful policies that
block energy production, jobs, and economic growth. But those
policies have shown themselves to be counterproductive—they don’t
deliver the benefits liberals promised, and they hurt Americans.
Here
are two examples that may surprise you.
1. An
oil pipeline is environmentally safe.
The
Keystone XL pipeline, which President Obama just delayed again, has
received an environmental green light multiple times—from this
administration.
State
Department impact reports have concluded “that the pipeline, a
Canada-based project to deliver up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day
to Gulf Coast refineries, would pose no significant environmental
risk and would not contribute substantially to carbon dioxide
emissions,” says Nicolas Loris, Heritage’s Herbert and Joyce
Morgan Fellow.
Loris
also notes that the project “has bipartisan support, the backing of
several unions, and approval from former energy and interior
secretaries.”
The
pipeline would bring jobs and would help provide additional oil
supply. “With high economic benefits and minimal environmental
impact, this project should be a no-brainer,” Loris says. But
elections seem to be a problem for Keystone. After a promise to
decide the pipeline’s fate by 2011, President Obama postponed the
project through the 2012 election—and this latest delay pushes a
decision past the midterms.
2.
Biofuels are not better for the environment.
Here’s
another case where central planners promised they knew what was best
for us—and it’s not working out. In fact, it’s costing us.
A new
study out this week concluded that biofuels aren’t the “clean”
alternative to gasoline that advocates promised. In fact, producing
biofuels can release more greenhouse gases than using gasoline.
It’s
been known for years that biofuels aren’t as environmentally
friendly as we were first told. Heritage’s Loris wrote last year
that “After accounting for land-use conversion, the use of
fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides, as well as the fossil
fuels used for production and distribution, biofuel production is
quite carbon-intensive.”
Even
if unintended, the consequences of mandating ethanol production and
use in gasoline have been disastrous. Loris reports:
The
mandate promised less dependence on foreign oil, lower fuel prices,
and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of delivering on these
promises, the mandate delivered concentrated benefits to politically
connected producers and higher costs to America’s energy consumers
Whether
it’s blocking helpful developments or mandating harmful ones, the
government isn’t getting environmental policy right. That’s why
The Heritage Foundation’s American Conservation Ethic includes the
principle that the most successful environmental policies come from
liberty.
Freedom
unleashes the forces most needed to make our environment cleaner,
healthier, and safer.
Read this and other
articles with links at the Heritage Foundation
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