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The Paradigm Shift of Sky-High Oil
Economic Stimulus Plan and Unforeseen Energy Fallout - Is This the Best Thing for Americans?
By George Bell
With Senate approval of an economic stimulus package complete, it looks like monetary help is on the way for million of Americans facing tough times.
Yet, despite news of billions in financial aid and the inclusion of aid for disabled veterans and senior citizens, the stimulus plan provides no additional support to the United States’ poverty-stricken, facing escalating financial hardships and heating costs.
The government’s response has not been adequate given rising energy expenses. In December, $2.6 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) was approved by Congress and Bush. In January, Bush allocated $450 million from the emergency fund for LIHEAP. What most don’t know is, “between FY 2003 and FY 2007, LIHEAP funding increased by 10 percent, but heating costs rose 47 percent.1
Fact is, if Republicans and/or Democrats truly cared about Americans, the LIHEAP funding debacle wouldn’t have ever even come up.
Really, America’s economic woes might have been averted if politicians had carefully considered how energy costs affect the everyday American. During the same timeframe and cost of the of the Iraq War, the United States could have built 400 new nuclear reactors, or over 660 new coal-electricity plants.2 (Based on 2001 Nobel Prize in economics winner, Joseph E. Stiglitz‘s estimation that war in Iraq could cost the U.S. $2 trillion dollars by 2010.3 ) What’s more, the current economic problems have a striking similarity to the panic of 1893.
And yet, in the recent debate within the Senate, Republicans and Democrats haggled over a few billion dollars to help the American poor heat their homes. For American politicians, the correct course should seem obvious. Do what is not only best for people facing these rising costs, but makes good fiscal sense as well.
A simple common sense energy plan could still save the economy and livelihoods of many citizens.
1 Letter to United States House of Representatives/Senate.
January 28, 2008 Signed by 884 National Organizations http://www.chn.org/pdf/2008/stimulusletter.pdf
2 BBC: Q&A: The costs of nuclear
energy. January 10, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7180539.stm
3 Regan, Tom. Report: Iraq war costs
could top $2 trillion. Christian Science Monitor. January 10, 2006. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0110/dailyUpdate.html
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