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June 12, 2008
Exclusive: In the War for Oil, the Battlefield Is Not Iraq
Imagine if your state, local and/or Federal government issued the following statement:
"In an effort to cut ‘greenhouse gases', all homes must turn off their air conditioning, heat, refrigerators and freezers each time the occupant leaves the premises.Except in a timeframe mandated by your elected officials, all lights, coffee pots and televisions must be turned off and unplugged under penalty of hefty fines.All businesses must turn off their main circuit breaker at the end of each workday as their employees depart and such can only be turned back on when the last employee arrives the following morning."
Now imagine the outrage and protests from across the country from citizens who would rightly perceive this as an unreasonable intrusion of government into private life.
In Georgia, this is becoming a reality for truckers traveling through the state to deliver your food, fuel and other life's necessities and luxuries. Georgia's environmental regulators are proposing a new rule that would limit a big truck's idling time to five minutes.While at this time the penalties for idling have not been lined out, it would be "cheaper to comply than pay the fine."
Just as the Federal government is pushing ethanol and little sardine-can sized hybrid cars on the American public, Georgia's environmental gurus outline their "alternatives" to big trucks idling.One such alternative would be APUs or auxiliary power units.These have been in use by owner/operators for years and the technology is there and readily available for those with several thousand dollars to install them on their trucks. In the long run, these units do pay for themselves in that they use less diesel fuel to run than idling the big truck's engine.However, trucking companies, from the one truck owner/operator to the large trucking conglomerates, have not embraced this technology due to the huge up front expense. Trucking companies, in efforts to curb the burden of $5.00 per gallon diesel fuel, are forcing drivers to give up their pets - often the only companionship they have on long runs and in some extreme cases are charging the driver for what some suit behind a desk in an air conditioned office has deemed "excessive idling."
Another alternative would be to have truck stops install "truck electrification," which allows the truck to use electricity rather than diesel fuel.It is obvious that the effort pander to the greenie-weenie Left has overcome common sense.Truck electrification was attempted by the now bankrupt IdleAire, which provided heating/air conditioning and electricity to truckers at selected truck stops.
The reality of trucking is lost upon our government as they look for measures (no matter how unattainable and irrational they may seem) to curb the use of oil:American truckers live in their trucks, the same as one would live in his home.Being away from our physical homes for weeks on end, we have refrigerators to keep our food cool.We have televisions and computers to entertain and inform us when our trucks are parked for the night.Would average Americans stand silent while the government forces them to only use battery powered televisions, computers and refrigerators?Without the power of the diesel engine, these items in a truck would be powered by the battery, which would be drained by evening's end.
Regarding cooling and heating a truck, would you be willing to sleep in your home at the height of summer without air conditioning?It is illegal to keep an animal in a parked car because the heat is deadly.It is considered child abuse to leave your child in your car for any length of time in the heat and cold - and no responsible parent would do such a thing.So why would lawmakers across the country consider forcing the American trucker, who is - for the most part - human, to sleep or work in a vehicle without cooling and heat?Supporters of the illegal alien invasion across our southern border have pushed for watering stations in the desert to give aid and comfort to lawbreakers swimming across the Rio Grande, but the American trucker must forsake water cooled in his or her cooler in order to "reduce greenhouse gases."
One logical, reasonable solution is domestic drilling for oil and building new refineries.American Solutions, a new non-partisan group chaired by former Speaker of the House and fellow Family Security Matters contributor Newt Gingrich, has taken the lead with a petition to "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less." The petition, which has gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures, urges "the U.S. Congress to act immediately to lower gasoline prices by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries."
It is easy to live in a glass bubble, far from the realities of a real job, a real home and a real life, and to make decisions for other people who pay their own bills, fill their own gas tanks and suffocate under increasing tax burdens.Our economy is fueled by oil.The parts in the very computer on which you are reading this article were delivered to the factory via truck. It was then delivered from the manufacturer to the store via truck.Chances are, you drove your car or pick up to purchase the computer or it was delivered to your home via - you guessed it - a truck. It is time we turn the tide in the country away from appeasing the irrational, flawed teaching of the followers of Al Gore. We must take the terrorist supporting countries at their word - that they will destroy the American economy using oil.We must drill and refine our own oil - not for sale to enemy nations - but to fill the gas tank of the housewife driving to the local grocery store or to fuel the big truck that delivers the bread, milk and vegetables she will buy.We are in a war for oil but the battlefield is not Iraq - it is the in the halls of Congress.
Mark R. Taylor served in Iraq from January 2004 to May 2005 as a civilian convoy commander, and his website is American Truckers at War.
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