Plan ahead for energy shortages

I recently learned from Bill Foster that he and two other congressmen had recently co-sponsored a bill (HR 6709) that will reopen the outer continental shelf for offshore drilling and repeal the prevention of federal agencies from entering into any contracts for alternative or synthetic fuels.

I wonder how many people even knew that such a prohibition existed. I wonder how many other rules like this are interfering with our ability to work with the finite amounts of oil, gas or other energy sources that exist.

This kind of rule should have been handled in a way that encourages further developmental work - not discourages it. There were at least 25 years of knowing that certain energy sources would play out. There were people and industries known to be in the alternative energy business that should have been encouraged to keep working at their ideas against the time when the inevitable happened.

Are there any alternative or synthetic fuels with short enough half-lives that plans should be put in place as to when to replace right them now? The planning here should be proactive rather than reactive. This is just one reason why gas is expensive.

Chuck Barr Jr.

St. Charles