America depends on cheap abundant energy. But over the past few years, and particularly over the past few months, it appears that Congress is hellbent on making energy scarce and expensive. Before going further let me be clear that I am here speaking only for myself. I am neither Democrat nor Republican, I’m a member of the Disgusted Party.

I’m not a scientist or an engineer. I’m a journalist. But I know how to use a calculator. And that skill – basic mathematics – is the skill that Congress must apply when creating energy policy.

I am fully in favor of renewable energy. But no matter how you do the calculations, renewable energy by itself, can not, will not, be able to replace hydrocarbons over the next two to three decades, and that’s a conservative estimate. Furthermore, the transition away from hydrocarbons will be substantially delayed due to the ongoing global recession. It has cut the amount of capital available for new energy technologies and drastically slowed the sale of new, more efficient cars.

Alternative energy discussions always hinge on scale. Last month, I visited an underground coal mine in western Kentucky called the Cardinal mine. It’s the 35th-largest mine in the U.S., producing about 15,350 tons of bituminous coal per day. That’s the raw energy equivalent of about 66,000 barrels of oil.

That’s nearly equal to – in raw energy terms – the total amount of energy now being produced by all of the solar panels and wind mills in the U.S., which produce the energy equivalent of about 76,000 barrels per day.

Here’s another essential number: 47.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. That is America’s total primary energy use – coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, and everything else. Thus, wind and solar now provide less than two-tenths of 1% of America’s total energy needs. We can double these sources. And again and again. That will help.

But the point is obvious: Congress must take a balanced approach to energy policy that includes hydrocarbons.

The Congressional leadership and the White House are promoting the delusion of “energy independence” while simultaneously promoting policies – such as reducing access to federal territory and cutting tax incentives for drillers – that will make the U.S. more dependent on imports.

The ability of American energy companies to produce enormous quantities of natural gas from coal beds and shale beds may be the single most important development in the American energy business in the past two decades.

Thirty years ago, Congress fretted that the U.S. was running out of natural gas and passed laws restricting its use. Today, thanks to new drilling techniques, America is assured of abundant supplies of low-cost natural gas for the foreseeable future if Congress doesn’t mess it up. Gas should be seen as a bridge fuel to the future and as a logical, low-carbon complement to the intermittent energy provided by wind and solar.

Regarding the Outer Continental Shelf, opponents of drilling contend that there is not much oil to be found in this region. That is false. Two recent deepwater offshore discoveries – the Tupi in Brazil and the lower tertiary trend offshore Louisiana – likely contain tens of billions of barrels of oil.

The U.S. now has some 250 million motor vehicles, as well as millions of recreational boats and tens of thousands of aircraft. We cannot run them all on sun juice and sails. We need – the world needs – oil. And if Congress is truly serious about cutting carbon emissions, then it’s equally obvious that it needs to get serious, and right quick, about nuclear power.

Rather than accept these realities, Congress dallies, and continues the expansion of the corn ethanol scam – an obscene boondoggle that does nothing to reduce our oil consumption. Instead, it increases food prices, worsens air quality, and perverts our presidential selection process, and yes, I’m talking about the Iowa Caucuses.

Congress must choose between rhetoric and reality. I favor cheap, abundant energy. I fear the actions of the House and Senate – intentionally or not – will only make it scarce and expensive, and they will do so at the worst possible time for our country.

Thank you.

To access the footnoted version of these remarks, go to the Senate website: http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&He…