Letter: Energy Conspiracy

By Jean-Gabriel Hasbani

The Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy recently held a lecture on “energy, security and the long war of the 21st century.” The speaker was James Woolsey, former director of the CIA under the Clinton administration. Not surprisingly, about two thirds of the lecture was about the devil terrorists, the devil Nazis, the devil communists and all kinds of other devils. However, the most striking part was the one about energy. According to this still influential person, the U.S. must reduce their petroleum consumption as soon as possible and must start distributing energy production (i.e. having solar panels on every roof). Why is it so urgent? Some of us would think that it is because the environment is cracking, and this theory would make sense as the guy is a democrat, [but] it is only because of terrorists! Consuming less means being less impacted by prices determined by Iran or Saudi Arabia. Distributing energy production means being more resilient to an attack on the North American electricity grid, though the last (and only?) major blackout was three years ago when a devil tree fell on an innocent power line in Ohio. The words environment, Kyoto, pollution, sustainability or responsibility were not pronounced once during the 90 minute lecture.

Jean-Gabriel Hasbani