“North American Energy Independence”: Imaginary, Awful, Socialist

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is once again touting the Republican fantasy called “North American energy independence.” Here’s a quick reminder of why that concept is phony, horrifying & anti-capitalist:

• Coal companies want to build coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest to send America’s coal to Asia. Oil companies want to build the Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline to the Gulf Coast to send North America’s oil to Asia – and the Republican plan would force its completion! Unless Republicans plan to nationalize the fossil fuel supplies of both the U.S. and Canada and ban exports rendering Keystone pointless, the GOP plan is imaginary. 
• If we have any chance of keeping global warming to a livable limit, we need to be on a path to using much less of carbon intensive-fuels right now and keeping a great deal of our known fossil fuel supplies buried in the ground forever. The Republican plan would essentially do the opposite – dig them up and burn them much faster than we’re currently doing, cooking the planet even faster than we’re currently doing. We’re talking a 10 degree rise in temperature and 3+ foot rise in sea level in the lifetime of a child born today. Just imagine superstorm Sandy with an extra 10 degrees of fuel and an extra 3 feet of storm surge. The GOP plan is awful.
• The Republican plan would continue massive government help and direct subsidies for the worst polluting fuels with no limit on carbon pollution. The GOP plan is socialism for big polluters.

As Steve Benen details, the Ryan budget is also imaginary in that it pretends the 2012 election never happened.