Bio-logical errors

Finally, the Indiana state government is looking at pragmatic solutions to our environmental woes. Last week, Sen. Richard Lugar announced that the federal government is setting aside money to help fund the efforts of an Indiana town trying to run completely on alternative energy sources. The project in Reynolds, Ind., dubbed “Biotown USA” is being headed up by Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.\nIt’s such a nice change of pace to see bureaucrats joining hands with the public, working to combat global warming through achievable small-scale goals and using taxpayers’ money for a practical program that will benefit all of us. We know the cost of alternative energy is still exceedingly prohibitive, so how much is the federal government planning to offer up for Daniels’ noble pet project? A measly $1.7 million.\nOh, the generosity. Why, that’s equivalent to about 0.5 percent of our country’s per-day military spending in Iraq, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. Well, OK, on second thought, this funding is just pork legislation and not so much an achievable small-scale goal as a near-useless gesture. \nBut hey, at least our state is admitting that using environmentally friendly energy sources is important. \nIt also did a good job of emphasizing this point when, two weeks ago, state and federal officials granted British Petroleum an exemption from Indiana environmental laws that were preventing the company from adding a $3.8 billion expansion onto their northwestern Indiana refinery. The company needs the expansion so they can process crude oil from Canada, and it needs the permit because that expansion will require them to dump 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge into Lake Michigan, according to a July 15 Chicago Tribune article.\nThe increase in pollution would still allow the factory to stay within federal and state pollution standards, but it runs contrary to Congress’ Clean Water Act, which states that water quality near a pollution source cannot be sacrificed regardless of government pollution standards being met. In addition, refining heavy crude oil of the type the BP plant wants to process requires, according to the Tribune article, “more energy that could significantly increase greenhouse gases linked to global warming.”\nIt doesn’t take a genius to see the hypocrisy: The Indiana government is putting up a front of environmental concern while catering to big oil. But we also think the government is only exemplifying a larger problem: Many “environmentalist” solutions to the oil crisis only make the problem worse.\nBP is using this Canadian heavy crude to avoid buying Middle Eastern oil, and it has to expand its capacity, thereby creating more waste than it would if it were operating below capacity, because environmentalists won’t let oil companies such as BP build more refineries. And while we’re glad Biotown USA is calling attention to the topic of alternative fuel sources, those sources are often more expensive and use more energy to produce than fossil fuels.\nAll of us, especially our policy-makers, need to start looking closer at environmental “solutions” before we applaud them.