Connecticut Needs A Long-Range Energy Plan

…Considering that the world has a finite quantity of oil and natural gas remaining, the state should develop a master plan accounting for inevitable depletion of fuel supplies leading to what James Howard Kunstler refers to in the title of his book,

The Department of Environmental Protection is now embracing recycling in its solid waste managemengt plan as the solution to excessive consumerism and energy consumption instead of using source reduction. The plan does not recommend creation of a Source Reduction Board working across the consumer spectrum to minimize material, and, therefore, energy waste.

The DEP’s plan encourages waste instead of its containment and control, resulting in gross mismanagement of resources. Look in your trash receptacle at home and realize that the waste in it is made from oil. When I go to restaurants with friends, they all order straws with their drinks, and I don’t because I have a natural straw, my mouth. The straw is made from oil (plastic) and requires fossil fuels to make and distribute.

Connecticut’s activity is fundamentally rooted in the neoclassical model of economic growth, which assumes unlimited supplies of natural resources and replacement of any depleted resources by other capital such as technology.

The presumption of replacement is seriously flawed because fossil fuels are essential to all human activity without exception.

The Day