A government cannot plan an economy. There are too many unknowns and moving parts for a top down massive scheme to work efficiently and create a society where most of the people are fundamentally content. That was the failure of Communism.
To afford government services, an economy must be a on a sustainable self-generating upward trajectory. Without that, there is no growth in revenue at reasonable tax rates (and unreasonable tax rates will be counterproductive in reaching this goal) and no ability to afford a safety net, national defense, and sound regulation of places in the economy where widespread social harm can emanate from.
Key to a growing economy is energy. Energy is diverse in both supply and use when you get into specific flows. There is no way to micro-manage this even to the point of the source of the energy (oil, gas, coal, nuclear, wind, water, solar). It is simply too massive and widespread in what it influences. The market must be allowed to operate for this to be done in the most efficient manner possible. And if it is not done efficiently, it reduces the economic health of everybody.
30 years ago, conservative planners would have said we would have very expensive oil today and nuclear might be dominant. Instead, natural gas is rising in importance and bringing massive economic benefits to the U.S. But the anti-fracking crowd says at what price to our environment?
There is no question that bad operators can do a lot of damage to the environment with their fracking. But there are also a lot of wells that have been fracked without doing damage to the water table. The key is making sure there is adequate regulation of these operators and monitoring of the environment around their activities so they will be caught if they take a shortcut with damaging results.
Die Hard environmentalists say that is too much risk. But I counter that have you ever seen a poor or middle class person care more about the environment than maintaining life style. China wouldn't budget on green house gas emissions until well over 50% of the people were on their way to a middle class life style. Cap & Trade is going no where in the U.S. until the people whose life style was damaged by globalization are convinced the economy is going somewhere where their life style will be stable and they become convinced that global warming is both a threat to their life style and something where man kind can still make a difference.
Natural gas releases less greenhouse gases than oil. It's cost efficient growth in market share is both environmentally sound and good for the economy. This could have been planned by anybody even 20 years ago. The technology was just being started and only a few could have even dreamed of what was to come from it. You have to let the market operate while executing the critical important regulation to protect the environment and prevent dangerous excesses from developing.
The anti-pipeline NIMBY's illustrate the danger of such pro-environmental planning success. Without pipelines, the demand for energy creates an economic incentive to use trains. Trains derail, fires and pollution result and people die. Yes, pipelines could explode, but they rarely do. Yes, pipelines can leak, but they are usually small and contained and cleaned up. But there is a train derailment almost every year with massive pollution.
And if your area is not plugged into the global energy system, your economy suffers. I am amazed by the anti-fracking/anti-pipeline sentiment in my home town. My home town has seen it's population decline by 35% over the last 40 years. That has not been good for property values, it has not been good for the quality of the school system, or anything else that requires a concentration of people. People bemoan this, but they are also extremely vocal about not allowing fracking or pipelines. Well, they may end up with a slightly cleaner environment, but people will be poor and life styles will be difficult to maintain. The world marches on and you have to compete efficiently if you want to be relevant and enjoy the economic benefits of being relevant.
My bottom line is only a rich society can afford to be environmentally clean. There is evidence of that all over the world. And if we are to be diligent in improving the environment, we need a strong efficient economy. That is why I support fracking and pipeline development, with the strongest safeguards for water resources.
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