New climate change legislation and government policies restricting development of fossil fuels threaten to economically enslave Americans, warned civil rights pioneer Roy Innis, Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
“Those who are pushing these extremists policies are trying to hamstring Alaska’s and America’s ability to produce American energy,” Innis said in a keynote address before a crowd of 700 at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Resource Development Council June 4 in Anchorage.
“That will raise the price of energy and the basic cost of living. And that amounts to a de facto war on the poor,” Innis said.
Innis explained higher energy prices disproportionately impact the poor.
The average medium income family in America devotes about a nickel on the dollar to energy costs, he said. The average low-income family devotes 20 cents on the dollar to energy. Truly poor families must spend up to 50 cents on the dollar. And, here in Alaska where rural residents rely so much on diesel fuel for electricity, the burden is even higher.
Low-income families will be the “bigger losers” from both the recent polar bear listing and climate change legislation, he said. He warned such actions and other energy-restrictive policies will weaken America by limiting its ability to develop its own energy resources, making the nation more dependent on foreign sources.
Innis believes affordable energy is the new civil rights battle of the 21st century. He brings legitimacy to that claim. For forty years he led CORE in fighting for social, political and economic civil rights for all Americans.
“The culprit of this new civil rights battle are environmental policies and laws that increase the cost of energy and economically enslave those Americans who most struggle to climb the ladder of economic success,” Innis said. “The civil rights challenge of our time is to stop environmental policies that drive up the cost of energy and disproportionately hurt low-income Americans and the working poor.”
In his recent book, “Energy Keepers Energy Killers,” Innis referred to energy as “the master resource” of modern society. “It makes possible our ability to enjoy all civil rights,” Innis said. “With abundant, reliable, affordable energy, much is possible. Without it, hope, opportunity and progress are hobbled.”
Innis said America does not need to choose between a clean environment and affordable and reliable energy. “We can have both,” he explained. “We can find a common sense balance between the sometimes competing demands of these two great societal goals.”
Innis noted many of the originators of the environmentalist movement were trained in the civil rights movement. Most of their leaders studied civil rights tactics and strategies. “Above all, they understand the power of the most important weapon that was used in our liberation: the tenacious hold on the moral high ground that allowed us to appeal to the moral conscience of the American people,” Innis noted.
But the civil rights leader explained there is a fundamental difference in the use of this hallowed instrument of liberation and its use by some environmentalists.
“The radical environmentalists do not have a true claim to the moral high ground, because they use this instrument to deny access to available energy. The environmentalists’ claim to the moral high ground is illusory and cloaked in pseudoscience.”
He charged that some organizations prey upon the good intentions of the general public and he warned that the laws and policies they sponsor have consequences. He said the time has come to stand up for energy and economic civil rights.
Innis is calling for an energy policy that increases domestic supplies of fossil fuels. He believes the cost of energy would fall substantially if Congress were to pass an energy policy that focuses on increasing domestic production of oil, gas, coal and nuclear.
Innis believes America has a “moral obligation” to develop these energy resources on its public lands and to open its offshore areas to exploration. He noted America has immense energy resources both onshore and offshore, but that environmental policies have closed vast areas to development, including the nation’s most promising prospects.
As energy development and production becomes more restrictive in this country, Innis predicts energy prices will rise sharply, severely impacting lifestyles for even middle class Americans. He believes environmental organizations will lose touch with average Americans as they oppose traditional fossil fuel development, which he says leads to affordable energy and jobs.
“We must tenaciously hold on to the moral high ground as we appeal to the moral conscious of the American people,” Innis urged. “They are good people; they want to do the right thing.”
Innis believes a new grass roots movement, like the one in the 1960s, is necessary to convince Congress to increase domestic energy supplies. He is taking his message across the country, hoping to spark grass roots efforts aimed at advocating for environmentally responsible development of fossil fuels.
Innis does not believe humans are responsible for climate change. He likes the prospects for renewable energy, but does not believe the technologies have advanced enough to replace fossil fuels “any time soon.” A copy of his speech is available here.
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