US energy strategy holds world hostage

Energy officials and leaders from the European Union, the United Kingdom and many other countries gathered for a summit on the future of energy security that opened in London on Thursday. If they expected a consensus would be built among nations to promote the development of renewable energy in pursuit of a cleaner and safer world, they were in for a rude awakening.

"We oppose these harmful and dangerous policies," Tommy Joyce, US acting assistant secretary of energy for international affairs, told the conference, referring to plans to phase out fossil fuels to combat climate change. Moreover, he claimed the green policies only served "the interests of our adversaries" and had been "harming human lives".

What he said, of course, is the official policy of the "drill, baby, drill" of the current US administration, for which fossil fuels are central to its economic strategy and "clean and green" akin to invoking the devil. Joyce claimed at the meeting that efforts to halt global warming were tantamount to handing power to China. "There are no wind turbines without concessions to or coercion from China," he said.