Energy problem dates back to '77

I am constantly getting e-mails from unhappy and disgruntled Americans dissatisfied with our government's answer to problems faced in recent years. These e-mails contain information that most of us don't really think about.

I'm no expert, but it does make me wonder what is happening to fix our energy situation.

The most recent e-mail referred to the Department of Energy ... during the Carter Administration. We're talking more than 30 years ago. I don't remember this and probably nobody else does. I guess we need to look into it.

But here's what the claim is:

We have apparently spent several hundred billion dollars in support of the "Department of Energy," an entity that few will remember was established August 4, 1977, to lessen America's dependence on foreign oil.

Are we efficient or what?

In 2009 - nearly 32 years later - and the nation's budget for this necessary department is at $24.2 + billion a year with 16,000 federal employees and 100,000 contract employees. We taxpayers really need to check this out.

I suggest we look into what this kind of bureaucracy has done for us.

Now, our leaders are suggesting that we turn over the banking system, health care and the auto industry to these same bureaucrats. The e-mail info said, and I quote, "God help us."

I recently went to gas up one of my vehicles and guess what? The price had gone up again. Now look at the variations of price between Redding and Anderson and you will see some significant fluctuations.

Okay, summer vacation started the first of June. Bingo! Up goes the price of gas. A holiday happens. Bingo! Up goes the price of gas.

I'm sorry, but using the excuse of supply and demand is no longer an option for this practice in my book.

Another e-mail reported we have the best kept secret in Montana - oil fields ripe for the pumping.

Is this true?

Do we have fuel supplies on our own soil that could last for a multitude of centuries? If so, doesn't that give ample time to research options for fuel?

Yeah, I think so.

Anyway, I don't see this Department of Energy doing us a whole lot of good, but they probably do a lot of paperwork. It must justify the job.

It's just like committees.

Usually a committee is formed to accomplish things. My experience with committees that are too large is that they become cumbersome and take up valuable time bickering and arguing, pointing fingers and such that not much ever gets accomplished.

For this reason, more items are tabled for who knows how long. For example, take those 16,000 federal employees and 100,000 contract employees mentioned earlier. The committees in that agency are probably so huge and spread out there's likely no way they could ever agree on anything.

But, I'll bet they collect a paycheck every week.

That's what it's all about - the paycheck. I have no idea how they are justifying it.

I had a relative who worked for one of those government-funded employment programs. He had to justify his budget for upcoming years so he spent and spent and spent. Then he told me that he had just purchased an item that wasn't really needed. But he had to spend it on something or he'd lose some of the funding.

There has been more justifying at high levels to keep programs and departments going because of one important factor - the almighty paycheck. We bow to the paycheck. It has become a god; the glimmer that guides us. Sadly for many Americans, nothing else matters these days other than battling to have things.

The economy should be waking up these days and cutting the fat that allows so much ridiculous spending at all levels of society.