Energy suppliers must hang together, or they will all hang separately Green extremists want to kill all conventional energy sources By Tom Harris, Executive Director, International Climate Science Coalition:www.climatescienceinternational.org In July 1776, when discussing whether they dared sign the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin told frightened delegates:

"We must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately." He understood that colonial leaders had to support each other if they were to avoid capture and execution for treason by the British Crown. Similarly, America's primary energy suppliers - coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear and hydro - must band together to fight environmental extremists. They need to recognize that radical green activists are out to destroy them all. Take the Sierra Club, for instance, a group that boasts on their Web site that they are "the nation's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization -- with more than two million members and supporters." In their "Energy Resources Policy" is a list of the "Resources Opposed by the Sierra Club": • Coal-fired power plants • Coal-bed methane • Oil shale • Oil sands • New offshore oil drilling • Synthetic natural gas • New natural gas electricity generation • Hydraulic fracking • Nuclear power plants • New large hydroelectric plants In other words, they oppose the conventional power sources that supply almost all of the world's energy. In their place, Sierra support unreliable and expensive wind and solar power, immature technologies such as ocean power, and insufficient sources such as geothermal and small hydroelectric. None of these can replace our primary energy sources any time soon. The climate scare is environmental extremism's latest weapon. For example, to please environmentalists in his base, President Obama is planning to impose severe carbon dioxide (CO2) emission regulations on the electricity sector through his Clean Power Plan (CPP). Pressured by sympathetic media and groups like Sierra which expect us to believe that we can forecast future climate states, and even more outrageously, that we can control them, state and national governments across the world are doing the same. This puts coal-fired electricity, America's least expensive and most reliable power, directly on the firing line as it emits more CO2 than do other sources. Capitulating to popular but scientifically dubious climate change concerns, many in the natural gas, nuclear and hydroelectric power sector promote their products as 'green solutions' to global warming and extreme weather. They seem to believe that they can get a pass from activists since their products produce less CO2 emissions than coal. Trying to appease environmental radicals is a dead end for nuclear power, which green campaigners oppose even more than they do fossil fuels. But it is also a serious mistake for natural gas and hydro. The CPP treats natural gas merely as a transitional fuel, providing incentives for power producers to eventually move away from gas to renewables. And the Environmental Protection Agency's latest moves to regulate methane because of the climate concerns will severely impact the industry. Hydroelectric companies should also do nothing to boost the climate scare. After all, vast quantities of methane are released when wetlands are flooded for hydroelectric dams. And besides, the primary greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is water vapor and far more water evaporates when it is held high above sea level in large surface area reservoirs than when it is allowed to drain naturally to the ocean. If governments continue to yield to environmental extremism, draining reservoirs may be next on their wish list. No one is asking industry leaders to risk their lives as America's founders did. But they must have the courage and common sense to work together against the well-funded green machine threatening to hang them all. Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition.