iPhone 5 Innovation And Energy Policy

Posted by Jeff Carter
on September 12th, 2012

Today, Apple($APPL) will unveil it’s newest iPhone. iPhone5. The iPhone was an incredible innovation when it came out and it continues to improve. Everyone gets excited when a new one comes out. At the end of the day, it’s just a better way to communicate.

Instead of putting all this money into iPhone research and development, we ought to be investing in things that can really make a massive difference in our lives. For example, if you have been watching the news, you know that there were terrorist acts committed against US Embassies in the Middle East. The Middle East controls a lot of our oil supply, and all of Europe’s oil supply ($CL_F). Why aren’t we spending more on research and development of existing energy supplies to secure the United States energy supply? No electricity, no iPhone6.

Energy security for the US is possible. We have nuclear power. We just need a lot more of it. We have oil. We just need to drill for it. We have natural gas. We just need more of it. We have coal. Might be a good idea to start mining for it. The impediment to energy policy working for the American people right now instead of against them is federal policy.

Getting at new energy isn’t like turning on a water faucet. It takes a lot of time to get to, mine, and process new energy sources. There is a lot of risk in exploration. With all the constraints, windfall taxes and regulations we have put on energy companies, it’s amazing they still make a nice profit.

A lot of people are asking are you better off than you were four years ago? For 99% of us, the answer is no, we are worse off. But, when you think about energy policy, we must ask a different question in the same vein. Are you better off today than you were forty years ago? The answer is a resounding “No”. The Department of Energy (founded 1977) has made it worse, not better.

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