Chris,

Rick Perry is the Governor of Texas last I heard. And Texas is a big oil state last I heard.

In theory, fossil fuel companies including oil, gas, and coal could stand to lose if governments around the world were to try to switch from oil etc. to solar energy and other power sources. And I wonder it that might have something to do with Governor Perry’s stand on global warning.

When I saw his stand on that reported in the news it raised my eyebrows quite a bit. But they were raised even higher when I saw a report stating that he wants to repeal the 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution and have U.S. Senators elected by state representatives instead of by the general public.

As a scientist I have to propose that his global warming position is not what it should be. However, I am not stating that I am certain that global warming is real, just that in the event that it is actually real then we cannot wait to take action until everything is cut and dried. By then a tremendous amount of damage could be done.

Regard, his position on the 17th amendment,

The only opinion I would be willing to state in public regarding that is to wonder if any elected official could actually believe that a majority of voters in the U.S. would be willing to give up their right to elect their U.S. Senators and hand that right over to their state representatives.

I doubt that voters would do that and have to wonder why someone running for President would take such a stand.

REGARDING BIG OIL

If inexpensive energy were available from solar energy etc. then more of our world’s 7 billion people could afford to become consumers and purchase products that can only be made from oil or coal such as plastics. And farmers might wish to purchase more oil based fertilizers.

The demand for oil for those purposes might actually go up and offset any loss in sales from the lower cost solar energy. So, the oil companies might actually make more money rather than less. It would be difficult to say if that is the case because of the complex economics involved. But it is possible.

Perhaps the oil companies are only hurting themselves by blocking the development of lower cost sources of energy.

These are personal opinions.