Robert Bryce's The Dangerous Delusions Of Energy Independence
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In “The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence”, Robert Bryce provides current and accurate information about America’s energy usage but presents it in a way that is unappealing to his readers and insults the integrity of the American People and their representatives by stating that “Energy Independence” is not attainable. Currently, Energy Independence is a considerably large topic in politics; it leads to conversations of global warming, terrorism, and foreign trade. Bryce has been a professional journalist for three decades and has written five books related to the topics of energy and commerce. His books have had many reviews on the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Bryce’s third book, “The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence”,…show more content… Independence is “freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others(Independence),” so energy independence must be the freedom of not having to rely on foreign nations for energy. The majority of the public is not well informed of the problems including energy independence so Bryce takes it into his own hands to call the people “woefully ignorant about the fundamentals of energy and the energy business.” It is true that most Americans have false ideas of energy independence, but Bryce could have instead informed the public instead of insulting them and gaining enemies. To tie in with Bryce attacking people, he says “While Harman may not the the brightest bulb in the chandelier, there’s no question that the concept of energy independence resonates with American voters and explains why a large percentage of the American populace believes that energy independence is not only doable but desireable(Behrens 285).” Harman knows that changing the type of light bulbs will not solve America’s energy independence all by itself, but it will help conserve energy and lead towards the ultimate goal. Bryce does have the correct idea that some politicians can not uphold their end of the deal once they are in office. For instance, Hillary Clinton’s 2007 presidential campaign was based off of being “energy independent and free of foreign energy”, and that has not yet happened. While the information that Bryce has given us is in fact significant, he creates fallacies with the information. Such include emotionally loaded terms like ignorant and hogwash, ad hominems, attacking Jane Harman with loaded terms, and hasty generalizations of politicians and the american