Marching Backward in the Dark
May 7, 2001

MARINA DEL REY, CA--George Bush's recent executive order to reduce energy consumption in all federal facilities in California should be loudly booed, said the executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute.

"Expecting the American people to lower their standard of living is an immoral idea," said Dr. Yaron Brook, "especially since there is no 'natural' shortage of energy. The shortages are forced on us by environmentalists and socialists expanding their power over our lives. Energy producers know how to produce more energy. The only shortage is one of freedom--the freedom to develop, produce and transmit energy.

"Conservation is not a long- or short-term solution to the energy crisis." "Conservation" is the un-American idea of resigning oneself to doing with less--like a sick person who stops seeking a cure and resigns himself to living with his illness.

"The moral--and practical--solution," said Dr. Brook, a former finance professor, "is to eliminate all environmental and other governmental regulations that prevent energy production. This would give energy producers the freedom to meet our energy demands.

"The American dream is to be free of government interference--to establish free markets--so that productive individuals can create wealth, prosper and fulfill their lives materially and spiritually. Bush is now asking the American people to turn off the lights, turn away from the American dream and march backward into the stagnant night of the irrational."

### ### ###  ############

Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews. To interview Dr. Brook or book him for your show, please e-mail media@aynrandcenter.org

For more articles by Yaron Brook, and his bio, click here.