Maryland Sixth

To me the most interesting US House of Representatives race of the year will be that in Maryland's Sixth District. I used to work and go to church in this district. Back in the 1970s I worked at Ft Richie, near Hagerstown and near the Pennsylvania border, and went to church in Hagerstown. The district includes Hagerstown and sprawls all the way westward to the border with West Virginia. It is the most conservative of Maryland's congressional districts and only one of 2 out of 8 whose representative is Republican.

The current Representative is 80-year-old Roscoe Bartlett, who is well-known in peak oil circles as the only US Senator or Representative that knows aobut the peak oil situation coming up and is willing to talk about it, to the extent of having conferences about it. For this reason, if I were living in Maryland Sixth, I would vote for Roscoe Bartlett, even though he was Republican and despite some of the stands that he has taken.

But I wanted to see what the Democrats would say. So far, the Democrats have been puny about Peak Oil. They criticize the Republicans, especially President Bush, for the high gasoline prices we have been having, even though those are the result of supply and demand. But they don't come up with substantive proposals for dealing with the problem. I found out that there are two Democratic possible challengers to Repr. Bartlett: Barry Kissin and Andrew Duck. So I tried seeing what these two people would say about Peak Oil.

I looked at Andrew Duck first. He wants to bring the price of oil back to $30! His site recommends this portfolio of actions: Conservation, Increasing the fuel mileage targets for vehicles, Research and infrastructure support for biofuels, Clean coal gasification [sic], Increased support for wind power, and Increased use of natural gas. This sounds a lot what I would recommend: a full court press. I would add plugin hybrid cars to the lis and railroads to the list. How come people in government won't recommend a return to the railroads? But his wanting to bring back oil to an unrealistic level and his not mentioning peak oil at all had me favoring Roscoe Bartlett for election.

I emailed Duck about the 30% and he surprised me with his reply. It turns out that Roscoe Bartlett may not be all the peak oil champion that the peak oil people make him out to be. According to Duck, Roscoe Bartlett voted no on Tokyo accords, no on increased CAFE standards, and at first no, then yes, to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Duck says he votes the Bush and Republican line repeatedly. This makes me wonder about Roscoe, since outside of peak oil, his stands are quite dissimilar to mine, because they are all Republican stands. However, Duck does not mention Peak Oil either.

I looked up Barry Kissin and found his site more interesting. He gives a long dissertation on how Roscoe Bartlett is not what he is cracked up to be. Mr. Kissin actually talks about Peak Oil, whereas Andrew Duck does not. I found Mr. Kissin's paper to be interesting, and it makes me wonder which candidate would indeed be the best from Maryland's Sixth. It makes me wish I were in Maryland, so I could make such an important peak oil vote. However, even he does not call for what I think is really needed: a $1-10/gallon fuel (including diesel and gasoline) tax and compensating reductions in other taxes, especially income taxes.

So if I were in Maryland, I would contact all three candidates and point out the flaws in their positions, and see how they react. This would determine who I would favor to go to Washington representing Maryland's Sixth.

Note my abbreviation for Representative: Repr. I use that instead of Rep., because Rep. is ambiguous and could mean Republican.