There is no shortage of energy.

• Author: Fitz, Don

Consider the following two assertions:

1. There is already more energy than we need.

2. No matter how much energy is produced, it will not be enough.

These two statements appear totally contradictory. Yet they are both true.

It is similar to food and starvation. There is enough food to feed everyone on the planet. Yet hunger is increasing. Agribusiness says that we need to fight starvation by increasing food production via another "Green Revolution" with pesticides, herbicides, genetic engineering and leveling of rain forests to plant crops to be sold to distant lands. None of those are necessary and they will, in all likelihood, increase hunger.

People starve not because there is not enough food, but because available food is not distributed to those who need it. It is more profitable to process food and send it to those who over-consume in rich countries than it is to sell it to those in poor countries who can pay less for it.

Local food production for need, combined with aid during times of crisis, could feed everyone. But increased corporate control of food means more production for the international market and food drained away from those who need it the most. Corn for people to eat locally is transformed to corn to feed cattle for international hamburger chains. Less corn is available to solve hunger as American obesity skyrockets. A thousand food commodities and diabetes follow the same path.

Just as an increase in the quantity of food can be followed by an increase in starvation, an increase in the quantity of energy available can accompany an energy shortage. If people controlled their energy locally, they could decide how much to produce and, more important, what types of energy-draining activities need to be limited.

But increases in energy production occur simultaneously with control by big energy corporations. The more energy that it...