CPAC Hamster Wheel
Were you at CPAC? If so, we’re not sure if you could have missed CFACT’s booth. Our giant human hamster wheel generator was a giant attention grabber. A few brave students stepped into the wheel to generate power for America on what we termed “Obama’s Energy Plan for America”.
The wheel was a colorful visual picture of what America’s energy future will look like if we continue down the path of wind, solar and biofuel that the current administration wants us to be on.
CFACT’s National Director Bill Gilles explained, “Considering the restrictions President Obama wants to put on energy production and the failure of government subsidized wind and solar, we may very well be reduced to running in the hamster wheel to produce the energy we need.”
According to CFACT’s policy advisor Paul Driessen, “America runs on abundant, reliable, affordable energy to support jobs and living standards, and power homes, schools, offices, factories, campuses, hospitals, computers and internet services. Nearly 85% of our nation’s energy still comes from oil, gas and coal. Making energy more expensive, less reliable and less accessible destroys jobs, reduces living standards, and hurts poor and minority families.”
President Obama stated on the campaign trail that, “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
President Obama called for a “renewable portfolio standard” in his 2011 State of the Union Address. He wants 80% of America’s electricity to come from “clean energy sources” by 2035.
Gilles commented, “The hamster wheel may be clean, but it’s no more practical than the wind and solar sources President Obama calls for.”
Driessen stated that, “We need to let free markets tap America’s energy resources and creative potential. Government should set rules that prevent harm to people and the environment, and then let our vibrant marketplace create the technologies, opportunities and jobs we need.”
CFACT borrowed the human sized hamster wheel from the Randolph College Physics Department. CFACT organizer Christina Wilson noted, “In no way should the generosity of the physics club be construed as an endorsement of our message, but we are grateful to them for lending us the wheel.”
In addition to running on a giant human hamster wheel, CFACT also allowed CPAC attendees to throw eggs at posters of Al Gore and Michael Mann. The eggs were a play on the old phrase “egg on your face”. Certainly Al Gore and Michael Mann have said plenty of things to earn them both egg on their faces. Gore notably claimed to have invented the internet, not to mention his entire movie “An Inconvenient Truth”. Michael Mann is lesser known than Gore, but his infamous Hockey Stick Graph is well…infamous. Debunked by Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrik in 2003, the graph has proven embarrassing to say the least to the left.
CFACT garnered lots of media attention and praise for their unique and creative ways to get noticed in the midst of thousands of people at CPAC. PBS Newshour referred to CFACT as the “highlight of CPAC”.
If you were there, and you too want to join in the fun, contact our National Field Director Ryan Sorba to start a chapter today!
