Today, we announce that more than 31,000 U.S. scientists -- over 9,000 of whom hold PhD degrees in relevant scientific fields -- have signed a petition to the U.S. government that states:

The people of the United States find themselves in an economic crisis caused, in large part, by energy shortages and rapidly increasing prices for energy.

Yet, the United Nations and other vocal political interests are urging the U.S. to enact new laws that will sharply reduce U.S. energy production and raise energy prices even higher. These interests claim that continued U.S. use of hydrocarbon fuels -- which account for 85% of U.S. energy supplies -- will destroy the Earth’s climate and cause many environmental catastrophes.

What should the U.S government do in response to this situation? The answer is provided by science, by economics, and by the basic principles of human rights.

The inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, in a civilization based upon the achievements of science and technology, include the rights to obtain access to life-giving and life-enhancing technology. This is especially true of the right of access to the most basic of all technologies -- the right of access to energy. This right, we recognize, means we have the right to purchase energy, though the government does not owe us a supply of it. To the contrary, the government owes us an obligation to remove itself as an obstacle to our access to energy unless there is a reason our nation’s security is endangered by it. And there is no such reason.

The so-called “global warming” measures advocated by the UN and others create obstacles, rather than eliminating them.

Our right to access to energy and removal of government obstructions have been significantly abridged.During the past two generations in the U.S., a system of high taxation, extensive regulation, and ubiquitous litigation has arisen that prevents the accumulation of sufficient capital and the exercise of sufficient freedom to build and preserve needed modern technology.

This unfavorable economic environment has caused the transfer of many industries abroad and cessation of growth of many others. Nowhere is this damaging trend more evident than in our energy industries, where lack of industrial progress has left our country dependent upon foreign sources for 30% of the energy required to maintain our current level of prosperity.

Moreover, the transfer of U.S. industries abroad has left U.S. citizens with too few goods and services to trade for the energy that they do not produce. A huge and unsustainable trade deficit and rapidly rising energy prices have been the result.

These difficulties were entirely unnecessary. The hydrocarbon resources -- coal, oil, natural gas, and other hydrocarbon reserves -- and the nuclear energy resources of the United States provide abundant fuel for low-cost energy in the U.S. for many future centuries. Moreover, the necessary hydrocarbon and nuclear energy production technologies have been available to U.S. engineers for many decades. There is absolutely no technical or resource reason for the U.S. to be a net importer of energy. The U.S. should, in fact, be a net exporter of energy.

Now, a new and oppressive further infringement upon our human rights has been proposed. Laws are being considered that would sharply restrict our access to hydrocarbon energy. These proposed new restrictions of our human rights are being justified by the claim that continued hydrocarbon energy production -- with its concomitant carbon dioxide release -- will destroy the climate of the Earth and cause catastrophic disasters throughout the world. These claims are based upon the publications of the United Nations -- an organization whose prestige would be greatly increased by world taxation and regulation of hydrocarbon energy.

The scientific hypothesis known as “human-caused global warming” -- which is the basis of these United Nations claims -- has, however, been discredited and invalidated by unequivocal experimental research data and sound scientific interpretations of that data. This is attested to by the more than 31,000 U.S. scientists who have signed this petition.

It is tragic that the current shortage of low cost energy in the U.S. has been allowed to occur. In order to correct this problem and to assure that it does not recur, the current high level of taxation, regulation, and susceptibility to litigation of U.S. energy industries must be reduced, so that free enterprise -- working with private capital and without tax funds or subsidies -- can build needed new U.S. hydrocarbon and nuclear power capacity as quickly as possible.

It may be that technologies other than hydrocarbon and nuclear are also practical sources of abundant, low-cost energy. This is best determined in the free market. Elimination of all tax subsidies and marked reduction of taxation, regulation, and susceptibility to litigation of all energy-production industries will allow economically healthy competition. This will ease the current energy crisis and provide abundant low-cost energy for future prosperity.

In order to alleviate the current energy emergency in the United States and prevent future such emergencies, it is essential for the governmental restrictions that have caused this emergency to be removed. Fundamental human rights require that U.S. citizens and their industries be free to produce the low cost, abundant energy that is required for their prosperity. Environmental science, as evidenced by the signatories of this petition, favors this freedom.

To find out more information about the petition project, visit the website.