Here's a bit of good news. Over at American Interest is this article by Walter Russell Mead that outlines a fact that will make environmentalists cry tears of oil: we're sitting on an energy goldmine.
Forget peak oil; forget the Middle East. The energy revolution of the 21st century isn’t about solar energy or wind power and the “scramble for oil” isn’t going to drive global politics. The energy abundance that helped propel the United States to global leadership in the 19th and 2oth centuries is back; if the energy revolution now taking shape lives up to its full potential, we are headed into a new century in which the location of the world’s energy resources and the structure of the world’s energy trade support American affluence at home and power abroad.
Outstanding. As great as that sounds, it gets even better...
Additionally, our natural gas reserves are so large that the US is likely to become a major exporter, and US domestic supplies for hydrocarbon fuels of all types appear to be safe and secure for the foreseeable future. North America as a whole has the potential to be a major exporter of fossil fuels for decades and even generations to come.
Since the 1970s, pessimism about America’s energy future has been one of the cornerstones on which the decline theorists erected their castles of doom; we are now entering a time when energy abundance will be an argument for continued American dynamism.
One more pullquote to whet your appetite, and then you can go over there and read the whole thing.
The energy revolution is first and foremost a revolution that affects jobs. We are in the very early stages, but since the financial crisis of 2008, fracking alone has created something like 600,000 new jobs in the United States, says the FT. Throw in more jobs in both extracting and refining the new energy wealth, and add the manufacturing and processing industries that will return to US shores to benefit from cheap, secure and abundant energy and feedstock, and it is clear that the energy revolution will be a jobs revolution.
These jobs pay well; for the first time in a generation we are looking at substantial growth of high-income jobs for skilled blue collar workers. Some of these jobs, especially with overtime, will pay in the six figures; most offer wages well above the national blue collar average.
The boom has the potential to change the debate over immigration. The best blue collar jobs in the new oil and gas patches will demand workers with good English language skills and some technical background — good junior colleges and strong vocational high schools will prepare workers for these new jobs. Low skilled, non-English speaking workers will have a hard time competing for these jobs but will work instead in less well paid jobs servicing the energy sector and its workers. They will build houses for the oil workers to live in and staff the restaurants where they eat. As more blue collar native-born Americans see their living standards rise, it is likely that (legal) immigration will lose some of its political salience.
In an interview with former U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) in D.C. yesterday, Harper explained that Canada will now seek to expand its export market to Asia and will also cease to supply oil to the United States at a discounted rate.
(Emphasis mine)
And here I was, thinking that he'd never get elected after this little soundbite made the rounds to the general populace:
Silly me.
Even though he was talking about electricity rates, he was basing his plan on the now-disproven Hoax of Man-Made Global Warming.
It's still his goal, the truth be damned. Is it November yet?
Here's an idea that's been circulating around the Intertubes for a while, and if you haven't heard about it, please click on this American Thinker link and prepare to be surprised.
I've often wondered a couple of things about the theory that oil was made from compressed dinosaur. First off, if we're drilling hundreds or thousands of feet below sea level in places that have pretty much always been covered in water, how did these zillions of Dino's get there? What were they eating? Has any Dino DNA ever been found in oil?
Glenn Beck is concerned about an incident that happened recently in California.
While he has a valid point, I think he’s missing something. This incident is actually less about honesty and more about mental conditioning, or classical conditioning, as it’s known in psychological circles.
This is an very touchy subject, understandably so. Most folks believe they’re in full control of themselves and will reject any idea to the contrary outright. I get that. But at the same time, that idea is the foundation for every form of advertising we have today.
The whole point of advertising is to make you buy a product or a service. Think for a moment of the various ways that advertising is used to make you feel a certain way about a product. Peer pressure, status, a diminished sense of worth if you don’t own a product, all these and more are used to manipulate you into buying something that you might not need or be able to afford.
How many times have you purchased something only to regret it later? If this has ever happened to you, then you are well aware of the power of advertising.
I don’t mean to criticize all advertising. There are many good products out there that serve a useful purpose and are very handy to own, saving you time and trouble.
As a guy, I’m contractually obligated to say that tools fall under that category. Not all advertising is bad. If it serves to inform you of the tangible benefit of a product, that’s a good thing. You save time to spend with your family, the producers of that product (your neighbors) make money, what’s not to like?
Back to Beck. He’s concerned that no one thanked anyone at the gas station or even mentioned it to them. He’s also concerned that the station’s owner lost some $21,000 in the span of a few hours. He’s concerned that we’ve lost something as a nation.
I don’t mean to diminish his concerns at all. They’re all valid, but they’re more symptoms of a larger problem in America today: we’re being told what to think. And quite a few of us seem willing to be told what to think.
All seven of my regular readers have heard me mention something called “healthy skepticism.” It’s merely a variation on that old saying that “you should only believe half of what you hear and none of what you read.” In my case, that came with age. With others, it’s inborn or taught to them by their similarly skeptical parents. However you arrive at this quality, be glad you have it. I sure am.
It’s a natural defense mechanism and one that used to be in abundance here in America. Missouri is the “Show Me” state for a reason. That implies that the good residents of that state need to be shown how or why anything is true before they’ll believe it. Those are words to live by.
But, bombarded as we are today with electronic messaging, we literally can’t see the forest for the trees, to coin a phrase. Even seemingly innocuous actions like clicking the “Like” button for a Facebook recommendation sends that information to a whole slew of advertising companies. It’s nothing new by any means. Google, the host of this blog, tracks your search results to pass along to advertisers. You know that happens every time you log on.
But what about when advertising strategies get used in politics? Former White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod is famous as the “Father of Astroturfing.” While you may have heard that term before, you might not know what it means. You also might not know that it’s specifically prohibited by the code of ethics of the Public Relations Society of America, according to this Wikipedia entry.
“Astroturfing is a form of propaganda whose techniques usually consist of a few people attempting to give the impression that mass numbers of enthusiasts advocate some specific cause. In the UK this technique is better known as "rent-a-crowd" after the successful "rent-a-crate" business.”
“Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.”
Propaganda, plain and simple. Or the use of advertising techniques and psychology to make you think a certain way. They’re the same thing.
More comprehensive is the description by Richard Alan Nelson: "Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels. A propaganda organization employs propagandists who engage in propagandism—the applied creation and distribution of such forms of persuasion.
So, now to why I think Glenn Beck missed the point in his report. We’ve been conditioned to hate oil companies, and the incident he points to is a natural result of that conditioning. If you’re taught to hate something or someone, the natural response is retribution, and this was a classic example of the public exacting it from a perceived enemy.
Think for a moment of how many times you’ve heard the phrase “Big Oil” in a derogatory manner. Nancy Pelosi is famous for it.
She’s not alone. Turn on almost any news channel and you’ll hear the same type of derogatory attitude displayed towards oil companies and big business in general. Years of this type of message will tend to make you think that it’s true. After all, as Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and Vladimir Lenin both observed, a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth, and the bigger the lie, the more it tends to be believed.
This is why you can’t have a discussion about the details of politics with a committed leftist. These conversations nearly always devolve into emotional shouting matches and name-calling.
This is also what led to the election of Barack Obama. Eight years of the constant drumbeat against George Bush and Republicans resulted in 52% of the public electing Anyone Who Wasn’t Bush, a role that Obama happily stepped into.
To wrap up, Glenn Beck wasn’t wrong in his criticism of that gas station incident, he just missed the bigger point by thismuch.
It’s a sad fact of life that many politicians can’t understand the very simple concept of cause and effect. It’s playing out before their eyes, and yet they can’t see it.
But for the rest of us who populate the World Outside the Beltway, the concept is as plain as day. Well, almost. I’ll explain that one later*.
If there is any place to observe cause and effect in action, it’s in the area of economics. Shirley, you’re familiar with the phrase “supply and demand” and how it relates to prices: if demand is great and supply isn’t, then prices are high. Conversely, if demand is low and supply is great, then prices are low.
It should be a standard that’s taught first in any basic economics class. The relationship between supply and demand is well established and is a simple fact of economic life.
Except, of course, to that subspecies of humanity called Homo Regularis, commonly known as the modern politician.
Anymore, when addressing these people (as opposed to my readers, who are the most intelligent and well-informed people anywhere), I feel the need to use small words and type verrrrry slooowly, so they can understand the simple principles that the rest of us take for granted.
Now, when you and I read that headline, we think that gas prices will go up even more, mostly because they will. That headline may as well say, “Obama Administration Seeks Higher Gas Prices for Americans” because that’s pretty close to the truth, if not dead-on accurate.
We know that if we aren’t drilling, then the supply of oil will be less, resulting in high prices at the gas pump. It’s not rocket surgery.
So, if we know this simple fact of life, why don’t our politicians also know it? After all, weren’t they also raised and educated right here in the good ol’ US of A? Popular wisdom is popular because it needn’t be taught in a classroom; it comes out in casual conversation as just one of those things that everybody knows.
There’s only one other reason for their seeming ignorance of supply and demand: they are doing this knowing full well what the result will be.
I was willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt for a while. I, along with anyone else who had the slightest bit of curiosity about the man who would be our President, knew that he had never run a business nor even ventured much outside of the ivy-ed walls of academia except to organize some communities in that bastion of political verisimilitude, Chicago. So, I was willing to wait for a while he used his political training wheels to tool around the Oval Office.
But after two and a half years of having access to the awe and wonder that is the greatest information-gathering organization of all time in the Federal Government, it’s time to start questioning his intentions.
It appears, through his words and his actions, that he’s doing this on purpose.
Mr. Boy, you might ask, whatever would give you that idea?
Oh, nothing, gentle reader, except this clip that I never get tired of running.
*Explanation time – Here’s a Marist poll that shows that Americans really don’t understand the concept of supply and demand all that well, or at least the Americans whom Marist polls. 34% think that the evil oil companies are to blame for the price of a globally traded commodity. This ignores the simple fact that everyone in the world pays more when the price of oil goes up.
Either they’ve been misinformed or they haven’t been taught about supply and demand. That second one wouldn’t surprise me at all. Actually, the first one wouldn’t surprise me either. Maybe it’s a witch’s brew of both.
Did anyone else notice something about that Fox article, namely who they quoted?
...Eric Grafe, Earthjustice’s lead attorney on the case. Earthjustice was joined by Center for Biological Diversity and the Alaska Wilderness League in challenging the air permits.
Hmm, that’s funny. Three radical, left-wing environmental groups determining whether or not we can drill for our own oil? I coulda swore that’s why I voted, so my elected representative could make that kind of decision, doing what's best for the country, like they're suppose to…
Oh well. I guess that’s the way things work up there in Washington. I’m just a simple fellow with a computer. And a printer. And did I mention I need to get some gas today?
And did I also mention that I just might leave one of these taped to the pump? (h/t Instapundit)
I admit there are days when I wish I weren’t interested in politics. I could just boot up my computer, kick back with a cup of coffee, and entertain myself with Oscar results, the travails of Lindsey Lohan, or the latest buzz on American Idol contestants. But due to some curse, I find myself drawn to all things political, mesmerized by the efforts of mankind to rule himself. The juxtaposition of human nature and the machinations of government draw me in just as surely as a well-crafted song. High points, low points, counterpoint, tension and release, all played out on the stage of life.
This song came to mind as the soundtrack for today’s act…
While perusing the Interwebs this morning, I ran across a link at the Blogfather’s site, Instapundit.com. With his usual understatement, it goes like this:
What I found at that link was cause for concern. Great concern. A lot of great concern. A metric shit-ton of it in fact.
Contained in that report, aside from a great deal of financial information that I was unaware of (being the layman economist that I am), were the details of a global effort to bring down the US market. The breadth and depth of the effort took me by surprise, as it will you if you’re brave enough to read it.
I must warn you, it isn’t for the squeamish.
The average American, upon reading this, would be quite rightly befuddled at the concept of anyone else in the world going to such lengths to harm us. The overwhelming majority of us want nothing more than to have a good job so we can provide for our families. We haven’t personally done anything to warrant such a reaction from anyone in any other country. We don’t want to subjugate anyone else, in fact the opposite is true. We are more than willing to share our freedom and prosperity with others. However, as we are slowly finding out, the rest of the world would rather destroy us than to have their own people live in peace and freedom. Such is power of corruption and the corruption of power.
Since this report is over 100 pages, it’s a thick read. Just my own notes were enough for a week’s worth of posts, but since I know you guys don’t care for that much detail here, I’ll try to limit this post to just the highlights. Take note of this: there is little in the way of conspiracy theories in it. All the evidence of a global financial jihad against us has already occurred.
The report points to the obvious enemies of radical Islam but also includes other well-known enemies who are working behind the scenes to topple our government, and with that, destroy our way of life. We’ll start with Osama bin Laden’s remarks in his 21 December 2001 message:
“… The economic bleeding is continuing to date, but it requires further strikes. The young people should make an effort to look for the key pillars of the US economy. The key pillars of the enemy should be struck, God willing... Thanks to Almighty God, those blessed attacks, as they themselves admitted, have inflicted on the New York and other markets more than a trillion dollars in losses. …hitting the economic structure…is basic for the military power... It is very important to concentrate on hitting the US economy through all possible means.”
We’ve heard these statements before from him, what we haven’t heard is how he plans to carry out his goal of our economic destruction. It’s here that this report details the financial instruments through which our enemies can wage an economic war on American interests and institutions. And just so you know, it’s pretty much everybody: Iran, OPEC, Russia, North Korea, Hugo Chavez, and George Soros all have a hand in this.
You’ll learn about Sovereign Wealth Funds and how they financed “bear raids.” You’ll also discover the curious differences between two similar raids of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. You’ll find out why Credit Default Swaps are dangerous to companies that aren’t in the housing market. Ditto for hedge funds and short selling.
Especially enlightening is the section that chronicles the running up of oil prices in 2007 despite any drastic disruptions to the world supply.
Although replete with references to the financial hows and whys that cause most people’s eyes to glaze over, the author does a good job of defining them and giving short explanations of how they work. If you don’t yet know how short selling works or what a “bear raid” is and the damage it can cause, you’ll know when you finish reading the report.
There is a wall in Washington. It’s well constructed and apparently impenetrable. It’s nowhere and everywhere, invisible yet pervasive. This wall has no name, but is well defined. It isn’t meant to keep out invaders. This wall is designed to keep those in our current administration separated from reality and common sense.
The wall is evident in many ways. Take the current turmoil in the Middle East. In times past, America was somewhat insulated from the effects of political unrest half a world away. But this New World Order that’s being constructed, often by persons unknown and unelected by us, we’re being shepherded into a global economy that just plain isn’t working.
Nowhere is this more evident that at the gasoline pump. As you’ve no doubt noticed during the past week or two, gasoline prices are going through the roof. Now think back on all the times you’ve heard politicians say we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil supplies. Compare that to the reality of what you’re paying today.
That, gentle reader, is The Wall.
I can think of no other reason for high gas prices than the effect of this Wall. To each and every sentient citizen, the answer is extremely simple: we should be actively and aggressively harvesting our natural resources. Do you think that if we were doing what we once did, we’d be suffering at the pump?
By now, we should all know the answers as to why we aren’t pursuing a national energy policy of drilling and refining American oil. For generations, we’ve been prohibited from doing this by environmental groups and their handmaidens inside the Beltway. Lie after lie has been foisted upon the public claiming that we’re “destroying the planet” by using fossil fuels (even that description is debateable) despite a yearly tsunami of new and ever more restrictive environmental regulations. Even after the hoax of man-made global warming was revealed, politicians continued to pursue their misguided policies restricting our ability to generate energy as though nothing had happened.
I don’t need to tell you how rising fuel prices will kill our economy. You’ve already received a cut in pay over the last weeks, and this is just the beginning. Remember back to 2008 and how high gas prices rippled throughout the economy, raising the price of just about everything we make and consume.
Now, as a thought experiment, try imagining what it would be like if we had mature, responsible, and thoughtful leadership in Washington. We’d be drilling and refining our own oil today. Oil would be far less expensive, well under the $100/barrel we’re seeing today. Jobs would be created here, wealth would be created here. More Americans would have more buying power. World oil prices would fluctuate much less and political unrest in faraway lands would have less of an impact here at home. We'd have the money to effectively research viable alternative sources of energy that actually work.
Kind of like how it used to be.
OK, back to the real world, where logic, nor common sense, nor the laws of physics, nor concern for the nation can penetrate The Wall. Expect more empty words from this administration, more counter-intuitive ideas, more belief in the fairy tale of mankinds destruction of the planet. Expect more of what got us into this mess instead of a concrete, proven plan to get us out of it.
Drudge has this link up today: Rising oil price threatens fragile recovery (sorry, the link is for subscribers only, although I was able to read it earlier). In this “water is wet” story, rising oil prices are ready to stymie the world’s economies by rising to unnecessarily high levels at a time when they should remain low.
Thank you, President Obama.
It goes without saying that this situation doesn’t need to happen. If we had an administration that was at all interested in lifting America out of the depths of the worst economy since the Great Depression, we wouldn’t be in this mess right now. We’d be doing the things that we all know should be done to get our economy going again.
What we have instead is an administration that seems intent upon prolonging America’s suffering. Based on their actions, they apparantly want high unemployment and people without jobs. The reason why is anyone’s guess. But the fact that this recession has gone on this long, longer than any other recovery on record, tells us something.
In fact, we’re not even in a recovery. Our current rate of growth is hovering around the 2.5% mark. While that's technically positive growth, economists say that this is barely enough to tread water. It needs to be around 9% to start to see any real positive effect. That is possible, but this administration seems to look at our economy much as a caveman would look at a car. It’s a wonder to behold, but it does so much more when you know how it works.
Take oil for example. If you’re in business, I don’t need to tell you what high fuel prices do to your bottom line. If you go to the grocery store, you see the effects of increased transportation costs in the form of higher prices. If you work and drive to get there, you know that when gas prices rise, you receive a cut in pay. When the cost of gasoline goes up, everyone pays for it.
The worst part of all this is that none of it needs to happen.
None of it.
Let that sink in for a moment.
By now, you should be intimately familiar with the negative effects on our nations's energy production from the Big Green Movement. Radical environmentalists, (there is no other kind) despite being unelected, have been dictating our energy policy for over a generation. These groups have blocked or slowed every effort to increase our nation’s energy supplies. Want to build a new oil refinery? Expect some fat-cat, left-wing environmental lawyer to beat you to the courthouse with a lawsuit to stop it. Want to build a new nuclear power plant to fill the needs of a growing community? Expect demonstrations against it led by more radical, left-wing environmental lawyers and their stooges. Drill for oil? You’ve got to be kidding. The Obama administrations position is that, despite a Federal court’s decision citing the unconstitutionality of it, there’s still a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, putting thousands of people out of work, further slowing any chance of recovery.
In other words, our own government is making sure that we never use traditional energy sources again. It’s their misguided idea that we’re supposed to be forced into some sort of “green economy.” There’s only one problem with that idea: it doesn’t work. Alternative energy has been studied for nearly forty years and has yet to become viable. The only way to force the country to use it is to shovel massive amounts of tax money into temporary government programs. Spain tried it and failed. For every “green job” their government created, 2.5 private sector jobs were lost.
In short, our own government, under the control of eco-freaks, has tied our hands when it comes to energy production. We could be drilling for our own oil. We should be building new refineries, since we haven’t built one since the ‘70’s.
And you do know that Global Warming was proven to be a hoax, don’t you? There is no reason for us not to be developing our own energy supplies. Not one.
Yet for years we’ve heard politicians in Washington say we need to become less dependent on foreign oil. Of course, their actions prove that they’re not serious when they say that, else we’d see less restrictions on oil drilling, not more moratoriums.
Two facts make it abundantly clear that this administration doesn’t want a recovery to occur. One is the financing of Petrobras to the tune of some $2B so they can expand their drilling operations. The other is that our own US Geological Service has discovered a major new crude oil field. In fact, this is the largest oil field they’ve ever discovered.
It’s in Montana.
Now, in a sane world, we’d already be pumping oil out of it, creating jobs and wealth, increasing the retirement portfolios of Americans who own oil company stock and generally acting for the general welfare of the country. The fact that we aren’t, and aren’t even planning to exploit this valuable natural resource speaks volumes about the current mindset in Washington.
We need energy, we have sources of energy, yet we aren’t developing our own resources of energy. No other country is doing what we’re doing to ourselves.
Florida governor Charlie Crist can't stop proving why he's the wrong type of person to send to Washington. When polling showed him far behind Marco Rubio in the upcoming Republican Senate primary race, he abandoned the Republican Party and betrayed his former supporters to become an Independent candidate.
And now, he's calling a special legislative session to try to ban oil drilling close to Florida's coast in clear defiance of popular opinion that we should be doing more offshore oil drilling. While the Deepwater spill is a tragedy with 11 oil workers dead, I don't want to downplay the importance of fixing the leak and cleaning up the results. I can't help but notice that not only is Crist grandstanding for the radical left-wing environmentalist vote, he's simultaneously doing his best to kill the "can-do" spirit of America.
This is becoming a very real problem in Washington.
Once upon a time, Americans felt like we could do anything because, well, we could do anything. Virtually nothing was beyond our reach, not even the heavens themselves. We put men on the moon even after the tragedy of Apollo I took three of our finest astronauts, Ed White, Roger Chaffee and Gus Grissom. This is only one example of the spirit of accomplishment that stirs the soul of America. Everywhere, that is, except in Washington.
There's a trend emerging and it's gaining momentum. It's not a good trend. It's the result of unthinking career politicians who are far more concerned with winning the next election than actually doing what's right for the people. While we've had to tolerate a certain amount of this trend, lately it's begun to have a decidedly negative impact on the nation.
It goes something like this:
1. Some well meaning but woefully misinformed politician decides to introduce legislation that extends the influence of government into areas that were previously left alone in an attempt to "look busy".
2. Somewhere along the line, government fails in its' duty to enforce the law that it created.
3. Disaster comes as a direct result of that failure.
4. Politicians declare the entire institution that it attempted to control a failure.
We're seeing a variation of this trend in states that border Mexico. The federal authorities fail to enforce border security, crime skyrockets as a result, forcing the state to step in and perform the duties that the federal government strangely refuses to do.
Another example is the housing bust. The main cause of our current recession is the Community Redevelopment Act, signed into law by Jimmy Carter and strengthened by Bill Clinton. This law forced lending institutions to issue loans to people who couldn't afford a house, leading to an avalanche of defaults and toxic debt that we've yet to recover from. Incredibly, there are now some "progressive" politicians who are declaring capitalism to be failed when the real problem lies in the governments' overregulation of markets, forcing businesses to become more creative in the pursuit of profits. I repeat: capitalism has not failed. It is the government intrusion into the free market that has caused the problem.
The Deepwater Platform disaster is the latest incarnation of this trend. Following the spill of the Exxon Valdez, the federal government devised a system to contain oil spills while they were a safe distance from shore. Curiously, this system was not implemented by the Obama administration, nor was its readiness evaluated. Had this system been tested for readiness, someone would have noticed the absence of the necessary equipment to contain a spill. Obama went golfing, and Ken Salazar went white water rafting instead of doing their duty to minimize the damage to the Gulf coast in the first days of the spill.
Now, Charlie Crist wants to ban offshore drilling. Why? Charlie, have you given any thought to what you're doing to the people of Florida and the nation? Do you not realize that, due to the recession, many families drive to Florida for their vacations instead of fly? And do you see any other countries who are now drilling in the Gulf of Mexico halting their drilling efforts? Are you not aware of the very important role that oil plays in our economy and that there is no equivalent substitute? You are doing nothing to benefit the people by driving up the cost of oil products.
Yes, drilling for oil is dangerous, dirty business. But we have the smarts to minimize any potential damage to life and property. Considering the importance of oil to our economy, what we should be doing is making certain that emergency plans are in place to contain spills and regularly test their readiness to respond to a disaster.
We can drill for oil safely and with minimal environmental impact, but that requires a willingness of politicians to think beyond their next electoral race and to actually do their job.
In an opinion piece over at Bloomberg.com, Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, pens what could rightly be considered the remnants of a bad acid trip. I'm certain that the Obama administration is very pleased to read in print what they secretly think concerning our country's energy policy. There's only one thing wrong with Brune's article: everything.
Ignoring hisory, Brune begins with this little lie:
There is no safe way to drill for oil in oceans.
Really? I'm kind of old and I don't remember any oil spill of this nature anywhere in the Gulf. Not that it's completely safe, the harvesting of oil is inherently risky because oil is highly flammable. That's why we pay the oil field workers well. But Mr. Brune would have us stop an activity because it's not safe? OK, that settles it. Everyone can stay at home for the rest of their lives. That way, we can all be safe all the time.
This disaster is an impetus to halt our dependence on oil completely and move to a clean energy future fast.
My, my. That sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Let's all just snap our fingers and have all that ooky oil disappear, shall we?
Cost-benefit analysis shows this is the smart approach.
It does? Would you be so kind as to show us this specific analysis, please? I don't see a link to it in your article.
The most urgent matter, of course, is to plug the well’s leaks and launch a massive cleanup...
Gosh, Mr.Brune, I'm quite sure that no one else thinks that's a priority. Perhaps someone should've told the Obama administration on the day of the explosion. And how about that oil containment program proposed in 1994 that was never activated?
And speaking of President Obama,
Then President Barack Obama and Congress need to develop a clear, ambitious vision for weaning us off our addiction to oil within, say, 20 years. Dirty fuels are undermining our national security and contributing to the future disasters that climate disruption will bring.
And just what will we replace oil with, Mr. Brune? Is there another naturally occuring substance that equals the versatility of oil? Is there something else that can power our autos, that can be made into plastic and can soothe diaper rash? If there is, I'm certain that the world will celebrate this new substance and welcome it's introduction into our lives with parades. And keys to the city.
What is this substance? Mr. Brune?
Silly me. It's electricity!
We already have the technology to run our cars on electricity generated from wind and solar power. Feel the neck- snapping acceleration of the all-electric Tesla, and you’ll be disabused forever of the misconception that environmentally friendly travel is necessarily dull.
Are you talking about all that electicity that is only produced when the wind blows and the sun shines? How about at night or during a calm day? How do we generate electricity then? And can anyone afford a car that costs over $100,000.00. I certainly can't and I don't know many who could.
Mr. Brune? We're still waiting for a reply.
For example, when people use public transportation, they are helping to move the nation away from oil.
Are you seriously suggesting that I do my grocery shopping by bus when I can take my car on my schedule, and drive straight there and back without risking something frozen melting? Is that a truly viable alternative, Mr. Brune? I think I can safely call your solution bullshit, especially compared to the freedom we now enjoy, not to mention the safety of insuring that food doesn't spoil en route.
Gee, it seems as though your suggestions really don't work out here in the real world, Mr. Brune. It must be nice to live in your little fantasy world where there are no laws of physics and no money. There's nothing such as folks' livelihoods to think about. A place where everything is all rainbows and Skittle-shitting unicorns.
Where dreams really can come true if you wish hard enough.
...and in other news this morning, President Obama has announced that the Federal Department of Transportation plans to close the entire Interstate Highway System as a result of the horrendous crash Saturday that claimed the lives of a local family. A top advisor to President Obama said Sunday that no new traffic will be permitted on any of the nations' Interstate Highways until the cause of the crash has been determined.
David Axelrod, appearing on ABC's Press the Meat, said this on Sunday, "No traffic will be allowed until we find out what caused this crash. The safety of the American public is our most important concern right now." When asked when traffic could resume, Axelrod said," We have teams on the ground as we speak trying to determine the cause. As soon as we have something, you'll know."
What?
This is merely the logical conclusion of the Obama administration's recent decision to halt new offshore oil drilling after announcing support for it a few weeks ago. The skeptic in this blog thinks this is highly suspicious. After all, if you wanted to throw conservatives a bone ( a bone that three quarters of the country wants) and announce that you're in favor of expanding the nations' energy independence, but your radical, left-wing environmental base starts screaming "No! Oil's all icky and stuff." and you want to keep their campaign money flowing into your coffer, this couldn't come at a better time. You could say "Oopsy daisy" and backtrack with impunity, with this disaster as the justification.
You could even make sure your sycophants in the media print articles by people who have no knowledge of the industry blasting the evil oil companies and greed and capitalism and anything else in an effort to justify your decison. Better yet, show the country that you're deadly serious about fixing this problem by dispatching teams of lawyers to monitor the spill. After all, nothing stops an oil leak like a strongly worded letter.
But I digress.
Out here, in the real world, we still have an ecological crisis that must be dealt with. The Obama administration wants to look like it's in control in order to avoid comparisons to President Bush and his response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. After a Sunday in which various administration officials claimed they began to respond on "day one" ad nauseum, facts are surfacing that seem to indicate that this administration didn't take this emergency seriously until it was far too late.
It seems strange in light of all the debate about the negative effects of an oil spill that the federal government wouldn't have emergency teams at the ready to minimize the damage. And we're not talking about teams of lawyers, but rapid response teams that could start to attack the spill while still far away from shore.
If only we had something like that in place...
Hmmm.
Well, surprise, surprise. It seems that we do have something like that. In fact, we've had something like that in place since 1994. It was created in response to the Exxon Valdez spill. It involves ships that deploy booms to contain the oil that can then be burned far out at sea. This sounds like a good idea. Contain a potenially disastrous spill before it reaches shore. Avert a disaster. Brilliant!
All we need is boats and booms. What? We don't have any booms? None? Anywhere? You mean after all these years of talking about the devastation an offshore oil spill would cause and spending untold millions of tax dollars to install a plan to tackle a spill before it could do too much damage, we didn't use it?
Is this Obama's Katrina? You bet your light, sweet ass it is.
President Obama announced today his plan to modify the moratorium on offshore drilling by allowing rigs within 50 miles of the coast of Virginia. While this sounds good on the surface, the article goes on to highlight other areas that are now closed to drilling, namely the West Coast and Alaska.
Net gain = not much.
Veteran political watchers will immediately recognize this move as the tossing of a bone to the right and a few independents since his approval numbers are descending rapidly among those groups. The headlines will make it sound as though Obama really cares about artifically high energy costs, but not everyone is as enthusiastic. John Boehner rightly finds this announcement lacking, as will most Americans once they find out the details.
So, how would we know that Obama, who admitted that his cap-and-trade bill would result in catastrophic increases in energy prices for Americans, is serious about reducing our dependency on foreign oil? He didn't call for any type of legislation to streamline the permitting process for oil exploration. There are no provisions to eliminate the frivolous lawsuits that radical environmental groups use to cripple our capacity to produce energy. He hasn't called for a moratorium on new environmental regulations. He hasn't done anything to increase our energy supply or reduce energy costs.
This announcement is basically a non-announcement.
We'll see if this statement has any teeth by the way the market responds with higher or lower gas pump prices. Many leading indicators say that we can expect another round of $4 per gallon gas this summer which will further harm an already wounded economy. As with the last one, grocery prices will rise first, followed by anything else that is transported by truck. The hyperinflation that we've been warned about could very well start in the energy sector, primarily due to ineffective and essentially meaningless policies such as this one. Once this begins, it will be very hard to stop, especially with the current crop of Congresscritters in Washington and their resistance to common sense and ignorance of economic laws.
