tipsgnob
New Member
The issue of oil drilling is once again in the forefront of the news. The green-washed ads by the oil, gas and coal industries want you to believe their products are just waiting to be tapped and so environmentally friendly that they're actually good for you.
These same groups would have you blame gas prices on the Democrats because they oppose opening new drilling leases and are for clean, renewable energy; or they took a slight majority in Congress just a year and a half ago January of 2007.
If Congress is truly to blame, then wouldn't the blame go to those who have controlled Congress for the past 12 years? After all, those are the same Republican lawmakers whose very campaigns are funded by oil, gas and coal companies. Add to that eight years of oil men in the White House, including Dick Cheney, who holds private "energy policy" meetings with "O-G-C" industries, while excluding the EPA and other regulatory agencies.
In the meantime, the oil, gas, and coal companies are making record-breaking profits every quarter. If Congress were to open new leases today, it would be 10 years before it is drilled, refined and at the pump. Right now there are more than 2 million acres of public land available and unused by these companies. Don't you wonder why these corporations are exploiting high prices and public panic to push for yet more leases?
President Carter recommended the promotion and funding of alternative energy sources in the 1970s. The outcry was: "Too long-term we need an immediate solution." That is the very argument that is being used today, 30 years later. Think where we would be today had our government acted upon his recommendations. When are we going to learn? Sooner or later we will be forced to use brainpower to find alternatives for oil, gas and coal.
Why should we wait until we have turned all our mountaintops into flattened wastelands with dried-up streambeds and drought- and flood-prone valleys for an extra day of coal? Why should we wait until we have smothered every square inch of live-bottom and coral formations surrounding our continental shelf from offshore drilling? Or wait until we have even one more disastrous oil spill from a "spill-proof" dredging platform or tanker? Why should we wait until we've built roads, oil platforms, runways and pipelines in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to spoil one of our planet's most pristine and untouched places?
You may think it doesn't matter, that our needs come first. What's a herd or two of caribou, some arctic foxes, and polar bears in Alaska? Why should we, in Tennessee, care about a ruined coastline that isn't in our own backyard, or worry about the suffering and death of marine life? Well, it's actually science at its very basic form. If you don't believe me, think about what happened off the coast of California many years ago and a valuable lesson learned. With shellfish in high demand, fishermen eagerly sought ways to increase their daily catch, thereby decimating the shellfish population. They blamed the sea otters for the decline, instead of themselves. They began hunting and trapping the otters, which left sea urchins to multiply unchecked. The sea urchins devoured the kelp forest, leaving an underwater desert behind. No more kelp, no more fish, no more shellfish. No more shoreline protection against hurricanes.
When we live by illogical thinking and arrogance, to exploit and destroy everything before us, it is ourselves we destroy in the end.
These same groups would have you blame gas prices on the Democrats because they oppose opening new drilling leases and are for clean, renewable energy; or they took a slight majority in Congress just a year and a half ago January of 2007.
If Congress is truly to blame, then wouldn't the blame go to those who have controlled Congress for the past 12 years? After all, those are the same Republican lawmakers whose very campaigns are funded by oil, gas and coal companies. Add to that eight years of oil men in the White House, including Dick Cheney, who holds private "energy policy" meetings with "O-G-C" industries, while excluding the EPA and other regulatory agencies.
In the meantime, the oil, gas, and coal companies are making record-breaking profits every quarter. If Congress were to open new leases today, it would be 10 years before it is drilled, refined and at the pump. Right now there are more than 2 million acres of public land available and unused by these companies. Don't you wonder why these corporations are exploiting high prices and public panic to push for yet more leases?
President Carter recommended the promotion and funding of alternative energy sources in the 1970s. The outcry was: "Too long-term we need an immediate solution." That is the very argument that is being used today, 30 years later. Think where we would be today had our government acted upon his recommendations. When are we going to learn? Sooner or later we will be forced to use brainpower to find alternatives for oil, gas and coal.
Why should we wait until we have turned all our mountaintops into flattened wastelands with dried-up streambeds and drought- and flood-prone valleys for an extra day of coal? Why should we wait until we have smothered every square inch of live-bottom and coral formations surrounding our continental shelf from offshore drilling? Or wait until we have even one more disastrous oil spill from a "spill-proof" dredging platform or tanker? Why should we wait until we've built roads, oil platforms, runways and pipelines in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to spoil one of our planet's most pristine and untouched places?
You may think it doesn't matter, that our needs come first. What's a herd or two of caribou, some arctic foxes, and polar bears in Alaska? Why should we, in Tennessee, care about a ruined coastline that isn't in our own backyard, or worry about the suffering and death of marine life? Well, it's actually science at its very basic form. If you don't believe me, think about what happened off the coast of California many years ago and a valuable lesson learned. With shellfish in high demand, fishermen eagerly sought ways to increase their daily catch, thereby decimating the shellfish population. They blamed the sea otters for the decline, instead of themselves. They began hunting and trapping the otters, which left sea urchins to multiply unchecked. The sea urchins devoured the kelp forest, leaving an underwater desert behind. No more kelp, no more fish, no more shellfish. No more shoreline protection against hurricanes.
When we live by illogical thinking and arrogance, to exploit and destroy everything before us, it is ourselves we destroy in the end.
