Flood waters in the mid west are sweeping over corn, soybean and other produce fields, gathering fertilizers and pesticides and undoubtedly adding to water pollution and the dead zone off the coast of the southern states. It's a sad state of things and I feel terribly for the people who are loosing their livelihood in the wake of rising river levels. Perhaps this is a lesson to all of us: development in flood plain areas is not a wise investment. If we could learn to work with these floods and use them to our advantage (flooding brings a lot of silt when not contaminated by humans), we would welcome events like this.
I am not writing today to give you some dissertation on flooding farm land. No, I'm hear to discuss our oil situation ... again.
I'm sure all of you have heard something about this in the past week. Capital Hill is passing the buck again on why oil prices are rising. Just about every blog or news agency I've visited sites the Wall Street Journal's coverage of the finger pointing at oil speculators. It's now "come to light" that if it weren't for the trading of paper barrels of oil, we wouldn't be in such a payment pickle at the pumps.
Now, the conspiracy theorist in me thinks this is a dramatic effort on the part of Washington to promote off-shore drilling in the United States (a matter that I am enraged at, in part by the fact that John McCain has turned his back on the legislation he worked so hard to institute ... McCain is finally in favor of raising the moratorium on off-shore drilling and that makes him a giant hypocrite). What will off-shore drilling and drilling in our National Parks do for our society? Our economy? Our future? I'd be happy to explain a bit.
Did anyone forget that George W. Bush made his millions in the oil industry?
That doesn't sit right with me. With this short-sighted vote of 51 to 49 in favor of reinstating oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge shows just how backwards thinking our government really is. The projected amount of oil located in the proposed sights won't do as much good as the uneducated masses is praying it will. If anything, what we pull out of the ground will attribute to under 1% of the global oil market, roughly. In all honesty- we can't predict how much is there. It could be an expensive and fruitless venture. When oil is drilled, it flows into the GLOBAL oil market- not the American oil market. Americans will not directly benefit from anything we drill. There simply isn't enough to make a dent. As for actually getting to the point of drilling- our bureaucracy is muddled and confusing. Documentation and licensing procedures to get the rights to drill in Alaska will take anywhere from seven to 14 years before any drill hits top-soil.
Here is a map, courtesy of the Sierra Club, that shows the proposed area of oil exploration:
This is prime Polar Bear, caribou, and migratory bird territory. What happens when we threaten this area? All of these animals face extinction. It's a fact of life. Do we really want to scar the face of a place that looks like this?
Do we want to push the envelope on oil spills, raped landscapes and the possibility that our children will eventually be paying for the efforts that go into all the drilling? We're asking for more than we can handle. We are biting off more than we can chew. It is easy to lie to the American public and let them assume that this is the bandaid that will heal the compound fracture that is our dependence on oil for energy. There has to be an other way.
Honda has already developed a zero emissions vehicle of commuter car size.
Why can't we invest in efforts like this instead of continually giving subsidies to oil companies? Yes, that would make fuel super expensive, but the technology can't get off the ground in proper time if we, as a society, don't support it. Our tax dollars are being abused by the current administration and we're doing nothing to stop it. The only way to make change happen is to vote for it ... to make a conscious effort to make lifestyle changes (and they can be so easy) ... to vow to be the change we want to see in the world.
Who's with me? Let's not hand our children a planet that riddled with holes and oil streaked beaches. Let's hand them a planet worth being proud of.
Lots of love, guys. Happy Tuesday.
3 comments:
While I love a good oil conspiracy, rarely do people think of one that might be positive. What if the rising gas prices were a conspiracy to get American's forward thinking and clamoring for energy change? Unlikely? Yes, but I would like to think that politicians with large amounts of higher education would have a little more foresight.
The ANWR predicament is retarded and there is no way it will pull up oil quick enough to relieve the pain at the pump. By the time ANWR is in action, I would hope that a large portion of America will already be in the process of buying energy efficient cars and devices.
As far as this administration goes, I'm tired of getting back letters from Sununu and Gregg saying, "I'm glad you're interested in your government and country, but this is what I want to do." These people don't represent us, and to think so would be an oversight.
Amen, dbrian56.
It's optimistic of me to think that all this oil garbage is in favor of changing the American perspective. It's really the fault of speculators. I think we should all follow T. Boone Pickens's lead. Problem solved! Ha.
Oh yeah, I also wanted to say thank you, Dan, for writing to our representatives. I'm sick of those bullshit letters, too. I bet Hodes sends a similar one this time, too. I wrote frantically to all three of them AND Porter. I feel like my recommendations fall on def ears. Damn the politics. Damn the deaf ears to the constituency.
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