Drill, baby, drill,,oops!

Context is everything. What you clipped in front of that statement was "Yeah, it makes perfect sense that sabotage is a possibility." I didn't imply anything. I overtly stated it was a possibility.

One way or another, there is minimal evidence of anything right now.

 

It makes perfect sense that Octane is a troll. I'm no implying anything. I'm just saying it is a possibility.

 

C'mon SageBrush. What better way to cripple the US economy as we are starting to emerge from a devastating recession than to have us remain forever bound to foreign oil? Kill any initiatives at self reliance and gas starts its upward march in price again. Gasoline just hit the $9.00 mark in the UK, so that is a demonstrated possibility of what gas could end up costing us. This would further drain our economy of capital and give more than 1/2 a trillion $ a year to our enemies to wage more war against us.

What better way to "bring it all down, baby" than to feed a reason to the very strong environmental forces in the USA which were responsible for shutting down all nuclear power development while the rest of the world took our designs and refined them to the point where they have been working flawlessly for 30 plus years? This has been crippling to us and has forced the production of billions of tons of conventional pollution, airborne radioactive pollution and CO2 vis-a-vis the burning of coal rather than use of nuclear.

No, as the political momentum to change the status quo of dependency and refusal to safely develop our own natural resources is finally shifting... this happens. It's all too convenient.

There are 10s of entities that have huge financial stake in the US being dependent on foreign oil rather than on domestic resources. Many of them are our avowed enemies: Russia, Venezuela, and Iran as well as supposed "friends" such as Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

Blow up a rig, let the environmentalists in the USA do all the dirty work of shutting down exploration and drilling and you have the scenario where the great giant went to sleep again just like they did with nuclear post three mile island.

Time to wake up and smell the vicious world as it really is.

 

The problem with this scenario is that with or without domestic exploration and drilling, the end game is pretty much the same. If we do a lot of exploration and drilling, and have exceptionally good luck, we might be able to forestall the inevitable by a few years, but not much more than that. There just isn't enough recoverable oil under our soil to make a fundamental difference.

Tom

 

Environmentalists blew up the oil rig in the Gulf?

Sounds like the same nut cases that said the Bush Administration ( not that I like anything about Bush and Co., at all ) like saying they took down the Twin Towers.

oops..did I say nut case? Really.

 

It's an old, tried and true political tactic: accuse the opposition of doing what you did. (Not that the oil companies would have blown up the rig on purpose, either, because that would have been counterproductive IMO, but that's just me).

 

Cough....Halliburton.....Cough

 

Oh I don't think Hal did it on purpose.
If it was their fault, they were just providing shoddy workmanship and/or materials to save money.
No conspiracy, just greed.

 

Actually, this came from Rush: Drill, Baby...Ugh - Coop's Corner - CBS News It's a hoot.

 

any issue with BP and the Gov. not doing insp"""
gulg drilling has been safe for a long long time

 

How *does* one rationalize past support for what is now looking like it will destroy the gulf ?

Witness the Palinites.

 

My Tundra is more important than your Gulf? Not!

 

I know, I know!!!
'The explosion was caused by too much wildlife in the area. You should have been shooting wildlife from helicopters to prevent this disaster!'

How's that?

 

Not just the Gulf. Think about where the Gulf Stream goes. How long until it hits Florida...the Everglades...and then gets around the corner up into the Atlantic?

 

Time to wake up and realize that environmentalists are not a group that has the power to just make things happen. The US public was responsible for shutting down all nuclear power development. Even today polling for nuclear is typically in the 50-60% range, which is below drilling (at least prior to this disaster).

Energy

 

Rambling and possibly pointless post below..

We both agree that environmental regulation is responsible for almost all the environmental turnarounds that we've witnessed. And I think we can both agree that "strong environmentalists" supported those regulations.

So in that sense, I would agree with you. But at the same time, since environmentalists are generally for more regulation and they are a minority, are they really "responsible" for the regulation, since they didn't provide the deciding vote?

When you consider the makeup of Congress and the executive branch at the time of CAA90 or EPA, I think what I'm trying to get at may come into better view. It is only when the GOP has some semblance of common sense (or is forced to for political reasons) that environmental regulation truly makes progress in this country. So in a bizarre way, it could be thought that moderate conservatives are responsible for today's regulations.

And if you think about it, that's really how things in this country get done. Look at the Supreme Court, or just about any recent major legislation, and it's moderate conservatives that typically break the ideological logjams. Think about it.. if C&T passes, who is going to be a leading force, environmentalists who are clamoring for a tougher law, or Lindsey Graham who is going against his party?

To tie this back into my previous post.. while many of us might not believe it, a lot of things in this country are collectively decided by the people. It wasn't environmentalists that stopped nuclear power. It was the American Public.

It won't be environmentalists that are the major force behind the next major energy/environmental legislation. It will be people, as always. And that gets to the real goal of Climategate. It remains to be seen if this latest disaster turns the tide back in the favor of regulation..

 

The continental shelf off of CA-OR-WA-BC produces 25% of the net primary productivity of the entire Pacific Ocean. Opposition to oil is not NIMBYism, but direct concern for sea life, water quality, air quality and quality of life. It is the attitude of long-term vs. short-term thinking.

"Drill baby drill" is short-term thinking. Conservation and efficiency are far more productive than "go get more."