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Who’s most at fault for the sad disaster in the Gulf? Environmentalists.
A busted pipe is gushing oil 5,023 feet below the surface of the Gulf. Why? Common sense alone urges don’t drill this deep unless a quick solution to a possible seafloor breakdown is proven and in place.
Clearly there was no such plan. So this beautiful body of water is being despoiled, and all whose livelihoods, lifestyles and leisure activities it affects are hurting.
BP and federal government regulators are responsible for no reliable plan to quickly stem the oil flow from a mile-deep broken pipe. But environmentalists are to blame for the idiocy that leads to deep water drilling.
They also share blame for offshore drilling in the first place. Why do we drill for oil in the ocean? Isn’t it far less risky to drill for oil on land? But we can’t drill in much of Alaska and the West – where there is abundant oil and natural gas – because short-sighted environmentalists convince their foolish elected soul mates it’s not good for the environment.
They also stop us from drilling in the ocean closer to shore, even though these shallower waters allow for easier and faster calamity resolution. So BP and others are forced to drill deep, and we cross our fingers. And now the entire Gulf – and who knows what else – is in jeopardy.
Too bad the term “environmentalist” doesn’t refer to sensible people whose affection and respect for oceans and air and trees are as strong (or stronger) than anybody’s. Many of these people, and I count myself among them, don’t even think we should drill for oil in oceans until every possible opportunity to extract it far more safely from land is exhausted. And yes, the more isolated and barren and unpopulated those land operations, the better.
But unfortunately “environmentalist” connotes partisan, impractical, sometimes militant zealotry. And this stupidity tragically set the stage for what’s now happening deep in the Gulf: predictable bewildering failure responding to a predictable senseless accident resulting in widespread and unending pollution and heartache.
@Nicole,
Try posting something worthwhile. Easy to critize, try doing something productive. Oh wait, guess that is the way of the RIGHT!
Took you long enough to attack Will and myself, does it usually take right wingers this long to read something with no pictures? Guess that’s the problem with Sweet Sarah’s books and why she hasn’t read them. Just like Scherer, (oops did I misspell it again?) some folks have nothing to do but complain about the bid bad government. Try living in another type of government for a while and then tell me how truly bad our US governments are.
Thanks to environmentalist and the EPA, (Contrary to our Virginia Taliban Attorney General, Kenny boy), had done wonders for this nation and guess what? Oh horrors, the EPA was a Republican conservative’s idea and supported by Republicans…. GEEZ guess republicans and tea party folks weren’t such single minded folks back then. They actually cared about the country, not the party.
@Harvey: Try spelling the author’s last name right before criticizing his opinion
@Will: Using correct grammar may help your argument
Bob makes great points so stop hatin’
Amazing how Sherer so rabidly places the blame for the Gulf oil spill on the Environmental movement. Shame, that one should publish their ignorance so blatantly. There are plenty of areas in the United States that have been open to the energy companies for years and have yet to see a single lease executed. In the Arklatex area alone there is a place called the Haynesville Field that contains trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and billions of barrells of oil, at conservative estimates. Yet, the oil companies so far have refused to exploit this area and it has been the home to oil and natural gas exploration for more than 7 decades.
No, Bob, it is NOT the environmentalists contrary to your arch conservative viewpoint which always looks for other than market perfidy to point a finger.
When the energy companies begin to execute leases with the land owners in this area and begin to sink exploratory wells, then you might have a smidgen of a point.
By the way? The idea of continuing our guzzling habits for fossil fuels simply reeks of national and societal stupidity. The alternative fuels nacent industry is ready and willing to being off setting the thirst for oil.
Will the Republicans get behind a bill to focus more of our productive energies into a comprehensive set of renewable energy sources? Not bloody likely, at least so far.
So, Bob, until your ideological soul mates decide to wake up, removing their heads from their nether regions and recognize the national need to move toward alternative energies, try not to show your lack of insight by blaming “Environmentalists”. Sort of like Walmart blamining the retail unions…. oh right, they don’t have any…
First, the Gulf drilling regulations where put in place by the Bush administration. An environmental review is required, but the current Administration has learned it cannot last more than 30 days total (kickoff, survey, analysis, assessment, recommendations, report, review, response to contractor protests, etc), so all of the drilling permits are given a waiver (as by design from the former Administration). This is now being changed.
Second, the US consumes over 8 billion barrels of oil per day. Even Bush recognized that “America is addicted to oil”. With the median extractable oil in ANWR at 11 billion barrels (USGS), that is clearly not the answer.
So where does this leave us? The US must break it’s addiction to oil. Denial should no longer be an excuse, nor should the phrase “The American lifestyle is non-negotiable”. We have to live within our energy means, just like we do with personal finances. This is a national security issue, so perhaps Bob can review US Joint Forces Command projections that show the global oil production dropping by 2012, causing massive shortages by 2015. This will result in “significant economic and political impact”
Either we understand this and proactively break our addiction, or we will reactively deal with increasingly wrenching economic and social chaos.
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/52403
Note that assurances of abundant oil should be taken with a block of salt;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international-energy-agency
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Try posting something worthwhile. Easy to critize, try doing something productive. Oh wait, guess that is the way of the RIGHT!
Took you long enough to attack Will and myself, does it usually take right wingers this long to read something with no pictures? Guess that’s the problem with Sweet Sarah’s books and why she hasn’t read them. Just like Scherer, (oops did I misspell it again?) some folks have nothing to do but complain about the bid bad government. Try living in another type of government for a while and then tell me how truly bad our US governments are.
Thanks to environmentalist and the EPA, (Contrary to our Virginia Taliban Attorney General, Kenny boy), had done wonders for this nation and guess what? Oh horrors, the EPA was a Republican conservative’s idea and supported by Republicans…. GEEZ guess republicans and tea party folks weren’t such single minded folks back then. They actually cared about the country, not the party.
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