Some of the Environmental Restriction Movement Is Lunacy
Reader Comments
Enviro-Lunacy
Some comments on yuor op-ed are corrections to some incorrect information included in the piece. First there were oil spills as the result of huricane Katrina. In fact there was some residual oil in the area where John McCian was to hold a photo-op about offshore oil production, so he canceled the whole thing. The oil spilled from damaged oil rigs and pipelines riviled the Exon Valdeze spill. Second the is a test well in the Artic NAtional Wildlife Reserve it was completed by a Canadian firm that works in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountain Region. The report from the test well lists the oil derived is high sulphur heavy crude typical of Eastern Slope region. This product will not be easily processed efficienty into gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, or fuel oil in any economical manner. Besides the Cheney-Bush Administration has deraied the Enviromental Protection Adminstration so as to make it ineffective anyway.
Interesting comments
Mr. Mosca: I liked your response. Thoughtful and reasoned. If you would allow me, I would only like to add that my comments about lobbyists were only in respose to Mr. Barones. I absolutely agree with you that it is consitutionally protected speech and my issues and passions benefit from their respective lobbyists efforts. I also agree that we need to get the right people elected and hold them accountable. It is always impossible not to get misconstrued in a 'letter to the editor' type forum, but I still want to believe that we Americans can do this thing (kick oil) while protecting our environment and our way of life. A new 'Manhatten Project'. If the technology isn't ready quite yet (and as you rightly allude, it isn't) lets go there. We can lead on this or we can follow. I think we should lead and sooner rather than later.
Randy of WA
"We can't drill our way out of this" - That platitude was used by your side now for 15 years. Can you not even admit that drilling will help?
"Global warming is real" - Earth has had 6 ice ages and warming periods. We are still coming out of the little ice age. Water Vapor is the source of over 90% of the greenhouse effect. It is only a theory that human contribution of co2 is causing global warming, and Algore and his ilk avoid debating if it is, or if humans can do anything about it.
"Animals are really being pushed to the brink of extinction" - Their doing just fine.
"Boone Pickens has seen the light" Even though Boone Pickens produces alternate energy and would profit by us investing in this, all agree we must develope alternate energy. In the meantime get your head out of the sand as we also need more oil!
Yes, really.
Randy, like so many these days, is missing the forest for the trees. Energy policy, production, consumption... everything... is tremendously complex. Please don't quote T. Boone Pickens because he said, "We can't drill our way out" without listening to everything thing else he has to say. (Look it up.) Conservatives need to do a better job advocating the "all of the above" approach the energy.
If you were to ask me, step number 1 is to open up 100% of the country's available land to exploration... Calm down. This doesn't mean drilling, this means simply taking an inventory of how much of each natural energy source we have. There are technologies that allow for this without marring the land. Then we move from there.
Next, be honest about the cost of wind and solar energy. How much more will it cost the average family? In what parts of the country is it feasible? How many birds and bats will windmills be killing? How do solar panels really work and how many will be needed? (Hint: It isn't 'pretty'.)
People need to stop complaining about lobbyists, because some of them work the issues YOU believe in, and it's a constitutionally protected right. If you want to complain, blame the people we keep electing, and hold them accountable.
Randy of WA
Perfect example of left wing "environmentalist" thinking, Randy. Let's just use talking points: We can't drill our way out of this. did someone suggest that we could drill our way out of this? Seems they are saying we should do everything we can for affordable alternative sources of energy while making sure we use what is already available to keep from the collapse of civilization. What, you think stopping the use of carbon based fuel wouldn't destroy modern society? Poor little Utopian.
Wow... really?
Nuke the caribou? Come on, I suspect that was tounge in cheek but really now. The problem is simply that we have about 2% of the oil and we use about 25% of the oil. We cannot drill our way out of the mess we have been creating for 50 years of both R and D administrations. And your point about the evil environmental lobby is just silly. Clean air and clean water and a place for the wild things. Sounds like that came in on the rising tide of common sense you were writing about. The endlessly funded oil industry lobbiest (which to your credit you acknowledged above) are no doubt donating all their ginormous profits to charity. Global warming is real. Animals are really being pushed to the brink of extinction. $4.00 a gallon gas should be an opportunity for us to finally break free of our 'crack' habit rather than selling grandma's jewelry to get one last hit. Churchhill is quoted as saying "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities." Can we collectively, at least once, prove him wrong? Please? Even T.Boone Pickens saw the light. Solar? Wind? Nah... lets just nuke the caribiou and let our kids and grandkids deal with it later.
