Drill, baby, drill
Well, folks, it looks like “Newt and the gang” won, and you and I lost (even if you think that you have won). You may recall Newt’s vocalization of the Republican threat to shut down the federal government over offshore drilling.
Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, dropping a provision to continue the moratorium from a stopgap spending bill that will keep the government running after the Congressional recess for the election. The word came from the Appropriations Committee Chairman, David Obey, D-Wisconsin, whom I remember from my time in Wisconsin as a good man.
(Note added September 28, 2008: You may want to take another look at the offshore oil drilling map, since the areas under point #3 will be available for drilling after the ban expires.)
I know how much I am looking forward to watching the sun set behind oil platforms off the West Coast.
The remnants off Santa Barbara, while now serving as “structure” for marine life, also serve as a small reminder of the oil spill that happened there in 1969 in the Santa Barbara Channel. Union Oil‘s Platform A, six miles offshore, spilled an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil onto the beaches of Santa Barbara and fouled the coastline from Goleta to the Rincon, as well as all four of the northern Channel Islands. As I wrote before, one of the bad things about oil spills is that they do not stay in one place….
Democrats had hoped for only a partial repeal of the ban, but the White House had threatened a veto.
Not that the drilling will produce oil anytime soon…
Not that additional production of oil will reduce the price at the pump…
Not that burning the additional oil is what we need, as global warming threatens species like the polar bear…
Although I know that every species sows the seeds of its own destruction, it is sad that some of the greedy and myopic members of our species are sowing the seeds for the rest of us, and so many other species, as well.
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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