Yesterday, Obama shocked a lot of people and announced he was lifting a long-term ban on offshore drilling off the coast of the U.S. It was even more shocking considering this directly goes against a campaign pledge. (See that in the video below). No one is happy about this.\u00a0 This is from Grist:\n<\/p>\n
President Obama will open large swaths of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Alaskan coasts to offshore oil and natural gas drilling in a stunning concession to fossil-fuel companies, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and others are reporting.<\/p>\n
. . .\u00a0 The Arctic Ocean north of Alaska will be opened too, while the Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska would be protected\u2014the sole new protection.\u00a0 [Yesterday I heard Bristol Bay would be opened for drilling].\u00a0\u00a0 New areas of the southeast Gulf Coast would also be opened, despite bipartisan opposition from political leaders in Florida and Alabama. The Times has a map of all of this, and you need to see it to comprehend the size of the affected area.<\/p>\n
“This is not a decision that I’ve made lightly,” Obama said (full speech here).<\/p>\n
Who was twisting his arm?\u00a0 This wasn’t necessary. Huge expanses of coastline along the south and east of the U.S. are now going to be opened, sadly, to drilling and oil exploration.\u00a0 This will result in completely unnecessary environmental and ecosystem damage, and will open the areas up to new disasters like oil spills.\u00a0 This just makes no sense. There is hardly any oil there in any of these locations, not enough to provide us with oil beyond a year or two after the drilling begins.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the drilling itself could harm the environment.\u00a0 Later yesterday afternoon,\u00a0 some blowhard on MSNBC spent a half hour yelling about how we need to transition all our cars and vehicles to run on natural gas.\u00a0 No, that’s a terrible idea — almost as badly advised as drilling in the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately science is not guiding our climate change policy, as Obama promised us during the campaign, when he also told he we needed an Apollo plan\u00a0 to deal with the threat of climate change.\u00a0 Obama’s environmental credibility has been destroyed for only a little bit of oil and more fossil fuels we don’t even need.\u00a0 Political reality has set in for Obama — he wants Democrats re-elected and himself, too, and that supercedes everything.\u00a0\u00a0 He should have emphasized conservation and alternative fuels, and if Obama was a true leader he would have done that.\u00a0\u00a0 Even Steven Chu seems to be onboard.\u00a0 Remember this version of Obama?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I don’t know where this Obama has gone. He’s been replaced by one that is difficult to trust and who breaks his campaign promises. Meanwhile, the EPA continues to expand its regulations of greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Interestingly, this comes only a week after [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, Obama shocked a lot of people and announced he was lifting a long-term ban on offshore drilling off the coast of the U.S. It was even more shocking considering this directly goes against a campaign pledge. (See that in … Continue reading