Obama Opens Up Drilling For Oil!

Gentlemen, start your engines!  Ur-ur-ur.  Ur-ur-ur.  Hmm.  Lemme take a look.

Well, dang, Barry!  No wonder this thing won't start.  There ain't no gas in the tank.

BO's announcement regarding offshore drilling is just a smokescreen.  Environmeddlists will tie things up for years with legal actions; claiming that drilling "might endanger the environment" - never mind that there hasn't been a spill from a drill site in over thirty years; never mind that all the rigs in the Gulf managed to withstand Hurricane Katrina.  They "might endanger" the environment.

 You have to wonder if these folks ever ride light rail.  After all, you "might" fall off a platform and under a train.  Oh, wait - that actually happened in Portland yesterday.  

So the likelihood of being injured or killed on light rail is far higher than the likelihood of environmental damage from oil drilling, yet environmeddlists file lawsuit after lawsuit to block drilling (which of course drives up the cost of petrochemicals), yet praise light rail - which is not only more environmentally damaging in terms of production and maintenance, but has the added effect of killing or injuring people on a pretty regular basis.

BO says that they'll choose new drill sites carefully, and insist upon the latest technology in order to protect the environment.  Translation: "We'll make it as expensive as possible".  That's what it's all about - if you have access to inexpensive energy, then you'll just use more of it.  And that has to be stopped.

You won't live in a small high-rise apartment and either walk or take mass transit if you are permitted to access inexpensive sources of energy, so energy must become more costly.  It's the most effective way to bring you under government control.

Comments

[ZZMike]

Meanwhile, in other news:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html

"Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling
Too bad it's not in U.S. waters.
...
The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. "

[for extra credit: Why the National Security Adviser?]

"... never mind that all the rigs in the Gulf managed to withstand Hurricane Katrina."

Wow! That's a telling point!

[Max]

According to the World Wildlife Fund, Audubon, and other experts, offshore drilling carries with it the potential of horrific environmental damage. This is essentially the same argument they put forth in opposition to the Alaska Pipeline. In the latter case, their view was that the Pipeline would disrupt caribou populations.

What has actually occurred: caribou populations thrive, and the animals actively seek out places along the warm pipeline as preferred places in which to give birth.

Animals: 1. Activists: zip.

These same groups filed lawsuit after lawsuit to prevent the removal of all remaining California Condors from the wild, in order to establish a set of centers dedicated to captive breeding and expansion of the gene pool. They lost all the legal challenges. There are now hundreds of birds being released into targeted areas of wild country, and they are successfully reproducing. Amusingly, Audubon had the audacity to attempt to take credit for the successes, some years back.

Oil rigs generally tend to attract wildlife, as they function rather like reefs. Despite the dire claims of environmeddlist groups, offshore oil rigs are actually a selling point for many species.