A Southerner on Oil
Entry posted by Stormsend
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I don't hide the fact that I am a resident of Louisiana. Despite our reputation (for a case study in what not to do in politics, view our political history), it has been good to me. And I genuinely get upset when someone or something screws us up. Hurricanes, on average, cause about 30% of the devastation our state sees (the other 70% being politics, state and federal). This oil spill in the Gulf is a great example of why big companies should be run by people who are suspected of having a conscience, and not guys dressed as piggy banks.
British Petroleum screwed up. They took high-risk measures in our to save a few thousand dollars. As a result, all sorts of bodily excretions hit the fan. However, they fault is not only on the fine folks at BP. Our beloved government, my fellow Americans, did exactly what George W. Bush taught us (by example) during Katrina.
It sat on its $@!.
We, as a nation, never once thought to come up with our own clean-up plans in case something went wrong. As a result, we had to rely on the company that screwed us to fix the problem. And they failed. Several times. I, for one, was tired of looking at Tony Hayward's face (I had him on mute after the first couple of comments he made). I was tired of BP and the government going to south Louisiana, setting up film crews and hiring actors to play the part of clean-up workers to film commercials we never watched.
The Democratic party's agenda to end oil drilling in the U.S. came to light with this moratorium. For those of you who think it's a good idea to stop drilling for six months in deepwater rigs, I have two thoughts. First of all, the idea of thousands of jobs going away for any period of time is a terrible one and will hurt any economy. Add to that the fact that companies will move their rigs to countries with less regulations, and we see the potential for even worse disasters in the future.
The second thought is that the government, post-moratorium, is also not reinstating drilling licenses to shallow-water drilling rigs.
In what world does it make sense to destroy thousands of jobs? I'd understand it a bit better if Congress had decided to continue with energy reform (I'd still be furious, but their plans would make more sense). But they gave up on that! So, we've got thousands who are jobless, potentially permanently, and we're not reforming our oil-based energy policies? What in God's name is going on?
This opinion is brought to you by someone who pays entirely too much attention to politics. This is not a Republican/Conservative piece, because Republicans/Conservatives are as full of crap as Democrats/Liberals.
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