Thursday, June 3, 2010

Palin: For Offshore Drilling Before She Was Against It (Though She's Really For It)

I think this video perfectly captures the hypocrisy of Sarah Palin. Her tweet: "Extreme Greenies:see now why we push"drill,baby,drill"of known reserves&promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?" is a lie. She is a liar. She is 100% drill baby drill. Always has been. To try and blame the Gulf Oil leak on environmentalists is like trying to blame Bush's torture program on peace activists. It just makes no sense. The right needs to own their positions and take responsibility for the wrongness of those positions.

5 comments:

T. Paine said...

Dave, what do you propose we use for energy if we decide to cease drilling for and using oil?

Just curious...

Dave Splash said...

It needs to be phased out over decades, not immediately stopped. It is not possible to just stop it. But, if we had started in the 80s after the energy crises of the 70s...

But the electric car is a serious possibility. If you haven't seen the documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car" then I'd imagine you don't know how much the technology mirrors a traditional car. We already have a nationwide electrical grid, so a transition is less difficult than with other options.

There is wind energy, wave energy, tar sands, hydro-electric power, biomass, oil seed crops (i.e. soy beans), or solar power. There is also the hydrogen fuel cell idea. Personally, I don't think that will work due to distribution issues, but I am not an expert on it. Though I question the existence of "clean coal," there are plenty who do believe in the technology (even though coal could not stop our dependence on foreign energy sources). I'd even be open for exploring possibilities for nuclear, based on the success France has been having.

The point is, we have alternatives. It is going to take a massive investment - public and private - to move the country off of fossil fuels. It will be a major change in the way Americans live their lives. But, seriously we have no choice. The right is digging their heels in and doubling down on a 20th century solution to a 21st century problem.

None are 100% viable today - in 2010. But if we don't start massive investment in alternatives to oil, we are going to be slaves to the Saudis or the Russians for generations.

Even if we drilled, baby drilled everywhere scientists suspect there is oil, we could never produce enough for our own consumption. Since conservation is openly mocked by you guys on the right, and you oppose higher fuel efficiency standards to reduce oil use, what exactly is your solution? Or are you a Palinite who thinks drill baby drill is actually a strategy.

T. Paine said...

With the exception of nuclear and maybe clean coal, the rest of those energy sources are incapable of ever being anything but a very small percentage of our power sources.

As for the electric car, that is all fine and dandy, but you still have to have some way to generate the electricity with which to charge the batteries within that car.

And yes, I do think drilling for more proven oil reserves is just one of the aspects that we should be taking, particularly in the wastelands of the Alaskan tundra in ANWR.

Dave Splash said...

Perhaps not now, but that is why we need to start seriously looking into them. Even with ANWR (which I am opposed to drilling in), we simply could not produce enough oil to stop buying it from the cartels. I think it's a national security issue to come up with a way to break the oil addiction and stop sending so many billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia and Iran.

T. Paine said...

Well, I do agree with you on that, sir.