Big Oil's offshore drilling scam

I suspect that most of us 'thinking folks' (those divorced from network television drivel) have already connected the dots between the ridiculously high prices for gas that we are paying... and Bush's last ditch push to get off-short oil drilling rights out of us, and out of Congress.

And of course, Big Oil's endless quest to destroy the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in their never-ending grab for revenue.

The big oil companies can't stand to lose. We've been repeatedly rebuking their attempts to grab these money-making (if not oil-supplying) locations for years. Now we're being punished at the pump.

This is how bullies operate. And there are few bullies with more power - and more determination to keep hauling in the cash - than the big oil companies.

And so I suppose that it is refreshing to hear Nancy Pelosi speak out about it... finally giving some inkling that Congress 'gets it' too.

Congress has been pathetic in nearly every endeavor: their inability to stop the war in Iraq, their refusal to put impeachment on the table, and to hold Bush and Cheney - even Rove, who they have subpoenaed - accountable for breaking law after law. They refused to halt illegal wiretapping (blatantly against our Bill of Rights,) or punish those who deliberately and illegally attacked our 4th Amendment rights as Americans.

In effect; they have weakened the Congressional branch of government to the point of irrelevancy, by refusing to take any responsibility for anything.

They have been... painfully weak, crippled and inept. Or perhaps corrupt. Or perhaps blackmailed. Maybe someday we'll know what the hell was wrong with them the last 8 - especially the last 3 1/2 years when the Democrats supposedly had a majority.

But I suppose Pelosi - like the blind squirrel that occasionally stumbles over a nut - is capable of seeing and speaking out on at least a few obvious issues. Amazingly, the blackmailing of America by Big Oil has made her short list.

From The Gavel:

The president knows, as his own administration has stated, that the impact of any new drilling will be insignificant -- promising savings of only pennies per gallon many years down the road. Americans know that thanks to the two oilmen in the White House, consumers are now paying $4 a gallon for gas. But what Americans should realize is that what the president is calling for is drilling as close as three miles off of America's pristine beaches and in other protected areas.

The president has failed in his economic policy, and now he wants to say, 'but for drilling in protected areas offshore, our economy would be thriving and the price of gas would be lower.' That hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to relieve the pain of consumers at the pump and to promote energy independence.

Today, the New Direction Congress will vote on legislation to bring down gas prices by taking crucial steps to curb excessive speculation in the energy futures market. The president himself could lower prices by drawing down a small portion of our government oil stockpile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The New Direction Congress will continue to bring forth responsible proposals to increase supply, reduce prices, protect consumers, and transition America to a clean, renewable energy independent future.

Must run in the family

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Speech at Live Earth
New York event - July 7th (transcript)

Now we've all heard the oil industry and the coal industry and their indentured servants in the political process telling us that global climate stability is a luxury that we can't afford. That we have to choose now between economic prosperity on the one hand and environmental protection on the other. And that is a false choice.

In 100% of the situations, good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy --- if we want to measure our economy, and this is how we ought to be measuring it, based upon how it produces jobs and the dignity of jobs over the generations, how it preserves the values of the assets of our community and how it averts the catastrophe of global warming.

If, on the other hand, we want to do what they've been urging us to do on Capitol Hill which is to treat the planet as if it were a business in liquidation, convert our natural resources to cash as quickly as possible, have a few years of pollution based prosperity, we can generate an instantaneous cash flow and the illusion of a prosperous economy. But our children are going to pay for our joyride with denuded landscapes, with poor health, with huge cleanup costs and with climate chaos which is going to amplify over time and that they will never be able to pay.

Environmental injury is deficit spending. It is a way of loading the costs of our generation's prosperity on to the backs of our children. Climate change is upon us. Its impacts are going to be catastrophic and we are causing it. The good news is, we have the scientific and technological capacity to avert its most catastrophic impacts. We only need the political will.

If we raise fuel economy standards in our automobiles by one mile --- we generate twice the amount of oil that is in the Arctic National Wildlife Refugee. If we raise fuel economy standards by 7.6 miles per gallon we yield more oil than we now import from the Persian Gulf. We can eliminate 100% of Persian Gulf oil.

Think about what that would do for our economy, for our foreign policy, for our global leadership, it would dramatically improve our balance of payments, reduce our national debt and make all of us more prosperous and more independent and spare us from wars in the Mid-East that are costing us, already, a trillion dollars and from entanglements with Mid-Eastern dictators who despise democracy and are hated by their own people.

Now you've heard today a lot of people say that there are many little things that you all can do today to avert climate change on your own. But I will tell you this, it is more important than buying compact flourescent light bulbs or than buying a fuel efficient automobile. The most important thing you can do is to get involved in the political process and get rid of all of these rotten politicians that we have in Washington D.C. --

Who are nothing more than corporate toadies for companies like Exxon and Southern Company, these villainous companies that consistently put their private financial interest ahead of American interest and ahead of the interest of all of humanity. This is treason and we need to start treating them now as traitors.

And they have their slick public relations firms and their phony think tanks in Washington D.C. and their crooked scientists who are lying to the American people day after day after day. And we have a press that has completely let down American Democracy. That's giving us Ana Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton instead of the issues that we need to understand to make rational decisions in a democracy - like global warming.

And so I am going to tell you this, that the next time you see John Stossel or Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity --- these flat earthers, these corporate toadies, lying to you, lying to the American public, and telling you that global warming doesn't exist --- you send an email to their advertisers and tell them that you are not going to buy their products anymore.

And I want you to remember this, that we are not protecting the environment for the sake of the fishes and the birds, we are protecting it because nature is the infrastructure of our communities. And if we want to meet our obligation as a generation, as a civilization, as a nation, which is to create communities for our children that provide them with the same opportunities for dignity, and enrichment, and good health, and prosperity, and stability as the communities that our parents gave us, we've got to start by protecting our environmental infrastructure.

The air we breathe, the water we drink, the wildlife, the public lands, the things that connect us to our past to our history that provide context to our communities and that are the source,
ultimately, of our values and our virtues and our character as a people and the future of our children.

And I will see all of you on the barricades.