This post is dedicated to my friend, Wes Rolley, webmaster of the "Pombo Watch" Web Site (see "MH Man Posts Pombo Watch on Website," Morgan-Hill Times, March 12, 2004).
I couldn't help thinking about Wes and the ordeal of being a Green activist in a polluted society, when I read these opening lines:
Published by the San Francisco Chronicle
Dems' Offshore Drilling Plan Comes With Catch
by Zachary Coile, Tuesday, September 9, 2008
(09-09) 04:00 PDT Washington - Just three years ago Richard Pombo, the cowboy boot-wearing Tracy Republican lawmaker, faced an outcry from Democrats for pushing a bill to lift the 27-year-old ban on drilling off the East and West coasts and let states choose whether to allow oil rigs off their shores.
In a sign of how much the energy debate has shifted in an era of nearly $4-a-gallon gasoline, virtually the same proposal that Pombo floated will be introduced on the House floor this month - by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Nancy Pelosi and the NeoPombo Democrats think they are being "clever" by giving the Republicans something they want now, namely, opening the door to offshore drilling, so they can get something back that the "liberals" supposedly want, repealing tax subsidies for oil companies and requiring electric utilities to get 15% of their energy from renewables by 2020.
Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, says he'll allow a vote on an energy plan that would allow drilling off the coast of four states - Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia - while also revoking tax breaks for oil companies and offering new incentives for wind and solar, biofuels, coal-to-liquid fuels and nuclear energy.
Notice the inclusion of "clean" coal and nuclear with the other "nice" stuff.
The whole thing is a parliamentary charade anyway because Congress is set to adjourn in less than a month and Our Dear Leader, President Bush, has vowed to veto any bill that raises taxes on the poor, little, trillionaire oil companies.
If, indeed, the GOP gets what it wants -- and end to the ban to offshore drilling -- is anyone here naive enough to bet that the Bush-Cheney-McCain-Palin clique would ever follow through on their half of the bargain? Anyway, by the time to the year 2020, this "compromise" will be long forgotten, we will, of course, be in another "crisis," and everybody will be saying we environmental "extremists" should quit being so "rigid" and let the NeoPombos negotiate a "compromise" with what will then be the "Nuke, Baby, Nuke!" crowd.
1 comment:
Thanks for the memories, Alex. It is worse that you are letting on.
Here are a couple of specifics:
Another ice shelf has disappeared from the Arctic. 19 sq mi broke off this month, as reported by Reuters on 9/5. Not a good omen for global warming and sea level rise, but we will continue to burn oil, won't we, Sarah?
The British Journal Nature Geoscience reports in its September 2008 issue that there is more Carbon (available as C02 or Methane) in the arctic permafrost than previously thought. You can read the article online for $32, but it is put into context at Yahoo News. All we need is a little more hot air in Alaska to reach a tipping point, if we havn't already.
I have had several inquiries about Pelosi, the Democrats and this caving in to drill baby drill. I guess that they think that can't win elections by telling the truth.
I hope that Cindy Sheehan takes on this issue. Someone has to make Pelosi pay for this.
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