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Spill, baby, spill

-- Amanda Meade -- 10/09/2008

"Hurricane Ike's winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons (1,892,650 liters) of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press." Or here

Anyone want to rethink allowing drilling 3 miles off our coasts? The National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist Greg Holland says, "The increasingly dense development along our coastlines and our dependence on oil from the Gulf of Mexico leaves our society dangerously vulnerable to hurricanes."  A new study by NCAR follows two major reports, by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which found evidence for a link between global warming and increased hurricane activity.

The only offshore locations left for drilling are very expensive to explore and produce oil.  Drilling in the Atlantic and other offshore locations is far more expensive and won’t result in any substantive reduction in the cost of oil, even if it does contribute a small percentage to our supply.  There are no quick and easy solutions to meeting our energy needs. The one thing that we need to take seriously into consideration is the fact that we have to change. Change the way we think about energy, change the way we use energy and change the way we develop energy.  Is it really worth the risk to develop oil off our shores?

Ten Reasons Why Not to Drill

All of the above is not an energy policy. I don’t like any of the above if they don’t get us where we need to be – 100% renewable.