Over at Better Planet, Ben Nugent discusses a recent poll showing that voters view the economy and high fuel prices as the biggest concerns this election season. In another AP-Yahoo News poll that’s been running since last November, 87 percent of the respondents now say gas prices are a “very important” issue to them personally, while “roughly the same amount as before the primaries — 62 percent—say the environment is at least a very important issue.”
All of which is good news, from an environmentalist perspective—high gas prices have thrust conservation and alternative energy into the everyday lives of most Americans, and have thus made it to the top of the candidates’ priority list. The less good news is the political lean that these priority lists are taking. While a few months ago, according to the AP, more voters were swinging towards energy conservation efforts, now the pendulum has swung back, with voters evenly divided between support for “drilling and other exploration” versus conservation.
Granted, “exploration” doesn’t have to mean the one big fat environmental mess that springs to mind: offshore drilling. The real exploration can (and must) come in the form of R&D for alternative energy and development of new technology. But drilling is the “logical conclusion” (if oil is expensive to import, let’s drill for our own!) and thus sticks in voters’ minds as a quick and easy fix (though really, it’s not much of a fix at all). As a result, fuel is starting to become a political minefield—as Obama’s recent announcement can attest—rather than a chance for the candidates to bring longterm energy policy ideas to the forefront of the debate.
August 10th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Before there was offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of California, globs of oil would float onto the beaches. Thanks to offshore drilling much of that problem has been solved. So that would mean the ones that oppose more offshore drilling could be the ones that support pollution and make environmentalists that oppose offshore drilling altogether the ones that most support polluting the beaches.
We should have more drilling and more research into alternative energy simultaneously. There is not one sollution to the energy situation. We need more nuclear energy like my injection reactor if it can be built along with my Red Rover reactor that would handle nuclear waste to make it safer to handle. We also need to mine the oil shale out in the West and use geothermal energy to heat up the rock to loosen the oil for processing. I find that environmentalists are often Democrats which would explain why Democrat energy policies have made us more dependent on foreign oil and cost our economy so much.
The ultimate offshore drilling operation would be carried out by submarines and submerged rigs that wouldn’t require huge rigs that cost a lot of money and take awhile to construct. Self-propelled drilling moles that pull sections of pipe down to the oil deposits may someday be normal. But this advance may come from the Russians at the top of the world and environmentalists may forbid American oil companies from using the technology. With the Democrat Party in tow, environmentalists are hoping for big Democrat gains in November. Big gains for the Democrats will cost our economy dearly and the death toll from people freezing to death because they couldn’t afford heating oil or natural gas will climb. We could even have energy riots if the price soars too much and people take matters into their own hands and seize gas stations and fuel supplies. If gas goes to over $6 a gallon and Democrats are seen keeping the price high, expect another revolution that could allow Republicans to control Congress for years. After trying to become democrats, Republicans may try to become true Conservatives.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
[…] drilling has become a central issue in the campaign, despite the fact that it’s pretty assured that ripping up the Outer Continental Shelf […]