Ahh the same old blame the dems and drill,drill, drill nonsense.The problem of energy prices usage etc. is not a problem of political party's really it is a problem caused by the very people now complaining about it, the average american.
1. The US and it's people ignored all the warning signs that this was coming and continued on their merry way of owning big houses,big cars and trucks and just continued the much higher rate than other developed countries of consumption.Kept importing more and more oil to feed that,no political party made them do that.
2.The reason we have not drilled along our coasts is the people of those coastal states no matter what political ideology they beleived in did not want it.States were worred about spills and devastation of tourist industry which in those places is much more lucrative than any revenue from the drilling would be.
3. And we do plenty of drilling in Alaska,what do people think that pipileine is for.And remember that stuff that washed up on the beaches when the tanker the Exxon Valdez ran aground.That was good ole black gold,texas tea lol.
4.You can drill all you want in Anwar,off shore etc and the amount gotten will be negligible compared to the amount we consume.
5. And this thing about the dems are the ones who have prevented new refinery's is total nonsense. The oil companies when asked not that long ago in congressional hearings if they needed new refinining capacity and the answer was no.They had increased capacity at some of the existing refinerys already and lets face it they do not want a situation with too much capacity and having tight suppys of crude and refined does work to their favor in keeping prices at higher levels.So unless you want the govt to take over building refinerys ,it's not going to happen since the oil companies have no interest in doing it themselves.
4.Nuclear power is another one where the lack of development and construction is on the majority of people.Sure enviormentalist groups were against them but so was large % of general population.Nobody wanted one near them ,were afraid of the waste probalem etc.That really is the big problem here and the political parties were just reflections of it not leading it.Everbody wants a utopia of cheap energy,no risks to beaches with drilling,no nuke plant and potential 3 mile Island or China Syndrome near them etc.
5 Lets get to what IMO is the real problem.We must decrease dramatically the use of fossil fuels like oil,gas and coal no matter where it comes from.I actually don't care if we drill off shore and in anwar those enviormental worrys and dangers are temporary and local as where the continued burning and release of Co2 is changing the enviorment on a global scale.Anyone who advocates anything else than reduction is really sentencing the planet to changes that will be dramatic and devastating.If thats what you are willing to do to have slighly cheaper short term energy costs as our consumption increase will still make prices rise even with that drilling fine, but own up to what you are advocating please.
6. My point is everyone is to blame.A real leader and I will admit I see very little of that from anywhere would tell the people look you gotta get serious and make some hard maybe even painfull choices.The days of cheap energy (oil )are over and the consquences of its continued use are profound envioementally.No answer to that is without some risks or downsides(nuclear has risks,wind farms are unattractive) but the result of doing nothing is continued higher costs and again devastating changes to our enviorment.
7. But that leader will need a serious reasonable aware public to speak to or he will be but a voice in the wilderness fighting both the drill, drill drill, crowd who says were not cutting back and conserving as well as the enviormental groups who are offering the utopia of we can just conserve our way out of it which is also ridiculous,but I need to add them alone could not have prevented things like nuclear plants without the support of the soccer moms/dads who all said "not in my backyard"
8. So if you want someone to blame, instead of the dems or even the pubs try the people themselves.But this nonsense that whats going now or proposed now is going to have some immediate effect on any of it is just that, nonsense.Theere are things we should do like conservation,massive expansion of nuclear and wind etc but none of that is short term,so stop whining the prices are here to stay for now.The dems are right to say that they oppose these drilling and other proposals at any price level as they are not any real solution no matter what the price is.You aren't drilling your way out of this and even if you could you don't want to.
So I'll just let you tell everyone how it is.
