Thursday, March 17, 2005

Oil in Alaska

First: I don't care about baseball! You have better things to do with your time! (like putting a tighter leash on the Bush administration)

Second: Senate OKs oil drilling in Alaska

Florida's junior senator Martinez cast the pivotal vote. He did it because the Bush administration has promised him to extend the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf off Florida's shore from 2007 to 2012. He feels that by 2012, the politicians in power won't be able to use Alaska as precedent for starting drilling off of Florida. Apparently the people of Florida are strongly against offshore drilling there; they want to protect the environment. Florida's senior senator voted against the Alaska drilling.

So here we go... We're going to destroy an extremely fragile part of the northern environment. This action may not lower gas prices AT ALL, but it will inflate domestic oil company profits. It is going to take a tremendous amount of energy to install the oil infrastructure up there. And eventually we're just going to run out of oil again (though if there is any relief due to this action, we're going to stop dumping any resources into research on alternative fuels).

It really amazes me how many politicians nonchalantly brush the environment aside. It's a bonus if we can save a tree or an animal, but the important thing is keeping business flowing.

As long as our suburbs look like the grassy African savanna, then our environment is okay, right?

What's your footprint?

No comments: