There was always something juvenile about the call of "drill baby, drill," as though all of our oil needs would be resolved overnight (this lot has been on the quiet side of late). It reminded me of the continual whine for tax cuts, as though they are the keys to the kingdom. Anyway, I thought that it would make sense to study ways that we could consider looking into the various reserves that we had available in the country, but I realized that it would take time to get reliable independent data.
So when Obama announced that he was going to push for offshore drilling, I thought that it was way too soon for that. I didn't trust much coming from the Bush administration on this issue for three reasons: both Bush and Cheney were of the oil world (with powerful U.S. industry allies), the government had been littered with oil favoring minions, and industry studies would likely be most beneficial to the industries and not necessarily the American people. So, in my mind, Obama's ascension would provide us an opportunity to step back and look at these issues in a more independent fashion (call me naive).
The only silver lining to the tragedy of the oil spill that is about to impact Louisiana, is that Obama has called for a hold on offshore drilling projects, in order to conduct more studies. I know that accidents are inevitable, but events like this spill, coupled with the mining tragedies that we've experienced make it clear that we need to ensure that the necessary regulatory apparatuses are in place as we push to meet more of our energy needs at home (particularly considering that regulations were eliminated or flouted throughout the Clinton and Bush administrations on nearly all fronts, with impunity).
So for now, let chill and get this as close to right as possible.
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