The joke going round Europe is that the only reason that President Obama won the Nobel Peace prize is that he is not President Bush. It’s not who he is but who he is not, that matters.
He might not be President Bush but Obama is continuing the mistakes of the Bush era. In fact he is acting rather like him.
After years of delays and legal challenges, the Obama Administration has given the conditional go-ahead for Shell to begin drilling for oil and gas in the environmentally sensitive Beaufort Sea, home to threatened bowhead whales.
The decision by the Minerals Management Service clears one of the last big hurdles for Shell to drill two exploration wells on two offshore lease areas in the Beaufort Sea. The company plans to drill between July and October 2010.
Shell’s plans have been vehemently opposed both environmental groups and Native Americas. Drilling could affect both polar bears and the bowhead whale population, which is highly sensitive to noise. Oil spills in the Arctic would also be impossible to clear up.
Environmental groups said they were disappointed by the decision and criticized the government for endorsing a leasing rush that was sanctioned by the Bush administration.
Rebecca Noblin, an Alaskan specialist with the conservation group the Centre for Biological Diversity, said: “We’re disappointed to see the Obama administration taking decisions that will threaten the Arctic. It might as well have been the Bush administration.”
“M.M.S. is again trying to implement an overly aggressive Bush-era drilling plan in one of the riskiest areas on the planet to drill,” added Whit Sheard, the Alaska program director at Pacific Environment. “Although fishermen, traditional indigenous communities, the courts and the global scientific community have all condemned this plan, the Arctic continues to be treated like a sacrifice zone.”
“There is no safe way to drill in the Beaufort Sea,” said Athan Manuel, director of lands protection at the Sierra Club. “Cleaning up an oil spill in the Arctic’s broken sea ice is next to impossible, and where there is drilling, there are oil spills.”
He continued “Instead of drilling for more dirty oil, we can shift to clean energy that will create jobs, combat global warming, and keep our wildlife and wild places intact.”
Great, finally we are going to drill in the Arctic. It is a lie where you stated that “where there is drilling, there are oil spills.” Why do you have to lie to get people on your side.
Let me ask you a question, do you drive car? do you use anything made of plastic? do you fly sometimes? Almost everything you own, eat, or do requires a fossil fuel to make it happen or produce it or get it to your location for you to buy!
How many oilspills do you hear about every month? Probably haven’t heard about any in years domesticaly. You have any idea how many holes are drilled every month, year after year, both offshore and on land? Thousands and thousands and all without any pollution or spills. Thats quite a record, but no one would know that if they listen to the propagana that you spew.
We all want clean energy, but only when we have the technology and we don’t have it yet. Do you think heavy & light industry, transportation, manufacturing, aviation and our military can function with windmills and solar panels? Get real!! We need fossil fuels for at least another 25 years! If we do all the things you want the only things that will go extinct is US! Your science is flawed and needs to be updated. Your minds are closed to other sciencetist opinions about the climate. Thats ashame, you’ve swallowed the kool aid and are now just robots repeating what your told to say. Do you know how rich all this has made Al Gore, he owns interest in a company that sells carbon credits. (Conflict of interest)?
The climate has actually cooled off over the last 10 years, but no one who is drinking the kool aid wants to hear about it. CLOSED MINDS!!!
God help you guys, if you think passing a cap and tax bill will help. It will handicap our country, thousands of businesses will close, inflation and job loss will skyrocket. Continue on this path and you will turn our country into a third world country. You think other countries will destroy their economies in favor of your 350 benchmark. Are you that naive? God help you people and hopfully someone will acquire some sense and slow down the destruction of our country!!
God help us!!
Changing the actor in a movie does not change the script, politics is no different then the movies