Who really believes drilling is the answer.

[Ken]

Here is the question.

Transcript for the you tube impaired:

WHITEHOUSE: Gentlemen, we’re in the middle of a near total mortgage system meltdown in this country. We have a health care system that burns 16 percent of our GDP, in which the Medicare liability alone has been estimated at $34 trillion. We’re burning $10 billion a month in Iraq.

This administration has run up $7.7 trillion in national debt, by our calculation. And there is worsening evidence every day of global warming, with worsening environmental and national security ramifications. In light of those conditions, do any of you seriously contend that drilling for more oil is the number one issue facing the American people today?

(Long silent pause during which nobody answers.)

WHITEHOUSE: No, it doesn’t seem so.

Above is from the Bipartisan Energy Summit

http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=9efc5e45-0f7c-40b4-8ea5-02495add7e78&Month=9&Year=2008&Party=0

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[acemotel]

Thanks for posting this, Ken.

Bravo, Sheldon Whitehouse…. This is a scene we should be seeing far more often, on far more topics. Is there any accountability anywhere?

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[JoB]

If drilling for oil was the answer, why haven’t the oil companies exercised the rights they currently have?

Exercising those rights in Alaska alone would keep them busy for a long time.

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[WSMom]

http://www.zenncars.com/

I have great hope that within the next eight years we’ll be seeing electric cars as the “norm”. I drove an all electric Zenn Car around Arbor Heights and am sold on this new technology. The car is very roomy and comfortably seats four, easy to drive in the city, great acceleration on hills. The Zenn car I drove only goes up to 40mph, but the next generation will go up to 60mph and can be driven on the freeway.

I believe if we put some serious effort into R&D of solar & wind energy we will have some amazing technologies available to us which will cut our dependency on foreign oil and improve emission standards. America needs to meet this challenge with fresh ideas and bold initiatives. Drill baby Drill is absurd. Holding on to the past will only get us further in debt and lower our standard to living.

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[Jenny]

> Drill baby Drill is absurd. Holding on to the past will only get us further in debt and lower our standard to living.

IMO in the very long run that’s true, and I am looking forward to seeing lots of plugin hybrids a decade or two from now. But nobody seriously believes that solar, wind, etc. will generate enough energy quickly enough to make a difference within the next decade.

Heck, even new nucular plants will probably take over a decade to come online because of all you greenies siccing armies of lawyers & regulators in its way. Not to mention all the opposition that has grown over windfarms by… well, no need to get into that.

The point is, THERE ARE NO MAGIC BULLETS. But meanwhile the economy needs energy to survive. For the next decade it’s going to have to be drill baby drill. There’s simply no getting around that.

Hoping that exotic new technologies will soon come online in mass quantities, and without NIMBYs trying to slow them down at every step of the way, is not an option.

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[charlabob]

Jenny, I’m sorry….it’s NUCLEAR and that’s how it’s spelled. The right may have succeeded in redefining the Democratic Party, but I’ll be damned if they’ll get away with polluting a simple adjective :-).

Alternative technology will come online when corporatists find a way to control and make money on it. See T-Boone Pickens wind-farm ads. He’s even refused to finance the effort to “swift boat” Obama — and he was a main contributor to the Kerry effort. Apparently that would get in the way of his good guy populist affect.

Nothing you said addresses the question of why the oil companies don’t drill on their available land.

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[acemotel]

ha ha ha the economy needs a lot more than energy to survive. oooooh, yeah, the economy is strong! or, wait a second….it’s threatened. On the other hand…. it’s stable. I’m getting mixed up now. Where is Lieberman when you need him?

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