Who Are These Guys

I recently received a copy of Environment & Climate News. Upon picking it up, I thought it might be another rag who picked my name off the Sierra Club list. Yes, I'm a lifetime member of the Sierra Club. A full on card carrying member. So when I start reading this rag the first article is about "Public Opinion Shifts in Favor of Domestic Oil and Gas Production". Now as you read this article you get all these facts about how the public is pushing more for off-shore drilling and less for conservation. You can read the numbers for yourselves, but what was surprising is that just when I thought this article was going to veer into the territory of "isn't this awful that the public is taking a short term view on energy policy and right at the time when we, as a nation, should take control of our energy future, conserve more and eliminate our dependence on foreign oil"...the article takes an unexpected turn. This rag is actually using this data to say that we should drill more and conserve less.

Get it! The polls and the people know best! Sure, we deserve to have cheep oil. We deserve to have our SUV's and drive where ever we want and whenever we want, we should just drain the globe off all its oil and fill our tanks, drill off shore, drill in ANWR, drill, drill, drill. Spend, spend, spend, gas gussling gluttons that we are (isn't this one of the seven deadly sins?). It is our God given right as Americans, "In God We Trust", its on our money, so we trust and we must spend. What is even more incredulous is that rags like this one, published by the Heartland Institute (these guys may have heart, but they've got no head) are taking the short-term, fickle-minded, poll-driven mindset of the "Will of the American People" to justify their position to drill, drill, drill.

At the conclusion of the article, the story quotes Tom Pule, president of the Institute for Energy Research, "Most Americans understand the law of supply and demand...but they may not know that America is the only developed nation in the world that restricts access to its own offshore energy resources, or that an annual vote in Congress is required to continue that policy." So great, lets get everyone to write a letter to Congress to just drill, drill, drill. But wait, take a look at the preface to this statement postured by president Toms - the reason to drill is that "Most Americans understand the law of supply and demand". Wow, the law of supply and demand! So what does this mean in the mind of these short-term-minded brainiacks..."if you drill more, you get more oil, more supply means the price drops and Americans can drive, drive, drive." But if "Most Americans [TRULY] understand the law of supply and demand", they also know that if you demand less, the price will drop, drop, drop. So rather than buy that SUV that guzzles less than 10 MPG, try conservation and fuel efficiency, drive a car that gets more than 40 MPG. So maybe "most Americans" do get the supply and demand curve, but these idiots are only focusing on the SUPPLY side. Supply side, gee, haven't I heard that somewhere before. I guess I understand where the Heartland Institute receives its funding. The real key to a long-term successful energy policy and reducing dependence on foreign oil is conservation, NOT increased supply from more drilling. The argument of supply side, drill for oil policy is like having a family budget based on going further and further into debt by spending more and more rather than tightening your belt and spending within your means. Didn't we just go through this with the banks and home mortgages recently. Don't GM and Ford feel the pain of blinding themselves to the reality of the laws of supply and demand of oil. Who is the Heartland Institute fooling other than themselves and the lemmings that follow them off the cliff?

You got to read this stuff just to see what the short-minded are pitching to the dim-witted. Man this makes me mad. What really pisses me off is that first McCain jumps on these poll numbers and creates a series of political ads saying he's all for more drilling (supply-sider, lower costs at pump) and that Obama is against it. Now that pushes Obama to make a poll based decision. Just when I was really respecting the guy for taking a position of true leadership and courage by stating that he was against dropping the gas tax because it was a stupid short term driven decision. Obama, what happened to leadership and change? Change from making unpopular decisions that were right for the country in the long-term? This is leadership, this is what Americans needs, good parents as our political leaders, not weak parents that capitulate to the short term decisions of the the childish populace. I have a 5 year old and a 7 year old. I took a poll recently and found that they would rather watch TV than read. In fact, these poll numbers are showing that my children are increasingly demanding TV more and more over reading. So what should I do? Well if it were up to the Heartland Institute and like minded folks, I should let them watch all the TV they want.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Cowardice asks the question 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right." When will our leaders make the right decisions?