Obama Continues to “Drill Baby Drill”

[limpyhobbler]

43. There has never been a more clear cut case of private profit trumping human need.

It does take some dirty energy during the transition to clean energy.

But likewise it also takes a big amount oil to expand the fossil fuel infrastructure.

We have some budget of dirty fuel that we can burn, and instead of using that to build clean energy for the switch, instead we are using it accelerate dirty energy exports to record levels.

That's a choice. The top guy making the choice is Obama. That's why his energy policy sucks.

Which requires more fossil fuel use: building solar panels, or drilling oil wells in the Arctic Ocean? Think about how much fuel it takes to access extreme fossil fuels like deep water offshore oil, tar sands, and fracked shale gas.

Look at all the billions that have been spent in the last 4 years on new infrastructure to allow us to access more and more dirty energy.

Think of all the money that has got into building infrastructure for the shale gas fracking boom. What if an equal amount had been spent on infrastructure for solar power instead? Where would we be now? How much have they spent on all the new pipes? I guess billions. How much have they spent on advertising campaigns to convince the public it is safe? I guess in the billions. What a waste.

For all that investment, we could have made a big leap forward to clean power generation by now.

I feel nobody can honestly deny that these decisions are being made based on what benefits the private profit of the fossil fuel companies, and not on what benefits people. There has never been a more clear cut case of private profit trumping human need.

We should seize all fossil fuel industry profits to end the money incentive for accelerating fossil fuels. The government is not able to make sound policy to protect the public as long as oil companies are allowed to give money to politicians and spread lies on the TV.

You are correct that we can not abruptly stop drilling. That would be nuts. But as long as we let people make billions of dollars from drilling, and those people give money to politicians to set policy, and they run ads to sell their lies, there are money incentives to drill despite whatever is really best for people.

We have a certain amount of dirty energy budget that we can burn and beyond that we risk altering the earth so badly that people will have to start doing some extreme and undignified things to survive. If we burn all the oil Exxon is planning on it will put us well past what we can afford to burn.

We can't afford not to make big changes. We are moving too slow in this transition. Part of the reason is because oil companies make big profits and give money to politicians to set energy policy, and also spread lies on TV.

We should seize all oil, coal and gas profits and invest all the money in clean energy. This solution is obvious. Obama should have proposed a version of this by now, even a watered-down version.