Offshore drilling: Top Ten Reasons it's a BAD idea:

[Lorien]

From Greenpeace:

Gas prices have been jumping over and under the $4 mark all summer, your grocery bills are soaring, and campaign ads are blasting you about the benefits of offshore drilling. So what's an average Joe or Jane supposed to believe? Will offshore drilling really make things better for you?

What you're hearing on the news is pretty one-sided, and most reporters are talking about this issue like it makes perfect sense. Well, it doesn't.

What can I say, sometimes dumb ideas get a lot of attention. That's exactly what's happening right now as President Bush has lifted the executive moratorium on offshore drilling, and Congress is being pushed to do the same.

Let me take just a second to review the top 10 reasons offshore drilling is such a dumb idea:

10. Offshore oil drilling won't impact gas prices today, and it won't have a significant impact on gas prices in the future.

9. This is nothing more than a money grab by the oil companies - who are already making record-breaking profits.

8. We burn 25% of the world's oil here in the U.S., but we have only 3% of the world's oil reserves. So even if all offshore oil magically came to market today, the vast majority of our oil would continue to be imported, and we wouldn't see price relief at the pump.

7. The current moratorium was put in place decades ago to protect us from the danger of oil spills along our coastlines and beaches.

6. Burning fossil fuels like oil causes global warming, which causes stronger hurricanes, which will threaten the very offshore drilling rigs being proposed, which will contribute to even more global warming.

5. To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy within the next 10 years. The billions of dollars that would be spent on offshore oil drilling just postpones the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

4. Oil exploration requires massive seismic testing - which threatens whales and dolphins.

3. Oil prices are set on the global oil market, so American oil is no cheaper than Saudi oil. We won't get a discount for oil drilled in the U.S.

2. We can't solve the world's energy problems with the same drilling that created them.

1. Renewable energy is available now, so it's time to walk away from fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future.

Take Action >> make sure Congress hears from YOU about offshore oil drilling.

Let's face it, there's really no good reason to drill offshore. More drilling is good for Big Oil, not for you and your family. We can't drill our way out of this mess - oil drilling is already at an all-time high and prices are still skyrocketing.

As a matter of fact, even if we could tap into all of the energy stored in the Earth's reserves - coal, oil, and natural gas - it would equal the energy in just 20 days of sunshine. Tell Congress to look on the bright side to solve our energy crisis. It's time to invest in renewable energy and leave oil to the dinosaurs. It's time for an energy revolution.

Take action HERE: http://members.greenpeace.org/action/start/206/

Power to the people,

Melanie Duchin
Global Warming Campaigner

[taterguy]

1. #1 reason people think it's a good idea

People can't imagine living without their cars

[Lorien]

2. They don't have to live without their cars

they'll just need to power them differently.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. OK, in 5 years we'll replace all 250 million cars...

in the US with something more planet-friendly. Or, if that's too tough, we'll just replace 10% of them-- 25 million is only 5 million a year. (OK, make it 10 years.)

Greenpeace has the right idea, but it's completely naive and unrealistic to think that we could possibly make such a huge change in the short term. Even in the long term it's gonna be tough to get people out of their gasburners and into anything else unless we flat out run out of oil and serious rationing happens or the technology opens up another power source as convenient as gas.

It took over a hundred years to get where we are and, quite frankly, a lot of people like it where we are.

[Lorien]

7. Peak oil

one way or another things will have to change. Better to do all we can towards making things happen NOW rather than continue the pain of having the fossil fuel companies owning our asses.

[taterguy]

6. Power them with what?

I'm not being snarky but until you can come up with a viable answer I think that's why there are going to be people that support drilling.

[Lorien]

8. You know that there are many viable alternatives out there

but auto manufacturers are in bed with Big Oil. Look; a friend of mine works with a company in Toronto that invented a combustion engine ten years ago that was 60% more efficient than any other auto combustion engine on the market today. GM bought the patent and promptly SHELVED it. The reason? The engine is also far more durable than current models. Less after market repair profits.

You can continue to allow our fossil fuel overlords to control us and wage their wars on oil bearing nations and the environment, or you can think outside of their box and embrace new technology which is ALREADY OUT THERE. One way or another, we WILL get off the oil drug. We can do it gradually, or the hard way. Which would YOU prefer?

[taterguy]

9. If there are viable alternatives then just tell me what they are

I think the most viable alternative is walking or biking to places that you can.

However, I realize that my opinion is in the minority.

[Lorien]

10. Go to the environment and energy forum and read up

the information is out there, available for everyone with a couple of clicks of the mouse. Do you honestly believe that Al Gore thought that getting off oil in ten years was un-doable when he made the proposal? Watch "An inconvenient truth" and "the end of suburbia", along with "who killed the electric car"? watch video podcasts from TED on the newest innovations in energy. Walking or biking isn't an option for all people; my father is so ill he can't walk down the driveway, let alone to the grocery store. We CAN get off oil in less time than it would take to bring new gas from additional drilling to market (20 years by current estimates). We have the way, but not the political will.

[tbyg52]

3. #2 reason - they're being deliberately panicked and stampeded.

Just like with the PATRIOT Act, et al.

[Lorien]

4. Kick

:kick: