Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel
never let a crisis go to waste part 2, 332
I mean sure, Wind, Solar, and Ethanol, along with Cap and Trade are wildly inefficient, but, look at the bright side, they are also fantastically expensive too! – stated one administration official*
*Not really but he might as well have
As the Deepwater Horizon Well continues to pour oil into the gulf, the politicians are doing their best to turn our misfortune into their windfall. The (Il)logical chain goes like this: 1) crude oil is messy and dirty, especially when it is spilled into water; 2) “green” fuels and energy methods are clean and don’t result in oil spills; 3) Green energy would expand political power in this country 4) therefore, the government should force “green energy” on consumers.
Also the Cap and Tax movement is using the Deepwater Horizon disaster to push for its’ pet initiative. The best I can come up with for the (il)logical rationalization for the oil spill “making it clear Cap and Trade is necessary” is 1) Liberals want cap and trade 2) The BP Oil Spill is a disaster 3) never let a disaster go to waste 4) therefore, we must pass cap and trade.
This MSNBC (Official Mouthpiece of the Administration) reinforces the position :
“Alternative energy proponents say the time is right for help from Washington. “Our thoughts are with the people living and working in the Gulf as they and other organizations deal with the oil spill,” said Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association. “Americans’ support for pure, clean energy is clear, and events such as this heighten the need for Congress to pass needed energy and climate legislation.”
But not to be outdone, ‘the lets burn our food to make less efficient but more costly fuel’ crowd, aka the Ethanol Industry, has jumped on the bandwagon too:
“The Gulf oil spill is a heartbreaking catastrophe, and it demonstrates in stark terms why we need to accelerate the use of renewable energy alternative like ethanol,” said Stephanie Dreyer, spokesperson for ethanol advocacy group Growth Energy.
“The long-term ramifications of the oil spill are yet to be determined, but it definitely indicates a need for us to invest in alternative fuels in a renewable way and move away from oil.”
No, it clearly does not indicate any such need. And it also is not a clear mandate for complete moratorium on all drilling. The Oil Industry as a whole has a fantastic safety record, and not to minimize the terrible situation the BP disaster has put us all in, and the enormous economic losses that the gulf will experience, it should not slow down our efforts to drill here at home one iota. As Rupert Murdoch said, “We didn’t buy Alaska to save the Moose.”
Not wanting to miss out on the action, the Global Warming Alarmists have to make hay off of this crisis as well. To make matters worse, the New Plan from Chairman Zero for $7 dollar a gallon gasoline would obviously trigger yet more condemnation of oil and lead to more demands that the government “nationalize” the industry. Which would play into The Oministration’s hands very nicely.
In reality, government intervention played a SIGNIFICANT role in the disaster in the first place. As Judge Andrew Napolitano points out, BP wanted to drill in 500 feet of water, which the state of Louisiana approved but then was, of course, halted by the federal government which demanded the company drill in 5,000 feet of water. The Judge writes:
“Never mind that no oil company had ever cleaned up a broken well at that depth and never mind that the feds had never monitored a broken well at that depth and never mind that BP only needed to set aside $75 million in case something went wrong. The feds trumped BP’s engineers and the feds trumped the wishes of the folks who live along the Gulf Coast and the feds decided where this oil well would be drilled.”
And why did BP only need to set aside 75 million for liability? Because of a law liberal lawmakers passed following the Valdez spill. Previous to that there was no liability limit, another example of government good deeds at work.
Furthermore, the federal government has roadblocked local & state governments as well as private citizen’s efforts at cleanup every step of the way. The Obama Regime has turned away offers from well-trained and well-equipped groups including foreign countries because of the Jones Act, which protects American maritime unions. A law which could be suspended with a mere stroke of Obama’s pen. As much as the Liberals howl about saving the animals, and saving the environment, with this decision to do nothing Obama has made it clear he favors the unions more than the environment.
Is this merely incompetence and protection of special interests? OR is this maximization of the opportunity provided by this crisis ram down less-efficient and much more costly energy “alternatives,” such as windmills and corn-based ethanol, both of which are highly inefficient wastes of time and money and kept alive only by massive government subsidies. In a free market consumers would reject these costly and inefficient sources, but thanks to the magic of political “investing,” we no longer have a “free” market, and costly and inefficient are what Government does best.
So we have a spill the Obama administration and many others hope will change our attitudes toward oil. The fuels that come from crude oil are unmatched in their energy production and cost-effectiveness, so it would take a major event to make American consumers willing to impose huge costs on themselves. We may not need alternative fuels, and we may not want them, but apparently the government and its allies are using this unfortunate event to increase State power and to make us poorer.
-KOOK
