Has President Bush completely lost any modicum of human logic he may have held onto following more than seven years of global bastardization? Wait, don’t answer that. It was just over two years ago that Bush declared that the United States of `merica was addicted to oil (it took him a while to get on board with the idea). He followed up this bleeding-edge proclamation by boldly stating that the US government was going to take action in the form of a big fat intervention.
Perhaps I rolled my eyes a bit too much when he made the declaration, knowing that said intervention would never surface. Perhaps it’s my liberal, non-auto-owning, cargo-biking, veggie-oil-home-heating cynicism that gave birth to the scoffing and tear-drenched laughter. Whatever it was, I figured that we’d never see a plan vomit forth from the Bush/Cheney tour of shame. I’m sad to say that I was wrong.
As most Portlanders are well aware of, Bushco has launched a plan to persuade Congress to lift the ban on drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As you can imagine, this news has been rightfully ‘well received‘. This comes far too close on the heels of Bushy’s deep-pocketed plan to hatch LNG terminals up and down the West coast so we can continue our love affair with non-renewable dinosaur fuel supplied by unstable political states across the globe. But hey, LNG is clean and safe, right? Wrong. Not only is it not local, it’s highly explosive, non-renewable, and far from clean; yet it’s almost a necessity for generating enough electricity to power our country. Damn, if only there was some huge glowing ball of energy out there from which we could endlessly power our iPhones and Wiis. Hasn’t Lawrence Livermore figured out something yet?
Before the boards light up with fire and brimstone, let it be known that I fully understand that solar power does not have the potential to kick our oil habit. Physics geniuses worldwide have already hammered this home. No single solution can break the habit. That’s not the issue here. The issue is whether we want to continue to enable the Decider to keep us skulking back to the van for dirty needles.
Is offshore oil drilling and/or LNG in Oregon’s future? I guess it all depends on just how effective Bushco is in going out with a real bang. Hold on, America. Hold on, Oregon.
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Boating is already heavily regulated around the mouth of the Columbia. It is a routine occurrence to be boarded by the Coast Guard while you are fishing in Astoria. It happened to me and my friend. The sailors are professional and courteous but it is disconcerting to be a few feet away from a bored 19 year old with his hands on a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on the deck of a boat.
If they put in the LNG port in Astoria and Coos Bay, Oregon residents can be assured that the heightened security will have an impact on their ability to enjoy these waterways.
You should write for the Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/opinion/22friedman.html
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