Obama Allows the Bull in the China Shop
President Obama will be announcing plans today to open up new areas to offshore drilling to include the Atlantic Coast from Delaware south.
My tremendous disappointment with this announcement doesn’t come from the fact that Virginia still stands in line for potential lease sale as early as next year. That’s never going to happen for two reasons: 1) Virginia wants to keep a hold of Oceana’s jets and not kiss off the 11,000 jobs, $773 million in annual payroll, and $452 million in annual local contracting it brings in; and 2) because the 6.5 days worth of oil off Virginia’s coast isn’t worth the lawsuits impending as a result of the Federal government continued slipshod environmental sensitivity analysis nor has it or will it garner any interest from Big Oil especially now as much greener pastures have been opened up.
No, my disappointment comes from how allowances for offshore drilling are been used as a political football to jockey support for the climate bill from especially U.S. Senators in southern Atlantic coast states. Sen. Jim Webb is too in bed with Big Coal to ever support it. Sen. Mark Warner who placates all too often to Chambers of Commerce interests is not very likely to support it either. Meanwhile insertion of more drilling in this supposed “clean energy” climate bill will cost Obama in his quest to garner 60 votes as Senators from northern Atlantic coast states, who strongly stand in opposition to offshore drilling, bail.
So now for this game of political football to work out successfully, that climate bill must stay clean without insertions of drilling, “clean coal”, nuclear and other dirty energy sources. Will it be worth having to suffer through the short-lived “Drill, baby, drill” celebrations in Virginia today? I think so, because like I said… drilling ain’t never going to happen off Virginia’s coast.
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March 31st, 2010 at 5:33 am
This is another misguided attempt by President Obama to offer concessions to obtain Republican support that he never ends up receiving. Successful negotiating doesn’t begin by compromising in exchange for nothing.
Locally, President Obama called Gov. McDonnell’s bluff. McDonnell’s transporation funding plan depended on state revenue from offshore drilling. McDonnell was hoping that Obama would rule it out. Then McDonnell could blame Obama for the failure of his transportation funding plan. Now McDonnell’s plan is on track. Where’s the transportation funding?
March 31st, 2010 at 5:55 am
Eileen,
Are you so disappointed in President Obama that you will vote against him?
David Campbell,
Good point. Even with offshore drilling and very favorable revenue payments to Virginia, this would not solve Virginia’s transportation needs during McDonnell’s one term in office. Probably would not happen even if we gave him two terms.
Raise the fuel tax and raise it NOW. We do not want promises of how things will get better tomorrow with another excuse for failure when tomorrow arrives.
Raise the fuel tax NOW! Business supports it, even the trucking industry which would pay the most (just keep it fair) says it is necessary.
March 31st, 2010 at 6:46 am
Don’t get upset over nothing… It is simple politics that in the end amounts to nothing. In the short term, the President has done a good thing. It is a long road before the first well gets drilled off Virginia’s coast.
March 31st, 2010 at 7:05 am
LittleDavid: In my opinion, President Obama is doing a great job so far, even though he occasionally does little things like this that irritate some of his supporters. He was never the ultra-liberal that some portrayed him to be.
You are absolutely correct. Raising the gas tax and dedicating the revenue to transportation is an elegantly simple solution. Of course, it will never happen under Gov. McDonnell.
March 31st, 2010 at 7:41 am
Yeah, Obama irritates me as well. While he seems to support nuclear energy he also seems to be a roadblock to providing a better storage of the nuclear waste.
March 31st, 2010 at 10:11 am
Au contraire, Eileen–offshore drilling will happen, because, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and his name is President Barack Hussein Obama! Wake up and smell the tea, goofball. I have to hand it to you, it didn’t take you any time at all to turn on your own. And, as someone “born a Democrat” are you truly as ignorant as you are pathetic? RE: a subsequent article, how could you NOT know who Eugene V. Debs is, you union-loving Dem! Of course, I’m making the assumption that you learned something in school besides dropping the “F-bomb” at every opportunity. That’s what makes your site Numero Uno on the scum scale. Kudos.
March 31st, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Lila: That’s how this site attracts literate and well-reasoned comments such as yours.
March 31st, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Ouch, that stings!
March 31st, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Darrell of Chesapeake had a good comment on Bacon’s Rebellion…
Foreign workers will do the drilling. Hampton Roads will turn into a combination of Long Beach and Texas City. In the summer all those btu’s will be visible for a hundred miles, and there won’t be a fish worth eating in Chesapeake Bay.
But hey, we cut our dependence on foreign oil and created hundreds of non-union jobs. What’s not to like?
March 31st, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Another good one at Pilotonline.com…
Don’t whales have oil? Let’s drill into them!
March 31st, 2010 at 7:28 pm
[...] Eileen is perturbed about Obama’s possible straying from the climate alarmist straight and narrow. She and I don’t agree on much, but her conclusion drilling here ” ain’t never going to happen” is one we share though probably for different reasons. [...]
April 1st, 2010 at 2:57 am
Eileen,
I know you are disappointed in this, but let me quote President Obama:
“Given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable homegrown energy,”
Even you need gasoline for your fuel efficient VW Bug. I need fuel for my not as fuel efficient, as I hoped it would be, big truck that brings the toilet paper to your local grocery store.
Barack Obama’s move might not win him any votes from the far right, however it might help him win votes in the center. He keeps what you desire in play by pointing towards breaking from our current dependence on fossil fuels and developing alternative energy sources.
It’s just that it is not going to be easy for our nation to break from our addiction. Even you are addicted to it like the rest of us.