At under $2 per gallon do we really need to rape our coastline? Well guess what folks: Ol' Georgie Porgie Bush wants to sneak in some last minute sales of OUR coastline to oil and gas exploration.
I think we all learned from the recent precipitous drop from over $4 to under $2 per gallon in gas prices that "supply and demand" wasn't completely controlling the price of gasoline (was it the fat-cat CEOs at Chevron, Shell, BP, Etc.?). But the Bush administration, after years of ignoring California politically, still plans on profiting off of us by selling off our coastline, and is still ignoring the majority of us Californians who oppose drilling off of our shores.
I realize that the petroleum availability problem is greater than our gas tanks. I realize that plastics are a petroleum product. And having an uncle with a small "mom & pop" fiberglass shop (NJ Fiberglas, inherited from my grandfather, est. 1969), the price and availability of petroleum affects his materials costs in a big way. I understand the issue is more complex than just what we drivers pay at the pump. But if less oil is burned as fuel in our gas tanks and we reduce our consumption of plastics (all you people drinking bottled water and then tossing the bottle: I'm talking to you!), and all the other things we could do to curb our plastics/petroleum consumption, would we really need these new supplies?
And what if there isn't much oil there off our shores, would the drilling amount to a small drop in the bucket? If we were successful in curbing our consumption, wouldn't it all just go to China and India? Would it really help the small businesses here in California? Like the Enron scandal, California would end up pants down bent over a barrel with our coastlines full of tar and sick animals and sick people. We already have a sewage problem on our coastlines—thanks to real estate developers and the legislators/councils/commissions that don't require the developers to build new sewage treatment for all the population growth they encourage, ARGH!
Oh, and guess what my hommies in South O.C. and San Diego, the coast off of the San Francisco Bay Area is safe, but the coastline along your beaches is up for grabs...so you like surfing in tar? Want to add that to the nasty rash you already have from polluted water? Look at the map below:
Illustration from The San Francisco Chronicle (click to read the article):
Posts
What if I promise that I always recycle my plastic water bottles? (Actually, at home we use a filter, so it's just when I'm out and about.)
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone "in power" will ever really care?
Recycling unfortunately requires machinery that uses oil and energy which is often generated by oil or natural gas... Do those in power care? I think those in power want to maintain that power and will do whatever it takes to stay there so they care in so much that it supports their agenda.
ReplyDeleteThe SF Gate article has it right. This is what you have to expect with an oil man in the White House. Eco-ruin through blind ambition. Selling out our children for the sake of a quick dirty buck. I'm so glad GWB is finally gone. He's not longer "the decider" so now we are left with cleaning up his ungodly mess.
ReplyDelete