Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

I know I am late to this, but I figured after 30 years I could make a statement on the Gulf oil rig spill. Oh, you were expecting the BP spill? I was thinking of the Mexican rig, the IXTOC 1. The third largest spill of all time, an exploratory rig that blew out and leaked for nearly a year.

Seriously tho, there are a couple of major issues I have with the hullabaloo around the BP oil spill. For one thing, while it is a huge oil leak, it is still smaller than the intentional spill in the Persian Gulf caused by the Iraqi government under Sadaam. It is less that twice the size of the IXTOC1, which has had no notable long-term effects in the gulf. There are reports of small spills like the Exxon Valdez spill, less than 4% of the size of the BP oil spill that the worst long term effects on the coastal environment is the temporary city that was made to house the cleanup crew. The cleanup crew was, in fact, very inneffective. There are concerns that the dispersion efforts in the BP spill will be more harm than good.

The most mind blowing part of all of the fuss about environmental impact is the numbers on natural oil seepage. Natural well seepage is more than half of all petroleum pollutants entering the ocean. The vast majority of human-caused petroleum pollution is from runoff and contaminated rain. Spills and transportation account for only a small percentage, and the Deep Horizon spill barely makes a dent in those numbers. Does this mean we should ignore it? No, but it does mean that we are making too much of it. It also means that the earth can handle this thing better than we can.

As for our efforts to handle the issue, however, chew on this: We were offered assistance and refused it because the EPA regulators did not like that the cleaning technology offered, while far more efficient and effective than our own process, did not meet certain standards. So, instead of having the oil removed mostly and quickly, they remove only a small percentage of it completely, and the rest is just left to run. Net effect? Way worse than the process that did not meet their “standards”. Idiotic to say the least.

In all the government has handled this with blunder after blunder, using the catastrophe to gain power and generally screw up everything as much as they can. BP has not been much better, finger pointing and pandering instead of getting serious and making it known how badly their hands are being tied by the EPA.

Bottom line? Get over it, the earth can heal. We need to keep drilling, and we need to do it closer to land. We need to improve our drilling safeguards. We need to drill on land in places like ANWR. We need to tell the EPA how much they are destroying the earth and get rid of them. That will do a lot more to help the planet than any drilling restrictions ever will.

Firstly, I apologize for not posting in so long. It is generally good to be busy, but it is not good for one’s political blog. Secondly, I am not a football man. I will not be some Rush Limbaugh doing football and other sports asides to my political commentary. The Superbowl was the only game I saw this year. There were, however, two things that struck me, one good, one bad, that seemed worthy of appearing in this forum.

First I will mention the good aspect, which came from the game itself. Read the rest of this entry »

As a person with a passion for the environment, I find it deplorable that so many who claim to be environmentalists are destroying the pro-environment cause by pushing concerns about climate change. I will list out a number of ways in which the whole scare is causing real damage to the planet, whether the intentions are pure or not. With the December 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen looms, I think it is time to call the environmentalist movement on its colossal error.

Representatives from 170 countries are expected to be at the Copenhagen conference, as well as a whole host of other people, discussing one tiny aspect of environmental concern. The rest of the concerns, unfortunately, are hardly even being addressed. This is the first and most important way that the environmentalist moevement has strayed from the path. There are real ways in which humans are impacting their environment negatively, but none of them are being addressed. I suppose they aren’t “big enough” to scare whole nations into cooperation, making them far less powerful as a political tool.
Read the rest of this entry »

Any of you who have followed any of my writing know that I am no fan of the Cap and Trade concept. I find it abhorrent that it even made it to a vote. Unfortunately it looks as though it is likely to pass, despite the outcry of the public, at least the productive public, against it.

Cap and trade represents the largest overall tax increase in our history. It will hit everyone who uses fuel or buys products from companies that use fuel. That means everyone in the country. That means rich and poor. That mean Obama’s talk about not increasing taxes on anyone but the rich is an absolute lie. Suprised? Read the rest of this entry »