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Corporate media hacks are repeatedly hammering us with Big Oil's talking point that we need offshore drilling for the foreseeable future. I can't say I'm shocked. The corporate media are owned by extreme right Republicans, many of whom own oil stocks. Big Oil is a major source of advertising revenue. So, we get bombarded with claims about the supposed necessity of offshore drilling hoping will forget one thing.
It's all a bunch of preposterous lies.
A comprehensive green energy policy could easily ween us of our need to put the equivalent of ticking time bombs along our coastlines. It would also dramatically reduce global warming The reckless and negligent practice of offshore oil drilling could be made completely unnecessary with the following policies.
1) Increase fuel efficiency standards for all vehicles, passenger and commercial, including airplanes, beyond what is on the books. (This would have the added benefit of forcing the US automakers to produce cars that people actually want to buy.)
2) Massively expand public transportation, subway, commuter, and high speed rail. (This also would provide desperately needed jobs.)
3) Require all automakers who sell vehicles in the US to produce minimum percentages of hybrids and electric cars.
4) Mandate electric charging stations at all gas stations.
5) Enact telecommuting laws with minimum requirements for employers where job functions don't need to be performed outside the home.
6) Enact minimum US content requirements so less fuel is wasted shipping products over the oceans into the US.
7) Expand wind and solar power to provide the energy to fuel electric cars, hybrids, and trains.
8) Mandate smart growth policies that would reduce driving
9) Create bigger carpooling incentives and make it illegal for people to buy their way into carpool lanes.
10) Mandate minimum recycled content in plastics made from petroleum.
Big Oil and its flunkies in the corporate media know we don't really need to continue offshore drilling. So, they use every dirty trick in the book to keep us hooked on petroheroin. Alternatives such as the ones I mention above seldom get mentioned in corporate "news" outlets. And, when they are mentioned, there is a common rhetorical ploy designed to mislead people.
They will single out one part of a broader green transportation strategy. They then say that the single part is insufficient to solve the problem. They act like that is the entire alternative to offshore drilling. Then, they try to manipulate people into thinking that this flawed logic must lead us to the faulty conclusion that there is no realistic alternative to offshore oil spilling.
We cannot let ourselves be deceived into buying this. There are alternatives.
I have a tiny apartment in NYC (rent, not own). I don't use much elecricity/gas simply because the place is small. But a few years back I replaced all my lightbulbs--all six of them--with compact flourescents and I started to unplug appliances I rarely use (the microwave) and I unplugged my computer at night and when I left for work. Long and short, my electricity usage went down between 10-15%. Just by doing very small things. Now imagine if everyone did this.
The reason the oil companies are telling us we need offshore drilling is because they know that once we start dropping bombs on Tehran, the US oil supply will be cut off, so in order to the fill the gap (while increasing profits; the war on Iran will also drive up oil prices), we need offshore oil.
Unless, of course, we don't bomb Iran, but that isn't very likely.