Obama Facing Cries of “Drill Baby Drill” Again
Yesterday, President Obama spoke about energy issues facing our nation and outlined a broad plan to double the nation’s supply of renewable energy. The President’s energy policies call for investment of $15 billion a year to develop wind and solar power technologies, among other things. An excerpt of his speech in Pomona, California sounds very promising:
“So we have a choice to make. We can remain one of the world’s leading importers of foreign oil, or we can make the investments that would allow us to become the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy. We can let climate change continue to go unchecked, or we can help stop it. We can let the jobs of tomorrow be created abroad, or we can create those jobs right here in America and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity.”
Yet some of Obama’s campaign promises are back to haunt him.
Last summer, in the face of record high fuel costs, Obama conceded to cries of “Drill Baby Drill,” stating that he would support some off-shore oil exploration in the U.S., as well as focus on renewable energy resources like oil, wind and biofuels. Now that gas is affordable again, most of the DBD chorus has quieted. But Obama is caught in the crossfire between Big Oil – reminding him of pledges during the election year – and environmentalists who are calling for a reinstatement of the off-shore drilling ban that was lifted in September.
I see no reason to rush into a reaction on the issue of off-shore oil drilling. After all, despite the fact that alarmed congresspeople lifted the ban in a reaction to economic pressures last summer, home-based drilling is not going to improve our lot in the world. And if it helped anything at all, it would be by a small amount at a great potential cost.
First, it will take years, if not a decade, for any oil to reach consumers. This was fundamentally overlooked last year in the effort to try to lower gas prices for Americans. Concerned about oil prices? The U.S. has little influence over that, save for taxation (for example, Obama’s budget would increase taxes on oil companies and raise the cost of fossil fuels to help pay for alternative energy R&D).
Second, off-shore oil drilling will not grant us energy independence. Any oil pulled from shores of the U.S. would be but a fraction of what we import from the Gulf States.
Third, we may have already experienced peak oil. That is, world-wide reserves are declining. Even if we tap into the oil sitting below our own land, it is but a temporary fix for long-term energy demands.
Build, Baby Build is our reaction to Drill Baby Drill. Why put vast natural resources at risk and blight beautiful wilderness areas with oil rigs when the “fix” is not one at all? We can tap into existing renewable resources right now and see an immediate lowering of our energy costs and reduction in dependence on foreign oil.
Its time to stop the DBD nonsense and build a new future. Right here, right now.
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Please clarify the byline.
Who is Stephanie?
This looks like plagerism or at least web hype to me.
Hello Ted,
Perhaps you may not agree with my opinion, but to lodge unfounded allegations in response does nothing to further the debate about clean energy.
Sincerely, Stephanie
Plagerism? Thank you for the constructive and thoughtful post Ted. What exactly is your point with respect to the blog post? Do you actually have a comment? If you believe its is plagerized, how about you cite the source from which it is taken. Otherwise, please participate in the debate rather than needlessly trying to discount the comments without foundation.
I’m with Stephanie and Samuel– this seems like a well-reasoned, well written blog post to me. Plagerism is a pretty serious charge and if Ted is going to make it– he better have something concrete to back it up with. I’m issuing a troll alert on Ted. Kudos Stephanie:-)
Stephanie, great post – I for one agree with your opinion, but certainly don’t think you plagiarised the post. I salute you though for publishing Ted’s comment.
Ted,
I’ve never suspected Stephanie of plagiarism and have read many pieces of her writing.
Of course I could be wrong, but until you can evidence such claims I will simply not believe them.
So, Ted, proof or it never happened.
Hopefully we’re done with that and can now move on to solving our energy problems.
Obama is more of a class act than people give him credit for. He’s savvy, and ready to make the changes we need. Sometimes he will bend in order to accomplish his end, a little bit of compromise is a political reality. Rather than beat the economic woes to death he’s willing to take them upon himself to move forward. Yeah, he caved a little when gas was $4 and the only thing on peoples’s minds but I don’t expect him to be doing any Drill Baby Drill now ttha he’s in office.
I think obama diserves a banana
I think this is a great push towards ending our dependence on foreign oil. With the amount of energy we use every year going up exponentially eventual the price of non renewable energy will outweigh all the cost of the initial investment of renewable energy. Regardless if global warming is real or not in 30 years if we are producing the majority of our power through renewable resources then this country will not have to fight over oil . If global warming is proven to be real then we are already have the right energy model. So why not change now, yes I agree that we will lose jobs in the non renewable energy sources however I hope we can put all the displaced workers to renewable energy jobs.