The price of gas is rising thanks to the number one GOP sponsor: the oil and gas industry. Thank goodness they have come to the rescue of the GOP just when it looked as if they were becoming issueless. Here it is still winter and the rumors are beginning to be marketed by industry analysts who dare to suggest that the rise is because summer is coming. Ha! Other factors mentioned are the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela, a new European recession’s failure to materialize, and the U.S. recovery. The main factor, however, is the deliberate jacking up of prices by U.S. refiners.
All the other possible reasons for the current rise in price are just so much hogwash. The oil and gas industry wants a Republican in the White House so that it can return to the days of Dick Cheney and the free-for-all drilling that went on during the “W” administration, “W” standing for Windfall, not wind power. The industry wants to “frack” to its heart’s content without worrying about being convicted of damaging water supplies by being required to list the heretofore proprietary chemicals they use in the process. They want to drill-baby-drill on as many public lands as possible without consequence or responsibility and with maximum profit.
Republican candidates are now shifting their focus to gas prices as a way of criticizing the Obama administration for actually making the industry drill safely. In the name of job creation (temporary as it always is) and increasing supply (until the price of crude is so low it does not make economic sense to keep drilling), the GOP is now sounding the alarm to open up public lands for yet more drilling, even though we are already currently drilling and extracting on domestic soil at an all time high level….under the Obama administration.
What the industry fails to mention is how much water it takes to “frack,” the nickname given to hydraulic fracturing. Anywhere from 400,000 to a million gallons of water is required per well. In the East, where water is plentiful, water usage may not be a huge issue. However, in the West, where water is gold, using it to extract oil and gas is of questionable overall merit. Any true cost-benefit analysis would weigh the impact of water usage against the gain in energy and conclude that as water becomes increasingly scarce, its value for the maintenance of life itself transcends all other uses. After all, water is ultimately more important and valuable than oil and gas, for it is the primary source of life on this planet. Ramping up drilling, especially in the West, for the sake of rising gas prices is only a short term fix, not a long term solution.
Therefore, when you hear another GOP politician call for more unregulated drilling, have a glass of water. Given their plans, in the future it may begin to cost you as much for that glass of water as you are currently paying at the pump for a gallon of gas.
*Desperately Seeking Issues
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Churchill Downs to Add Race on Derby Day
In an unprecedented move The Kentucky Derby Corporation has announced an addition to this year’s May 5th program: a quarter mile event featuring the Republican candidates for President of the United States.
The idea came about when one of the Derby stewards noticed that candidates “run” for office. Why not see who is actually the most fleet of foot on turf rather than in mouth? He actually meant “of mouth” as in who is the fastest talker but even stewards can make slips of the tongue, not just candidates.
So far two stable owners (or is that unstable owners since the candidates are not really stabled themselves), Sheldon Adelson and Foster Freiss, like the idea and have begun training their candidates in preparation for the big day. They embrace the notion of “running-the-run” which is a faster version of walk-the-walk. “Talking-the-talk has obviously gotten no candidate anywhere.” says Adelson, owner of Newt-Fortuit, that old but still randy stallion from Georgia. Freiss, owner of Santorum (which by itself sounds like the name of a thoroughbred), is eager to enter the dark horse from Pennsylvania who is so purely conservative some think he was immaculately foaled. After all, he is the youngest of the field and is more apt to receive the benefit of divine intervention given his lifelong purity of purpose.
One problem is getting Mitt-the-Fit to the gate. That high mileage, eternally frisky, fast-talking and directionless self-gelding is backed by a posse of “One-Percenters” from Wall Street to Beaver Creek even though he is rich enough to own himself and make his own decisions. And yet there is no telling which side of the track he’ll end up on given his propensity to drift from one lane to the next.
The other problem is Paul the Revered. This horse is as old as the Revolution. He is practically ready for the glue factory, and yet a certain segment of American youth reveres him because he wants to legalize drugs as part of his libertarian platform. He is not apt to add any drama to the race because as both a libertarian and septuagenarian he will set his own pace and to hell with the Derby stewards. He has no owner, no halter, and no saddle. He is so appallingly individualistic he would run his own race, make his own silver trophy, and award it to himself.
When asked if it would be all right to invite President Obama to participate, the owners of the Republican candidates protested that Obama was not qualified to enter because he had no clearly identified owners other than large aggregates of the American people.
The idea came about when one of the Derby stewards noticed that candidates “run” for office. Why not see who is actually the most fleet of foot on turf rather than in mouth? He actually meant “of mouth” as in who is the fastest talker but even stewards can make slips of the tongue, not just candidates.
So far two stable owners (or is that unstable owners since the candidates are not really stabled themselves), Sheldon Adelson and Foster Freiss, like the idea and have begun training their candidates in preparation for the big day. They embrace the notion of “running-the-run” which is a faster version of walk-the-walk. “Talking-the-talk has obviously gotten no candidate anywhere.” says Adelson, owner of Newt-Fortuit, that old but still randy stallion from Georgia. Freiss, owner of Santorum (which by itself sounds like the name of a thoroughbred), is eager to enter the dark horse from Pennsylvania who is so purely conservative some think he was immaculately foaled. After all, he is the youngest of the field and is more apt to receive the benefit of divine intervention given his lifelong purity of purpose.
One problem is getting Mitt-the-Fit to the gate. That high mileage, eternally frisky, fast-talking and directionless self-gelding is backed by a posse of “One-Percenters” from Wall Street to Beaver Creek even though he is rich enough to own himself and make his own decisions. And yet there is no telling which side of the track he’ll end up on given his propensity to drift from one lane to the next.
The other problem is Paul the Revered. This horse is as old as the Revolution. He is practically ready for the glue factory, and yet a certain segment of American youth reveres him because he wants to legalize drugs as part of his libertarian platform. He is not apt to add any drama to the race because as both a libertarian and septuagenarian he will set his own pace and to hell with the Derby stewards. He has no owner, no halter, and no saddle. He is so appallingly individualistic he would run his own race, make his own silver trophy, and award it to himself.
When asked if it would be all right to invite President Obama to participate, the owners of the Republican candidates protested that Obama was not qualified to enter because he had no clearly identified owners other than large aggregates of the American people.
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