It’s perfectly obvious that President Obama is attempting to reach out to the right and members of Congress who are owned by the oil industry with his move this week to make offshore drilling part of his energy mix. The Greenius understands full well this “Let’s Keep Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman Aboard the Climate Bill Bandwagon” approach, just as I can grok how ineffective and nonproductive that approach is. It’s not the first time the President has followed the same failed path of imaginary bipartisanship with people who only seek a return to the disastrous Katrina-style polices of the past – and it no doubt won’t be the last.
What did we expect? The dude is a politician, not problem solver. That’s MY job. I’m not running for nothing. I’m already the Greenius and there’s no term limits that come with this territory.
My pals at Surfrider Foundation aren’t running for anything either and they’re not about kissing ass to politicians who are nothing more than paid shills for big oil. That’s why they’re among the environmental organizations offering the public the truth and reality on the issue this week. With all due respect to the White House, all they offered was bullshit and spin this week. To see the difference for yourself, join us after the jump to read the four biggest Offshore Drilling Myths and Legends straight from the folks at Surfrider:
Offshore Drilling Myths
1. New technologies will prevent oil spills.
Try telling the Australians that. In August 2009 a state-of-the-art rig using “new technology” spilled 2000 barrels of oil a day for 10 weeks into the fragile East Timor Sea.
2. Offshore drilling is good for the economy and will create jobs!
Our beaches are economic engines. One oil spill would devastate the local coastal tourism industry and the livelihood of people working in the fishing industry.
3. We won’t be reliant on foreign oil.
We’ll still have to import at least 40% of our oil to meet our daily consumption needs.
4. We’ll have a long-term supply of oil.
It won’t be enough. Offshore drilling will only give us about 18 months of supply at our current rate of consumption.
For more myth debunking, take a look at this fact sheet and pass it on to your friends and family.
Luckily for us here on the Best Coast, this gift to the fossil fuel industry excluded any drilling on America’s finest looking and most priceless coastlines – like California’s, Oregon’s and Washington’s.
Too bad for the East Coast and the Gulf Coast your politicians were the ones who had to be paid off with this blood money deal to open your coast to those oil hypodermic needles that addicts use. Too bad for all of us so many elected officials on both sides of the aisle across this country have the ethics of Somali Pirates.
More than anything this move is a “screw you” slap in the face to the young people still in school today or just starting their careers. They will gain nothing from these drop-in-the-bucket increases of legacy, carbon-filled dirty energy – but they will lose a chance at the better future they and their families could have had if the President and Congress had the backbone or the leadership qualities to do the right thing instead of selling out.
And make no mistake about it – this move is a shameless and indefensible sellout to the very people most responsible for the climate change we’re experiencing now. That climate change will be even worse by the time this dead dinosaur fluid gets pumped out of the ground. And it will be worse still 18 months later when we run out of this offshore oil.
Every day the President and our elected leaders delay and practice phony compromises like this instead of taking the bold, decisive action that has been overdue for years now is another day they put their own children closer to climate change that spirals out of control.
A lot of people who have been wrong about almost everything over the last 20 years are arrogantly betting against that happening. But not a single person I admire or respect doubts what is coming or doesn’t see the signs of it already starting.
The number is still 350ppm whether you like it or not.
You’re either working toward it or you’re working against it.
Creative Greenius 
Hear! Hear!