Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by spence

The Alaska State Constitution provides that the full time residents share in the oil revenues gained by the state, at times this has meant a $5,000 check to a typical family.

There is no other state in the Union that shares such an entitlement, and to think this wouldn't bias the citizens isn't being negative, it's just common sense.

I just don't see what is bad about all that. More power to the citizens of Alaska. Aren't progressives all about business sharing their profits with the people. I would think that progressives would use Alaska as a model. I'm certainly not jealous of any personal gain they receive from oil profits. It's a trade-off for living in a short-summer state with a lack of all the goodies offered by a state such as, say, Massachusetts. I don't see a mass migration to Alaska because of its "entitlement."

You're also talking about underwriting corporate earnings.

Hell, if I didn't know better you seem to be advocating government stimulation of the private sector.

I'm not the one who was trying to provide cover for the Brazil deal. I'd rather the government would keep its prod as far away from the private sector as possible.


The point really was just that there are tradeoffs.

And when tradeoffs are defined: financial benefits versus environment, scenery, political power, etc.

There are various environmental reasons, but ANWR is a bit different in that it's one of the last places on earth with a perfectly balanced ecosystem. I would think that even with minimal disruption to the environment some would reasonably argue that the oil companies are not a natural part of that ecosystem and hence it would be spoiled to some degree.

This is a more unique example than most other environmental concerns which are founded on the possibility of an accident.

Perfect balance, probably, cannot exist but for a moment, granted that geologic moments are longer than mundane ones. And, since everything, as you say, is on a spectrum, along that constantly shifting spectrum one momentary perfect balance is replaced with another momentary perfect balance. We are always, temporarily in a state of balance, but interruptions to that balance always occur and we evolve to newer balances. If environmentalists think they can produce stasis on earth rather than heaven, the devil has a warm seat available to them.

As for being hypocritical...is there concern that the drilling off of Brazil will cause great environmental harm?-spence

Environmentalists and progressives believe that all extraction of oil causes environmental harm. Whether the harm is "great" is not the relevant question. All drilling is to be stopped and alternative ways to create energy is the only option.