McCain’s Coastal Flip-Flop = Global Disaster
Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Lois Capps held a conference call today to discuss the Bush/McCain response to $140/barrel oil. Before I share the high points of the call, I want to offer some pictorial perspective on why I and most other Californians, Republican and Democrat, are so vehemently against what is clearly an election-year gimmick with no short-term benefits and many long-term consequences. This isn’t political, or economic. It’s personal.
I took this picture in 2006 at Port Hueneme Beach, just before sunset. What you don’t see in this photo is as significant as what you do see. While I obviously chose the photo of the flip-flop to make a statement about McCain, what isn’t in the photo is polluted water, patches of oil in the sand, or washed up sea life that has died as the result of offshore drilling.
I live in Camarillo, California, one of the jewels of California’s central coast. Camarillo is not on the coast; we’re inland about 8 miles but it’s an easy bike ride to get there, and we’re close to some of the most beautiful coastline in California. Here, let me pull back and show you a bigger picture.
This is our California coastline in all its glory. Unmarred by oil derricks, graced by the presence of the now-repopulated brown pelicans (once endangered by DDT poisoning), red-tailed hawks and the seasonal migration of gray whales. Sometimes on an especially hot day, we’ll load everyone in the car, get dinner, and head down to Point Mugu to watch sea lions, dolphins, pelicans and assorted gulls enjoy the sunset and the plentiful fish just off the shoreline.
Bush and McCain want everyone to believe the answer to the high price of oil is opening up the moratorium on offshore drilling. I’m old enough to remember back to 1976 just like Senator Boxer is, and I remember the protracted battle that we fought and won back then. It’s pretty amazing to me that the Bush/McCain contingent is relying on voters not having enough of a memory to go back 30 years to oppose this, but let me give you some facts.
- In the Bush years, applications for permits to drill on public lands have increased by 361%. In that same eight-year span, oil prices have risen by nearly 1200%. Obviously, there is no correlation between lower gas prices and granting rights for oil exploration and drilling.
- Despite the issuance of permits for drilling and exploration, only 23% of the existing public lands and waters are being drilled. The oil companies have the leases but aren’t using the ones they already have.
- If existing leases were drilled and were producing, US oil production would double and imports would be cut by over one third.
Bush and McCain’s position on offshore drilling is nothing more than a gimmick. It doesn’t represent any kind of immediate relief to consumers who are struggling to fill their tanks, pay for groceries and their bills. Does this sound like a campaign ad? Well, maybe it’s because I am one thousand percent in support of those who oppose this wrong-headed destructive proposal and think it’s the worst kind of campaign lie I’ve ever heard.
Representative Lois Capps represents the Santa Barbara area, where the economy depends heavily on tourism. Here’s a photo I took up in her district. Imagine this beautiful great white egret poking its beak into oil residue washed up on the shore by the offshore derricks. The Channel Islands lie just off the Santa Barbara coast, housing one of the few refuges for the Bald Eagle, our national symbol of freedom, strength, and independence.
When Senator Boxer and Representative Capps raise their voices and grow passionate about this, it’s not simply because they’re politicians with an agenda. They live in these areas, they know what drilling costs communities, people, and wildlife.
So why is this such a big deal to Bush and McCain? Well, first of all, it makes it sound like they’re doing something that would actually impact oil prices. It’s all sound and heat, with no light, but it makes for great soundbites if you take the assertion that the problem is all about supply and demand, instead of other issues that make them look like the shysters they are for trying to sell this to voters.
It’s a distraction, just like the ridiculous idea to suspend the gas tax. It’s a way to make people THINK they’re sensitive to their pain while doing nothing other than throwing a gold mine the way of the oil companies. Reality is another thing entirely. Reality is wholesale destruction of our environment without any appreciable gain until 2030, earliest. Reality is that even with increased drilling, refineries aren’t going to increase output unless we build more, which opens another environmental and national security Pandora’s box. Reality is that if we can’t get our elected representatives to let go of oil as the sole answer to energy needs, we are going to have a disaster of global proportions on our hands that will be irreversible. Reality lies the way of alternative sources for energy, not more drilling, especially when drilling has decreased since 2006, despite marked increases in the number of drilling permits issued.
If you’re reading this and you support the Bush/McCain proposals, I have some questions for you:
- Why has John McCain consistently voted against alternative energy and conservation proposals like the Clean Car tax credit?
- Why is he supporting an initiative that will not give us any price relief at all and won’t even show a difference for 22 or so years?
- Why is Phil Gramm, author of the Enron Loophole, a key player on McCain’s team?
- When does Senator McCain expect to introduce or co-sponsor legislation closing the Enron loophole, which would stop the ridiculous price inflation on oil prices and drop them to a much more reasonable level?
- Does Senator McCain support Senator Obama’s 2007 legislation authorizing the FTC to investigate and pursue price manipulation in the oil markets?
If you still think it makes sense to drill in the Arctic Circle or off the magnificent shorelines of California, Florida, and other shoreline states, think again. It’s a gimmicky distraction from the true corruption taking place at the highest levels of our government, and the presumptive nominee of the Republican party.
This is not a partisan issue. Many, many Republicans oppose the Bush/McCain plan as much as I do. Here’s one last photo of our coastline to leave you with a true understanding of why we have a duty to prevent such abuse of our natural resources from happening.
Statistical source: House Committee on Natural Resources Report, June 2008 (PDF)
Click on images for larger sizes. All images are available under a Creative Commons license for non-profit use.