Comprehensive Energy Policy Includes Nothing on Oil?
As hard as one tries to take the editorial page of The Tennessean seriously, the writers of that sheet seem almost to make a concerted effort to ensure that no one will. Today, the paper offers the following on energy policy:
The decision to shut down the nation's largest oil field will no doubt fuel Congress' yen for more offshore oil drilling. Instead, the decision should remind Congress of the environmental dangers with which it now flirts.
Oh, yes indeed. Rather than thinking about what might be done about domestic production that is insufficient to meet the nation's needs and that puts the United States on the verge of servile dependence on totalitarian and unstable regimes across the globe, we should instead think about shutting down some more drilling sites.
Then, they write"
What the nation needs is not offshore drilling but a comprehensive policy on energy.... The architects of the offshore legislation will claim on the campaign trail this year that they want to wean America off foreign oil. They will paint offshore oil drilling as a success. But in truth, it is dangerous failure both in policy and common sense.
Ok. It is hardly Solomonic to suggest that the nation needs a comprehensive oil policy, but it is curious that they use the word "comprehensive," but don't consider oil to be part of what is included in that word. They don't manage to explain how an energy policy can be called "comprehensive" when it does not, at least in the short-term, deal with present realities regarding the need for oil. Perhaps in their portion of la-la land, the comprehensive-except-for-oil energy policy can be implemented by the middle of next week, so that we will not have to all take to riding horses to work or heating our homes with -- with what, we can't use trees, either. In the real world inhabited by the rest of us, oil remains a significant part of anything approaching comprehensiveness for many years to come.
Alternative fuels should be explored. As they are, a real energy policy deals with the short-term while looking toward the long-term, as well.
The decision to shut down the nation's largest oil field will no doubt fuel Congress' yen for more offshore oil drilling. Instead, the decision should remind Congress of the environmental dangers with which it now flirts.
Oh, yes indeed. Rather than thinking about what might be done about domestic production that is insufficient to meet the nation's needs and that puts the United States on the verge of servile dependence on totalitarian and unstable regimes across the globe, we should instead think about shutting down some more drilling sites.
Then, they write"
What the nation needs is not offshore drilling but a comprehensive policy on energy.... The architects of the offshore legislation will claim on the campaign trail this year that they want to wean America off foreign oil. They will paint offshore oil drilling as a success. But in truth, it is dangerous failure both in policy and common sense.
Ok. It is hardly Solomonic to suggest that the nation needs a comprehensive oil policy, but it is curious that they use the word "comprehensive," but don't consider oil to be part of what is included in that word. They don't manage to explain how an energy policy can be called "comprehensive" when it does not, at least in the short-term, deal with present realities regarding the need for oil. Perhaps in their portion of la-la land, the comprehensive-except-for-oil energy policy can be implemented by the middle of next week, so that we will not have to all take to riding horses to work or heating our homes with -- with what, we can't use trees, either. In the real world inhabited by the rest of us, oil remains a significant part of anything approaching comprehensiveness for many years to come.
Alternative fuels should be explored. As they are, a real energy policy deals with the short-term while looking toward the long-term, as well.
posted by MCO at 7:52 AM
1 Comments:
I stopped taking the Tennessean's editorial page seriously a long time ago. I'm much happier now.
Post a Comment
<< Home