Featured Story:
The Democrat-controlled Congress is on the verge of pushing through a disastrous energy "compromise." But the only thing compromised would be America's energy needs, with a permanent ban on drilling within 50 miles of shore--which is where the biggest and most accessible known deposits are!
And yet the Democrats--with the help of the media--are selling this as a "pro-drilling" bill, on the flimsy grounds that it allows some drilling beyond the 50 mile limit, where we are unlikely to get much oil.
This is a cynical ploy by Nancy Pelosi--a Green favorite--and other Democrats in Congress to trick voters into thinking they are serious about energy. The Institute for Energy Research published a handy primer outlining exactly why this plan is nothing more than a bait and switch:
A permanent ban out to 50 miles locks-up the largest known offshore energy reserves, including those off the coast of California, that are close to existing infrastructure and be produced the fastest.
The plan permanently bans access to 97 percent of the 10.527 billion barrels off the coast of California. It allows the State to decide whether to produce just 3 percent, or 287 million barrels, which is highly unlikely anyway. The remainder...10.24 billion barrels...is off limits.
Keeping the Eastern Gulf of Mexico off limits also denies access to large reserves located close to existing pipeline infrastructure. The plan keeps an estimated 3.65 barrels of oil and 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off limits.
Perhaps worst of all, this plan appears to institute a 50-mile ban around energy-rich Alaskan shore--where no ban has ever been in place before and exploration is just beginning! So the Democrats "pro-drilling bill" doesn't open up the California oil that matters and it appears to shut down Alaska.
There's much more from IER, I suggest you read the whole thing here. Marlo Lewis on Planet Gore has a helpful summary as well.
The Democrats seem to be counting on the distractions of the election season to slip this one by. Don't let them. Tell your friends. Forward this email. Let's stick this "compromise" on an ice flow and let it drift out to sea.
This Week's Headlines:
Arctic Ice check: .5 million square kilometers more Arctic ice than last year; that's about the size of Spain!
Farmers concerned about unseasonably cold temperatures in Michigan, Kansas, North Dakota, and Wisconsin
DNC carbon offset program raises $18.34
Al Gore's Global Warming find and replace
Most Egregious Claim of the Week:
Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, sat down for an interview with the co-editor of 21st Century Socialism, a British web-magazine, exposing himself as as a fear-monger with no regard for science or accuracy:
"We are heading for catastrophic climate change; if we are lucky, tens of millions dead globally, if we are unlucky, hundreds of millions. There is a real possibility that human civilization doesn't make it to the end of the Century. I think you can avoid that, and therefore the question of green politics becomes fairly central. What that green politics is about, is planning and sharing. It really reverts to the fairly traditional agenda of the left. You can use market mechanisms to come up with some solutions, but the market won't do it without state direction, effectively."
We have to give Mr. Livingstone credit for one thing: At least he's up front about the fact that aggravating fears about "catastrophic climate change" plays right into the hands of those who promote socialism.
Here in the United States, green politicos strive to keep their socialist ambitions under wraps, preferring tactics like telling football fans that global warming could make their favorite teams, professional or college, relocate.
Talk about putting lipstick on a pigskin.
