Among the reasons: Russia, Canada and Norway will drill, so we should also. This from a “Democratic” administration. This development is the result of increasing corporate control over a government. When people voted for “Hope and Change” in 2008, did they really think that any part of Obama’s administration would stand up to fossil fuel drilling in the most sensitive areas left on Earth? In Colorado, policy allows natural gas drill pads physically closer to elementary schools than are marijuana dispensaries. All this is occurring just two years after one of the worst oil spills in world history – how short is our memory? Maybe people figure as long as the oil only destroys an Arctic ecosystem instead of an ecosystem which Americans might personally experience, then it’s alright.
Shell will receive approval for drilling later this year, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The article also includes a couple of reassurances that any potential spills in the future will be dealt with quickly because sufficient technologies will be in place already. Once a spill occurs (as they always do), every politician and corporate executive interviewed will lament that nobody could possibly have foreseen an oil spill in the Arctic.
Solar panels and wind farms don’t explode or leak, to say nothing of the lack of carbon emissions from their energy generation. The resources utilized are also common resources (nobody owns the sun or air – yet), so they directly threaten the obscene profits realized by a handful of corporations who now have more rights than American citizens.
