Florida’s No-Energy Policy Is No Energy Policy

It’s not surprising that the St. Petersburg Times would come out with an editorial supporting the President’s about face on opening up 25 million acres of land off of Florida’s coast to oil exploration. They also thought that shutting down ALL oil drilling in the entire Gulf of Mexico by ALL oil companies was a good idea too! It reflects the knee-jerk reaction to pressure from the environmentalist lobby who, last I checked, does not produce energy.

Critics of the plan, like State Senate President Mike Haridopolos, are right to say that the Florida ban will cost jobs. It is preventing jobs from being created. Forget that ‘saved or created’ nonsense. This, like the rest of Obama’s economic policies are preventing jobs from being created and the economy from recovering.

Out of the lost wages and earnings, all of which BP is responsible for replacing, the Times did not give a number of jobs lost due to the leak. And didn’t BP put thousands of people to work (because of the leak) all over the Gulf coast to do the cleanup work? Sorry to say, but devastating hurricanes create jobs and work too! This is no more a justification for lax safety procedures than a hope for another accident. Point is, we can recover from accidents and disasters.

The jobs lost by extending this Florida waters moratorium another 12 years is real. Likewise, the jobs lost from our president and Ken Salazar putting the drilling moratorium in effect for all drilling in the Gulf in the wake of the 4/20 BP rig explosion was ignored by the St. Pete Times. But, that is to be expected of them.

It’s been 15 years since the Clinton administration put the kibosh on ANWR development, which would have long been producing energy by now had that not happened. Now we’re to wait twelve more years for Florida and the Eastern U.S. to use its resources?

Time is long overdue for an energy policy that gets some. In every area. How many new nuclear generating plants have opened in the last 20 years? How many new refineries have been built in the last 20 years? Did you know that 57% (that’s more than half for those of you educated in government schools) of our electrical energy comes from coal? How many new coal-fired electrical generating plants have been built in the last 20 years? So President Clinton made our nation’s only low sulfur coal reserves (the largest in the world) off-limits, handing China a monopoly. And banning oil development off our East and Gulf coasts, leaves OPEC to profit. Buying coal from China and oil from OPEC is not good for national security, nor is it a good energy policy.

Long story short. Unless you expect the energy industry to make environmental guidelines, don’t expect the environmentalists to make energy policy.

Link:    Shelving expanded gulf oil drilling is responsible courseOil spills kill jobs

Climate Change Conference ‘Going Backwards’

That’s the good news. Frustrated by the competition to play God, the big U.N. climate talks in Cancun are ‘going backwards.’

They are arguing over adjusting the imaginary global thermostat down 2 degrees or 1.5 degrees. While the world’s two biggest polluters, China and India, feel it is unfair that they be forced to participate, don’t want anything to do with it. They haven’t signed on to the Kyoto Protocol either.

Then there’s the rift as to who would manage the $100 billion per year fund that they say they need in order to meet their goal. The World Bank or the United Nations? No matter who it would be, you know it would be nothing more than a slush fund for dictators and despots around the world, helping them to play God while the United States mostly foots the bill for their folly.

Meanwhile, environment ministers began flying in Saturday, hoping to put new life in the U.N. talks. Don’t you wonder about ‘the cost’ that their carbon footprint places on our green earth?

Link:  Plodding climate talks stepping up to higher level

111th Congress Wins MRIOTD Award

Something got passed yesterday in the Senate. Do you know which pressing issue of the day it was?

  1. Tax reform legislation, with jobs and the economy in the tank.
  2. A 2011 budget, now two months past due.
  3. The Mexican Dream Act.
  4. Loud TV commercial act.

It was item 4. Officially called the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM Act, S. 2847. You know they must pay someone a lot of bucks to come up with acronyms before actually naming these bills.

But of course, as with all important legislation, like Obamacare for instance, waivers are also part of the picture. Or speaker. So what’s the point? According to the list of sponsors, is a Democrat-only bill.

The only thing I can think of that is good about this bill is the process it went through. It was taken up and voted on. It wasn’t hidden inside a non-related bill in order to be snuck into law, like was tried with Card Check or re-extending unemployment checks.

There is no doubt that getting blasted by the volume on a TV commercial is an issue that needs to be dealt with. But is it more important than turning our economy around or getting control of our borders? The fact that any Senator would have wasted their/our time on the CALM Act in this session of Congress is . . . what’s the word?

So for this colossal waste of time, this lame duck Congress, emphasis on lame, is the recipient of the Most Rediculous Item Of The Day Award.

Link: Ear relief: Congress acts to stifle loud TV ads

A Joe Bonamassa Encounter

My meet and greet with Joe Bonamassa. Thanks Joe!

Had the privilege of meeting my favorite guitarist, let alone favorite blues guitarist, today. And am psyched to be seeing his show at the Saenger Theater a few hours from now. Whether I will be the oldest fan there remains to be seen.

I had the chance to confirm what I had suspected, if not hoped for, today when I had my chance to talk to Joe. I remember seeing a young guitarist who was in the opening act at a Steve Winwood concert back in the early 90’s. This kid was around 15 or 16 years old. The opening act for Winwood was a group called Tesla. Like a lot of opening acts, I had never heard of them, but the guy I went with was there to see them instead of Winwood. I of course, being much older 🙂 was there to see Winwood.

Anyway, this young guitar player was amazing. He played way beyond his years. Seeing this video of Joe jogged my memory of the guitar player who guested with Tesla. Joe confirmed for me today that he did play Philadelphia and he did play with Tesla back around that time. So it seems I had my own back-to-the-future moment today. That was a rush. Tonight will be another.

Update 12/2/2010: Some stills from the show.

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