Protect, Baby, Protect

[WestCoastRunner]

Obama seeks to protect Alaska from drilling for oil but looks to open the Atlantic Coast. They want to:

• Block future gas and oil exploration of over 9 million acres off the coast of Alaska
• Open the federal waters off the coast of Virginia, the Carolina's and Georgia.

I say this is a good thing. Let's protect one of the last great marine wildernesses left untouched by development.

Of course I could be a bit biased, since I am in BC but for those who are not, I suspect this issue impacts Canadians more than it does U.S. citizens.

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/27/7921921/obama-oil-drilling-alaska

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/25/obama-alaksa-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-lisa-murkowski-dan-sullivan/22312741/

[bush_cheney2004]

Drill...baby...drill. Open it all up for exploration and drilling. Obama will be gone in two years.

[WestCoastRunner]

Drill...baby...drill. Open it all up for exploration and drilling. Obama will be gone in two years.

Exactly why he's throwing it out there on the table. Good for him.

[bush_cheney2004]

U.S. oil production is way up on Obama's watch.....he ain't protecting nuthin' but the border from a Canadian pipeline !

[PrimeNumber]

Protect the water up near Canada and destroy the water in the American South, I like it. Obama's actually a Canadian spy.

[Bonam]

"Protect, baby, protect" just doesn't have the same ring to it...

[Shady]

It's really a non issue. They're talking about drilling on a miniscule amount of land, compared to the whole of Alaska, and compared to ANWAR. It's just another example of how Obama has nothing to do with the decrease in gas prices. He fights drilling and fracking everywhere he gets a chance. Oil production on federal land is down from previous years. Private land has led to the oil and gas production increases that have benefited us all. He likes to take credit for the improved economy because of it though.

[BubberMiley]

Yes, Obama is always directly responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world. And it's ridiculous to suggest he should get credit for anything that goes right.

That's just being objective.

[Shady]

Yes, Obama is always directly responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world. And it's ridiculous to suggest he should get credit for anything that goes right.

That's just being objective.

Nobody's saying that. Stop with the strawmen.

[On Guard for Thee]

Why bother with "drill baby drill" when the cost of drill bits exceeds the proceeds from the oil?

[overthere]

Of course I could be a bit biased, since I am in BC but for those who are not, I suspect this issue impacts Canadians more than it does U.S. citizens.

In BC you say? How do you feel about BC exporting heaps of toxic coal to China? It affects China more than BC citizens, so its A-OK?

[WIP]

Obama's handling of this and every other environmental issue that has come across his desk since he became President, is exactly why real environmentalists in the U.S. don't see any value in either the Republican or Democratic Parties!

One (Republicans) are totally in the tank and sucking gas fumes from Big Oil....but, at least we know where they stand! But, the shape-shifting Democrats are typical liberals...who befriend as much of left wing populist movements as they deem necessary, only to play games and disappoint the activists after they've taken power!

No more excuses. The message coming forth from the majority of climatologists is that - regarding policy decisions, all of the "unconventional" oil has to be left in the ground where nature buried it after extracting most of it out of the atmosphere over the past many millions of years! And unconventional means deep sea offshore drilling too! It's not just about shales and tar sands drilling. If the developers want to go two miles under the sea floor looking for big oil deposits, there is a consensus of evidence that we release all of the carbon sequestered in the Arctic, along with methane clathrates in deep water in lower latitudes. Once it all starts going up into the atmosphere, the chain reaction won't stop; and the final determination on whether the resulting continued extinction is total, will only depend on how much carbon is turned loose.

Now, Obama has access to the scientific panels, and here it all firsthand before the press releases and the official IPCC reports. Either he doesn't really believe it...or he doesn't care! There are no alternative explanations for his strategies. And it doesn't matter whether he doesn't believe it, or this issue...like so many others, he demonstrates the qualities of a narcissistic psychopath...which is likely a high number of people who seek high political office in the first place!

Some hopeful idiot Democrats in the U.S. have been proclaiming Obama's refusal (after four years) to sign on to completion of the Keystone XL as the great sign from above that he has finally seen the light and realized how important the climate change issue is. But, he dithered and dallied with that issue because risk to his poll numbers is a greater concern than risk of human extinction! But, after oil prices at least temporarily collapsed, then it was an easy political decision to cancel the pipeline...since a. he doesn't get money from the Koch's, and b. there's no way this tar sands project is profitable with oil selling below $70 per barrel....let alone $45.

Obama knows the central and mid-west Republicans are in big, big trouble right now, because the impacts of collapsing oil prices have already started shutting down shale drilling operations, and most of the best plays have already been exhausted. By the time oil inevitably goes back up in price, the small time shale drillers will be bankrupt, the workers will be out of jobs, and billions of dollars in losses will prevent shale fracking from making a comeback any time soon. Tar sands may be a little different, because these operations are run by mulitbillion dollar players with deep pockets....but they should all be shut down permanently regardless.

And, in this latest round, we have Obama trying to play King Solomon and split the baby: protect ANWAR but let the deep sea drillers risk blowouts in the Arctic. If there is an upside to this story, I must have missed it!

[bush_cheney2004]

.....No more excuses. The message coming forth from the majority of climatologists is that - regarding policy decisions, all of the "unconventional" oil has to be left in the ground where nature buried it after extracting most of it out of the atmosphere over the past many millions of years!

Ignore the "climatologists"...they do not make policy. Oil is natural..and gluten free !

[On Guard for Thee]

Yeah, ignore science. It's too complicated for some people anyway.

[WIP]

Ignore the "climatologists"...they do not make policy. Oil is natural..and gluten free !

Some obviously don't care about tomorrow....until tomorrow comes....possibly a little ahead of schedule.....who knows, but we'll all find out in the coming years, if there is a sudden increase in methane release that some climatologists fear could happen at any time because of the increasing ocean temperatures and sea ice declines. Sort of like playing russian roulette, except that most of us don't have a choice in this game.

[WestCoastRunner]

In BC you say? How do you feel about BC exporting heaps of toxic coal to China? It affects China more than BC citizens, so its A-OK?

I don't recall saying I supported exporting toxic coal to China. What does that have to do with this? Start a thread if you want to talk about exporting coal to China.

[WestCoastRunner]

It's really a non issue. They're talking about drilling on a miniscule amount of land, compared to the whole of Alaska, and compared to ANWAR. It's just another example of how Obama has nothing to do with the decrease in gas prices. He fights drilling and fracking everywhere he gets a chance. Oil production on federal land is down from previous years. Private land has led to the oil and gas production increases that have benefited us all. He likes to take credit for the improved economy because of it though.

It's not about the amount of land, it's about drilling in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

[overthere]

I don't recall saying I supported exporting toxic coal to China. What does that have to do with this? Start a thread if you want to talk about exporting coal to China.

I was referring to your hypocrisy.

[jbg]

Obama seeks to protect Alaska from drilling for oil but looks to open the Atlantic Coast. They want to:

• Block future gas and oil exploration of over 9 million acres off the coast of Alaska
• Open the federal waters off the coast of Virginia, the Carolina's and Georgia.

I say this is a good thing. Let's protect one of the last great marine wildernesses left untouched by development.

Of course I could be a bit biased, since I am in BC but for those who are not, I suspect this issue impacts Canadians more than it does U.S. citizens.

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/27/7921921/obama-oil-drilling-alaska

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/25/obama-alaksa-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-lisa-murkowski-dan-sullivan/22312741/

I generally agree that drilling in temperate waters is a far better idea than Arctic drilling, particularly when another country, potentially hostile, is affected.

[WIP]

If Obama starts more foreign wars before most of the existing foreign ventures are settled, does that make it okay? Certainly seems to be bipartisan as far as U.S. mainstream politics goes?

If Obama charges and incarcerates more whistleblowers using a revived 1917 WWI law, than every other president since Woodrow Wilson, does that make it okay?

If Obama allows the abrogation of privacy and allows unrestricted NSA surveillance on Americans and everyone else in the world, does that make it okay?

If Obama keeps Guantanamo open, does that make it okay?

If Obama pushes for fast track authority to enact a "trade" agreement that will definitively place the world's national governments firmly under corporate control (TransPacific Partnership), does that make it okay?

If Obama bails out the major banks and offers nothing to homeowners who were defrauded by Countrywide and other scam artists, does that make it okay?

Now that the Gulf of Mexico has no viable off shore drilling sites left, and Obama allows the oil companies to drill offshore along the east coast...offering protection of Alaska as the consolation prize, does that make it okay?

And, the same principles apply on the Canadian scene, if we displace Harper and find Justin Trudeau to be another shape-shifting Liberal, who will calculate the advantages of keeping any promises made after he is safely in Office!