Setting Environmental Priorities

As anyone knows who's read this blog over the last five years, I own and environmental consulting firm and deal with oil spill response training, hazardous waste and air monitoring among a thousand other things. That said, I have a pretty solid perspective on US environmental regulation and the effectiveness of environmental policies as a whole.

The US is at the forefront of environmental stewardship when compared to the rest of the world. Our environmental policies are more stringent than most nations and California regs are the toughest by far. Yes, we pillaged the land for decades during the early part of last century but once we realized the full extent of the environmental problems we faced, we took strong action and have changed the way industry handles their waste water, hazardous waste and air emissions.

That is exactly why we should be drilling for crude oil wherever we can find it, we know how to do it in a safe, environmentally safe manner that should alleviate any fears sceptics may have. Hell, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 passed in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska is the strictest petroleum transport and storage regulatory framework in the world. Besides, most spills occur from ships that are transporting crude from overseas because of the rigors of trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific travel that places stress on the vessels and their crews.

Senator McCain is possibly starting to come around (but I have serious doubts) through simple political expediency but we have never had a GOP bloc with the backbone to take on the whacko environmentalists who have successfully stopped construction of new refineries and nuclear power plants. We've allowed these psychos to infect any talk of energy progress and ensure that nothing will ever get accomplished. So, we're stuck with the status quo whereby we beg the Saudi's to pump more and they give us the finger repeatedly. We leave ourselves wide-open to the Iranians blockading the Straits of Hormuz and effectively shutting down our economy.

If Senator Obama is true to his word and wants to provide jobs to those in Pennsylvania and Ohio who are suffering, he'd push for the construction of new refineries and aid every state with proven oil resources with extracting the product. Alas, he is beholden to the kook left fringe who will never allow any progress on the energy independence front because to them, the Earth is more important than the US continually having to deal with the Middle East situations.

Senator McCain is letting a golden opportunity slip through his fingers if he doesn't act quickly and call the environmentalist's bluff. Obama is on the wrong side of this issue and can never flip-flop on a topic of this import and expect to win.