Obama's Deepwater Response Another Disaster

The year and a half disaster known as the Obama administration has completely crystallized in their response, or should I say in the President's non-response, to the outrageous oil spill containment measures, and lack thereof, in the Gulf of Mexico.

On April 20th, an eon ago as far as appropriate disaster response by the government should be concerned, there was a fire and explosion on a British Petroleum (BP) licensed oil drilling rig known as the 'Deepwater Horizon' which was operating approximately 42 miles off the Louisiana coast at the time. Two days later the rig sank, and a 5-mile long oil slick became visible.

By April 25th, the US Coast Guard estimated that the rig was leaking approximately 1,000 barrels of crude oil per day into the waters of the Gulf. Within 3 more days that estimate had risen dramatically to 5,000 gallons per day. Still no effective response by President Obama or his administration. It would be another day, nearly a week after the initial incident, before he would announce "every single available resource" would help resolve the situation.

It would take until May 2nd before the President deemed the oil spill important enough to clear space from his busy schedule of private-industry takeovers, debt-and-tax raising program creation, and irresponsible financial entity bailouts to squeeze in a visit to the disaster area.

Over the next two weeks, the Obama administration would watch stoically and dispassionately as the oil spread towards Louisiana, reaching the Breton National Wildlife Refuge among other places. Despite leaving the incident in the hands of those who created it, Obama himself had the nerve to finally issue a statement on May 14th in which he chided the companies involved for creating a "ridiculous spectacle" of trading blame. Meanwhile, as Obama played Nero and fiddled, his Rome continued to burn as the oil slick continued to spread.

By May 19th the oil slick began to wash ashore at the Louisiana mainland and dangerously spread into heavy currents that could easily carry it on to Florida and beyond. Nine days after that, over a month after the initial incident, Obama finally made a 2nd visit to the area stating "I am the President, and the buck stops with me". But not apparently the oil slick, which continues on now with no end in sight as the month of May draws to a close. Some estimates are that at the current rates of oil spreading and poor effectiveness of response, it will not be contained until August.

During the administration of President George W. Bush, the liberal-controlled and Democratic Party-biased mainstream media and the Dems themselves all displayed self-righteous anger and indignation at the President and his team for what they deemed a particularly slow response in the exact same region of the country in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Waiting for a similar reaction to Obama's non-action in the Gulf, one can hear the crickets chirping.

There will be the usual hand-wringing from the lib circles here. Calls to halt offshore oil drilling have already begun. The President himself had recently commented that the procedures and equipment in today's modern world were safe and secure. He was, in that instance, absolutely correct. Just because of one accident, no matter how large, we should absolutely not stop searching for American resources and doing what it takes to extract and utilize those resources. Just because one plane or bus crashes, people don't stop flying or riding the roads.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin had it right when she led the call to "Drill baby, drill!" during her Veep run two summers ago. New geological surveys have revealed massive natural oil reserves are likely right here in the continental United States. Those are in addition to what we already know exists in her home state in the ANWAR reserves.

Despite her critics cat-calls, Palin loves here home state, and would never endanger it, and has led the fight to get those reserves opened and get the drilling going. She is absolutely correct, and needs to be supported publicly by all those who recognize the truth of energy resource management.

The United States needs to lessen our dependence on foreign sources of oil, be those sources from the Middle East or Russia, or from closer to home in Mexico or Canada. We have an abundance of those resources right here, and we need to go after them. Alternative energy needs to continue to be explored and developed, but those sources are not currently available or viable, and likely will not be for decades to come.

President Obama's excrutiatingly slow and ineffective response to this oil spill disaster is itself yet another disastrous example of the incompetence of his administration. We shouldn't extrapolate that by worsening our national economic situation.

Energy Answer: Drill, Refine, Alternate

As was stated in this week's edition of The Patriot Post: "...ours is an economy that relies on a stable energy supply, and this volatility in fuel prices is a reflection of the instability of our present supply." Bottom line, there are more people that want the world's fuel then there is currently fuel to give them. Two decades ago when gas prices were cheap here in America, we were not competing against the rapidly emerging and gigantic economies of China and India. These two nations alone are rapidly expanding and growing with enormous populations of people, and thus the energy needs involved in the expansion is tremendous. It creates enormous demand from the world's limited supply, thus driving up prices. Had we here in America been taking advantage of the vast amount of oil resources right here in our own back yards over the past few decades by both drilling for it and refining it, we would have a far greater advantage, a much stronger weapon with which to fight this volatility. As it is, we have become completely dependent on foreign oil. At the same time, we have been reluctant at best, negligent at worst, in pursuing new energy options for the future. The United States of America needs to begin a comprehensive effort of drilling for oil both off-shore and at places such as the ANWAR area in order to tap those tremendous reserves. At the same time we need to be greatly increasing our refining capacity by building new facilities. Finally, we need to accelerate research and production of alternative energy sources, including the building of many more nuclear power plants for electricity. None of these steps will alleviate prices overnight. We may never see $2 or $3 per gallon gasoline prices ever again at American pumps. But we can stop buying gas-guzzling SUV's and mini-vans, start tapping our own resources, and stop funding the very terrorists who would destroy our way of life. Drill, refine, research, modernize. No matter who we elect as President this fall, it will not change the current oil situation. But we can begin to change the future of the next few decades for ourselves, and the ensuing generations of our children and grandchildren.