The reason we need to talk about cap-and-trade today is because of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. To set the record straight: The oil spill is a terrible tragedy, and BP is clearly to blame for the drilling rig explosion and the oil spill that followed. However, we do need to put some things into perspective.
First, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has nothing to do with climate change. President Obama has been using this spill as an aid in his efforts to pass a cap-and-trade tax, taking advantage of the one time that people are mad at those big, bad oil companies in order to further his agenda.
Second, people fail to recognize the amount of oil that has spilled into the ocean basin as a statistical anomaly in comparison to how much oil is necessary for our country to function. It is estimated that 100 million gallons of oil have rushed into the water, yet no one brings up the fact that the United States uses around 800 million gallons of oil per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s 2008 basic petroleum statistics.
What the oil spill has done in 68 days, we effectively do every three hours.
Third, there is only so much that the government can do, but it’s taking deliberate steps to make things worse when there are people with solutions.
Various private companies and individuals, as well as 13 foreign countries, have offered solutions and help in response to the oil spill, but Obama chose to wait for about a month after the spill to accept an offer of skimming arms from the Netherlands.
The federal government’s response was excruciatingly slow, but I feel that most people were excited when Obama announced he was to deliver his first Oval Office speech and reveal his plan for the oil spill.
Unfortunately, as I’ve learned, he never fails to disappoint. The speech wasn’t so much about how we’re going to stop the oil from leaking as much as it was about how mean BP is and how we can change the world with clean energy legislation.
The energy legislation that Obama wants to force through Congress is the 1,428-page H.R. 2454, or the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” and it will ruin everything of which we take so much advantage. As we’ll talk about next week, everyone who supports this bill will find out slowly, but surely, that clean energy is not free and that it definitely won’t bring about any kind of security for our environment or our wallets.
Reach Brian at brian.p.anderson@asu.edu
