Perspective on the Oil Disaster--A Rant!

I like my cars.

I like cheap (less than $3.00 per gallon) gas prices.

My lifestyle will have to radically be altered if either of those go away.

Hello. I cannot believe the naivety of some public and private officials that an accident like the one in the Gulf would never happen. Everyone is screaming for heads on a platter--but it really is their own heads they are trying to save.

In every endeavor there is risk.

From walking across a street, to flying the space shuttle, to drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, there is risk. We can seek to minimize the risk--and in the case of oil drilling it has been pretty safe for a very long time, but the risk is still there and sometime the risk will become reality. As has happened now.

And so many officials are trying to plead ignorance and "close the proverbial barn door after the horses have escaped."

Really?

"Buck up" dudes. Say it like it is--Americans like cheap oil and our economy depends upon cheap oil and therefore we will be undertaking riskier operations to obtain the oil that all of us as Americans want.

It is that simple. We want to be green someday--but we are not there yet. Until then we have to recognize that oil drilling operations have a level of risk. Suck it up. Wringing our hands about it after the fact is disingenuous.

Oil spills happen and they are a disaster. Tornadoes happen and they are a disaster. Hurricanes happen and they are a disaster. The snowpocalypse happened--and we cleaned it up and lived.

Disasters are not pretty. Look at the Chinese ship that recently ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef--it too was a disaster.

But this is the bottom line. Until the US Government subsidizes significant research into alternate, sustainable fuels we are going to be oil junkies. This should not be a shock to anyone. It is a fact of life. I want my house cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and when I turn the key in the ignition switch of my car, I expect it to start. I do not have a hydrogen fuel cell--although I would like one. We are not using deuterium for fuel yet. Some day.

Right now--we are dependent upon the dinosaurs and the forests of millions of years ago to fuel our economy. Get over it. All of the easy oil (like what used to be in Pennsylvania) is gone. The US used to be the largest producer of oil in the world and a net exporter. That too, is gone.

We need oil. We need to be realistic about the risk and accept that, too. So when the leaders of the companies and the Congress try to deflect the blame--look them straight in the eye and ask them--why do you have to lie. You knew there was risk, you were just betting the odds that you wouldn't have to be the one to deal with the consequences. Now go face the problem and deal with it.

And then vote them out of office for being disingenuous.