The Hoboken Journal posted an editorial on oil drilling to coincide with the appearance of Sen. Bob Menendez’s press conference  in Hoboken earlier today.  MSV will take this opportunity to post a rebuttal with a point/counterpoint horse sense editorial.

You can read Kurt’s original editorial at the link below. Hit the back button to return to MSV to read the rebuttal.  I will be playing the character of Dan Akroyd and the Jolly Green Giant (JGG) will play the role of Jane Curtain.  This old SNL parody took place on nuclear energy.  We see how that’s turned out.  The US doesn’t even build plants while France has and generates upwards of 75% of its electricity doing so.

The Hoboken Journal in typical armchair elitist fashion decries the cost of gas as too low.  Well with taxes going up (you do know they are going to go up as soon as they can get to it in DC don’t you) what better way to destroy even more jobs and hurt rural workers all across the country by jacking up their costs to operate vehicles and get to work.  Unlike many parts of Europe, most people here don’t have the option of getting around using public transportation.

Of course it helps if you live in an urban area and don’t own a vehicle or have an essential need for one to earn a living and feed your family.  There begins the disconnect from rural and much of Middle America along with the constant romantic refrain to go green and “transform America” jacking up the cost of everyone’s electrical bills via Cap n’ Tax while no proven alternatives are even close to being ready to take up the slack from excessive taxation, making this pro-tax stance doubly troubling.  You know how bad the scam of global warming has gotten?  Some scientists now predict global cooling (due to current and overdue volcanic activity).

If you want to take a positive course on energy, the right tact would be to switch cars to natural gas, a product in abundance on our shores and one easily available to handle demand.  Yet there’s nothing emanating from Washington DC on that front.

Now the Deepwater Horizon rig in the gulf is certainly an absolute disaster and one didn’t need to see the early damage to be very upset by it.  Obama’s timing in approving offshore drilling grew out of a need to counter criticism and falling poll numbers in other areas.  The Deepwater Horizon exploded mere days later.  But prior, Obama extended $2 billion in loans to Brazil so they could develop a huge oil find off their own shores.  And what nation do you think benefits from such a deal?  China.  That distant nation has a huge appetite for energy and no qualms in obtaining it near and far or supporting governments with less than stellar human rights records, such as Sudan.  None of the Petrobras oil extracted off the coast of Brazil will find its way to the US.  It’s going to China.  Can you guess who will profit most off this odd US-Brazil investment to China?  Take a look at this news article.

Part of the trouble with offshore drilling is the extremes in regulation from both angles and the lack of appropriate international measures here.  There’s been statements that an acoustic device costing $500,000 and typically applied elsewhere would have prevented this disaster.  The same device’s use was not required in the United States.  On the other side, restrictions in drilling on land and shallower waters have places the most challenging  obstacles for deep water drilling, adding another factor of risk.

People advocating for higher taxes as a means to guide incentives for other technologies miss the point. There are other technologies but they are very limited in broad use and one only needs to look to Spain as an example.  As it turns out their “green” program was a total fabrication, one that President Obama cited as an example for the US!  Now with yet another Euro based concept falling under its own ideological weight, what is the real solution to America’s energy needs?  The answer is not in wishful thinking but having the courage to take some practical steps while being smart in protecting our environment.  The extremes have taken over the dialog on many issues including this one.

The HJ cites “other areas” not factored into the cost of gas in the US?  Hey, the cost of the health care bill isn’t even factored accurately into the national debt yet.  Every other day there’s some new fact coming out revealing how much that bad medicine is going to cost the taxpayers.  But you don’t seem to have any concern with that.

How’d you overlook that fiasco JGG?  Look yonder, I can see November from my house.