Environmentalists and fishermen, who pitched hard-fought battles in the 1970s and 1980s to protect New England's prime fishing grounds from offshore drilling, say they are dismayed to learn that new legislation, to be voted on as early as today in Washington, could open Georges Bank to oil and gas companies.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, facing political pressure from high gas prices and a struggling economy, has backed off her emphatic opposition to offshore drilling.
And yet the TRAITOROUS BITCH stays FIRM on WAR FUNDING and IMPEACHMENT! She is the FIRST ONE we should HANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the ban expires, drilling would be legal as close as 3 miles from shore. That brings into range Georges Bank, a vast underwater plateau that starts roughly 70 miles off of Cape Cod and stretches toward Nova Scotia. Fabled for its abundance of cod and other groundfish, the waters have been overfished, though a federal report last month concluded that the haddock population had bounced back. The Senate is considering a different proposal that would also expand drilling but not in waters off Massachusetts.
Offshore drilling, on Georges Bank and elsewhere, is bad policy, environmentalists and many fishermen argue. Paul Bledsoe, director of communications and strategy for the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy: "But high oil and gasoline clearly changed public opinion and changed it pretty quickly."
That makes me wonder if the whole "crisis" hasn't been engineered?
CUI BONO?
According to a 2006 estimate by the Minerals Management Service of the US Department of the Interior, there is a 95 percent probability that the entire North Atlantic region, which stretches from Maine to New Jersey, has 570 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel the country for about 27 days, and 7.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, about a third of the total natural gas consumption each year in the United States.
All this for 27 DAYS WORTH of OIL?!!!
How about TAKING THOSE BILLIONS and GIVING EVERYONE SOLAR POWER, 'eh, GOVERNMENT?!!!!
The political climate has also changed. Even though analysts have pointed out that offshore drilling will not have any effect on energy prices any time in the near future, congressional observers said that with the November election approaching, high gas prices and a sour economy have put political pressure on Democrats to go along with Republicans who have been pushing an expansion of drilling.
How much of an effect will 27 DAYS have?!!
And it is becoming pretty clear we are looking -- ONCE AGAIN -- at MANIPULATION of the PUBLIC MIND!!!!
These "crises" NO ACCIDENT!! All PART of the EndGame plan!!!!
Pelosi "doesn't want some of the Democratic members - especially from the more conservative districts, and there are a lot of them - to lose their seats," said former congressman Mickey Edwards, a lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton University.
But she DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT baout ANTIWAR folk!!
FUCK YOU, Nan!!!!!
The new legislation leaves many who fought to stop offshore drilling plunging back into a battle they thought they had won.
You can THANK PELOSI for that!!!!!! She doesn't have to bring this to the floor!!
Betraying the enviros just like she betrayed the antiwar folk -- which is why NO DEMOCRAP is getting my vote (except Obama, MAYBE!).
The Conservation Law Foundation, the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives' Association, and the state sued the federal government in 1978 to stop the leases from being sold to oil companies.
"It's very parallel" to the situation 30 years ago, said Peter Shelley, vice president of the foundation, an environmental advocacy organization. "Again, it's just driven by energy dependence on foreign sources and the high cost of energy."
If the legislation were to pass, the secretary of the state's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs said that it is unlikely that the state would approve drilling 50 miles from shore.
What makes them think the state will be able to stop it?
"Even if the technology and economics have changed, the value of Georges Bank as a fishery . . . would set an extremely high bar for opening up the area for any competing uses, like natural gas, that could put those fishery resources at risk," said Secretary Ian Bowles. "Drilling at Georges Bank proved to be a bad idea 30 years ago, and we have no reason to believe it would be a good idea today."
Environmental advocates worry about the effect offshore drilling could have on the environment, in case of spills and other contamination. Oil and gas drilling and fishing occur in tandem in many places, including in the Gulf of Mexico. A federally commissioned 2003 report said natural geological seepage accounts for most of the oil in North American waters; spills from drilling account for a tiny percentage.
US Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said in a statement last night that he was still working on making the legislation as palatable as possible.
Translation: He is a "liberal" against oil-drilling and pro-global fart mist enviro-cultist -- but he is going to VOTE FOR the OIL DRILLING ANYWAY!!!!
What a FUCKING FRAUD!!!!!!!!
Markey supports other elements of the measure, such as provisions that would invest in energy efficiency and set a renewable electricity standard. "I am against offshore drilling and am fighting to protect Massachusetts and New England while advocating for a comprehensive bill that will unleash the renewable revolution," Markey said.
Which includes FOULING our FISHERIES with OIL DRILLING!!
How's that butt feeling, enviros?
The issue of offshore drilling is also moving to the forefront in Canada. A portion of Georges Bank falls under Canadian jurisdiction, and the Nova Scotia energy minister has expressed interest in potentially opening it up for drilling. A Canadian moratorium on oil and gas exploration ends in 2012.
Environmental advocates cautioned that the New England coast could also attract interest. "This is the same piece of ocean that people have tons of regulations to protect from overfishing, habitat destruction, you name it," said Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives' Association, a nonprofit promoting the fishing industry. It is outrageous "now to even think they would open it up to drilling."
Maybe outrageous, but certainly believable!!!!
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