Posted on 10/14/2005 7:59:13 AM PDT by SmithL
It took $3-a-gallon gasoline, the promise of record home heating bills this winter and the White House rolling out a conservation campaign featuring a cartoon pig to give environmentalists something they've been craving for years:
A chance to start a national conversation about America's energy problems.
The problem for the green movement is that signs of public willingness to listen to environmentalists' message haven't translated into political changes in Washington, D.C.
"There is no doubt this is a moment," said David Willet, national spokesman for the Sierra Club. "This is definitely a time when we'd like to push some of the issues we've been talking about for a long time.
"But we're still playing a lot of defense here (in Washington)."
Playing defense is especially frustrating now for environmentalists. They feel that the energy crunch and images of the post-Katrina shambles along the Gulf Coast give them kitchen-table talking points about issues that long have sounded to red-state Americans like carping from wonky Chicken Littles: climate change, wetlands destruction, overdependence on petroleum and inappropriate coastal development.
Some environmentalists did take heart from the fact that an energy bill they had opposed as overly friendly to industry cleared the House last week only after GOP leaders twisted the arms of recalcitrant Republicans.
"It only passed by two votes," Willet said. "There were obviously a lot of people that are feeling differently about what the right direction is for America's energy future."
The challenge for environmentalists, though, is that Republicans and their supporters see the same cultural factors as a "moment" as well. And they have a different set of solutions -- and the votes to implement them.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
more refineries, at least for the short term
My wife belonged to the Sierra Club until she started getting anti-Bush "Action Alert e-mails once a week.
Absolutely. And the input from Americans is MORE COAL, MORE NUCLEAR, FEWER TREE-KISSERS!
What "national conversation"?
Everyone knows that these lefties aren't interested in anyone's point of view except their own.
Ain't it the truth. That's why the scream-and-shout-and-rhyme protest march is their favorite vehicle.
Reminds me of those who want to have a 'dialogue' on race.
Sample of that dialogue: 'Write me another check.'
More refineries are definitely a good idea - but I find the idea that congress decided to provide tax breaks to oil companies to build refineries insane. With the deficit as bad as it is and the oil companies making ridiculous amounts of profit (they can afford to build refineries without tax breaks), all the government needed to do was streamline the process and make the regulations easy to navigate....
ExxonMobil, on track to make $32 billion in net profit this year, didn't need more money to build a refinery. I would have voted against the bill purely for that reason alone.
We'll know the enviro whackos are serious when they dig up the old "Moral Equivalent of War" buttons.
MEOW
This is another example of the President letting us down. By executive orders he should get the ball moving on drilling and exploration.
No need for a conversation. That's just another time waster.The average American has known for years we need more coal, nuclear, oil drilling, refineries, etc.
When I fill my van with $3.00 gas to the tune of $90, I don't get pissed at the government, I get pissed at the environwackos who prevent private industry from doing what needs to be done to solve this problem.
The technology is there. I vote we get it done.
Yeah, we better not build any new levees. It might threaten the wetlands.
I would add to that more use of wood as a fuel. We've got it in abundance in this country and it is renewable! It doesn't get any better than that!
The environmentalists better hope that we don't start heating homes by burning them this winter!
Well, guess what? Woodstoves are FLYING off the shelves in my area (southern Michigan)! Local suppliers can't keep them in stock because natural gas prices are so high. Are these environmentalists going to tell grandpa and grandma they should "do the right thing" and fork over their prescription and food money to pay for a "responsible" heating source?
Naw. If pollution levels rise because of the rediscovered woodburners, it will just be blamed on Bush again.
BOHICA
Absolutely!
EARTH FIRST!!!! We will strip mine and clear cut the other planets later.
You know what, sauropod? Both the Feminazis and the EnvironMentalists were so militant for three decades that as far as I'm concerned they've forever burned all the bridges and blown all the reservoirs of civil discussion... piss on 'em!!! (they look so good in yellow)
Oh! And now I'll go read the stupid article
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