NUKE THE ENVIROS

News item out of (where else?) San Francisco.

“Environmental and Native Alaskan groups asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to block Royal Dutch Shell PLC's plans for exploratory oil drilling near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“The U.S. Mineral Management Service decided this year to allow the energy giant to drill up to 12 exploratory oil wells in the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska.

“Attorneys for the groups appealing the decision told a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco, that the mineral agency didn't adequately consider the drilling's impact on endangered bowhead whales and other marine mammals, said attorneys for the Alaska Wilderness League, Sierra Club and other conservation groups.”

Bull shit.

I think whales are some of the neatest critters around, and have been fortunate to have dived with a couple of different species over the years, as well as with manatees, and several species of dolphin and seal. I also think offshore oil platforms are pretty neat, and have dived off them in the Gulf of Mexico.

The actual safeguards used in oil drilling work, and the emergency procedures work. Do they work all the time and will they stop every iota of oil from escaping? No, but nothing man-made works all the time.

When are we going to stop this insidious assault on the utilization of American natural resources by people who demand 100-percent assurance. It’s gonna’ rain sometimes and you’re gonna’ get wet sometimes. Ain’t nothing in life 100 percent.

One of the reasons we don’t have cheap energy in this country is because we refuse to use nuclear energy. We also refuse to use wind energy, don’t want gas transshipment platforms, don’t want electric cables, don’t want … Ad nauseam. All because it's not "100 percent safe."

And yet we still have the temerity to complain about $3.50 a gallon gas, and bemoan going to war to partially ensure we’re not paying $5.50 (like the rest of the world).

When the hell is this country going to grow up and smell the roses? When it's waaaay too late?

.