Paul Krugman: Drilling, Disaster, Denial

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/opinion/03krugman.html

It took futuristic technology to achieve one of the worst ecological disasters on record. Without such technology, after all, BP couldn’t have drilled the Deepwater Horizon well in the first place. Yet for those who remember their environmental history, the catastrophe in the gulf has a strangely old-fashioned feel, reminiscent of the events that led to the first Earth Day, four decades ago.

(snip)
Will America take heed? It depends a lot on leadership. In particular, President Obama needs to seize the moment; he needs to take on the “Drill, baby, drill” crowd, telling America that courting irreversible environmental disaster for the sake of a few barrels of oil, an amount that will hardly affect our dependence on imports, is a terrible bargain.

It’s true that Mr. Obama isn’t as well positioned to make this a teachable moment as he should be: just a month ago he announced a plan to open much of the Atlantic coast to oil exploration, a move that shocked many of his supporters and makes it hard for him to claim the moral high ground now.

But he needs to get beyond that. The catastrophe in the gulf offers an opportunity, a chance to recapture some of the spirit of the original Earth Day. And if that happens, some good may yet come of this ecological nightmare.

[ihavenobias]

1. K & R.

"It’s true that Mr. Obama isn’t as well positioned to make this a teachable moment as he should be: just a month ago he announced a plan to open much of the Atlantic coast to oil exploration, a move that shocked many of his supporters and makes it hard for him to claim the moral high ground now..."

[CLANG]

2. Yeah, that turned out to be even more bone-headed as originally thought.

[Jim Lane]

4. There might be cries of "flip-flop" but they'd be forgotten before long.

Obama can quite credibly say, "The experience in the Gulf has shown me that my previous support for offshore drilling was a mistake. I believe in learning from experience, both for people and for governments. Let's learn from this episode."

The people who would denounce Obama for changing his position are those who wouldn't support him anyway.

[depakid]

6. Fact is, If the President had done his homework- or stood with his constituencies

rather than pandering to the right, he wouldn't have several paragraphs on the record that could be quoted whenever he tried to make a teachable moment out of this disaster.

Fact is- a disaster very similar to this- and involving the same country, happened in September 2009 in the Timor Sea off NorthWestern Australia. Eight weeks it took to stop that one flowing.

Bottom line is that he took a gamble, based on his conciliatory nature and the probability that gas prices would rise in the near future- and attempted to insulate the administration from the drill baby drill bit.

And as chance would have it- it didn't work out so well.

Where he goes from here- how he handles the issue- and how it affects future decisions in other contexts, remains very much to be seen.

[Jim Lane]

10. I completely agree with you that he shouldn't have made a pro-drilling statement in the first place.

I'm just less worried than you are about his having "several paragraphs on the record that could be quoted whenever he tried to make a teachable moment out of this disaster." The public often has short memories. If he were to come out now and say, "I was wrong," he could get out of this in good shape. The people quoting his previous statements back at him would be largely ignored.

He should emulate the approach of Fiorello LaGuardia, who once said, "When I make a mistake, it's a beaut."

[FBI_Un_Sub]

3. The decisions of post - WW2

We made a set of societal/political decisions after WW2

<1>A car in every garage --- modified to two - or even three cars in every garage.
<2>No more urban "walk up" apartments for the middle class -- detached MacMansions with a yard.
<3>The working person should live in a green, air "suburb."
<4>No need to live near work, school, shopping --- now you have a car.
<5>Cars are priced beyond our means ---
5 and 6 years to pay them off
we still idealize the 4300 lb, 12 mile per gallon "turn pike cruiser"
<6>We have abandoned mass transit

And, because we have drilled our own oil fields practically dry -- we let Bush-Cheney-Rove and Big Oil talk us into "mineral wars" ("resource wars") at an unacceptable cost in lives and treasure.

It will take a major change in American attitude. And, I don't see it coming.

[cliffordu]

5. What you said.

precisely.

[Demeter]

7. The President Protects His Friends

We aren't included in that category.

That quip he made at the Correspondents' Dinner was telling:

"These jokes are brought to you by the folks at goldman Sachs. They make money whether you laugh or not."

I'm not laughing. It wasn't funny. Most truths aren't.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Krugman is so very slow

Obama joined Drill Baby Drill, last month. He is that crowd. He also agrees with Palin and the Tea Baggers that gay people should not have equal rights.
Drilling and discrimination. They have much in common. Obama and his ardent supporters agree with Palin on many things. I don't.

[bertman]

9. Excellent trip back to '69 in the Krugman Time Capsule. He's absolutely right about the

visual evidence of environmental abuse being absent from our daily lives.

Recommend.

And here's a reminder that we did not HAVE to be here at this juncture with technology and catastrophe. In the 70's, fresh off the Oil Embargo, President Carter tried to convince Americans that we needed to wean ourselves from the teat of Big Oil. What percentage of us rallied to his call? A very small percentage. The moment was lost due to the backlash of public indignation that WE might have to adopt a less profligate lifestyle and develop alternative energy sources that would free us from the tyranny of oil.

So, here we are 30-plus years later and we still have no national consensus on eliminating oil from our "must have" list and replacing it with renewable, sustainable energy.