Environmentalists attack Obama plan to allow oil drilling off Florida's coasts

[phantom power]

``The bottom line,'' Obama said, ``is this: Given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth, produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we're going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy.''

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the administration would ``responsibly expand'' drilling in new areas like the eastern Gulf of Mexico, 125 miles off Florida's coast, as well as in the Atlantic as far south as Central Florida.

Environmentalists who have opposed past efforts to lift bans on offshore oil drilling quickly hammered the proposal.

``Offshore drilling, especially drilling as close as four miles from Florida's Atlantic beaches, tastes bad no matter which president from whatever party is serving it,'' said Progress Florida's Mark Ferrulo. ``The president's support doesn't change the facts. Expanded drilling won't lower gas prices and it represents a dirty and dangerous activity that risks catastrophic damage to our beloved beaches.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/31/1556579/obama-proposal-to-allow-oil-drilling.html#ixzz0jm4WOEyM

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Remarks by The President on Energy Security at Andrews Air Force Base, 3/31/2010

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-energy-security-andrews-air-force-base-3312010

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
March 31, 2010

Remarks by The President on Energy Security at Andrews Air Force Base, 3/31/2010

11:18 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. (Applause.) Please have a seat. I've got a few introductions that I want to make very quickly before I start my remarks. First of all, I think that by the end of his tenure we're going to know that Ken Salazar is one of the finest Secretaries of Interior we've ever had. So please give him a big round of applause. (Applause.)

Other members of what we call our green team are here: Steven Chu, our Secretary of Energy; Martha Johnson, the Administrator of the GSA; Nancy Sutley, the CEQ Chair. We've got Carol Browner, who’s the White House Energy and Climate Change Director. Please give them a big round of applause. They put in a lot of work. (Applause.)

Governor Martin O’Malley is here, governor of Maryland. (Applause.) Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy, is here. (Applause.) Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, is here, and we appreciate his outstanding service. Thank you, Gar. (Applause.)

I want to thank Steven Shepro, the base commander here at Andrews, and the leadership that's present from the Air Force, the Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard.

...

[depakid]

2. This was pretty much inevitable

It also makes me suspect that the administration is preparing for the political fallout from a spike in oil prices in the not too distant future.

[bhikkhu]

5. I agree

Whether we find anything or not is less important than simply taking some tired old talking points about it off the table. If there's oil worth drilling, it will get drilled sooner or later. If we have a hand in the process it can be done with all care and safety.

[NNadir]

3. The President needs to work to ban oil.

The technology to accomplish this is well understood, but it will take some courage and investment.

In general, I approve of the President, but even going back to the Democratic primary, he was not anti-dangerous fossil fuel enough for my tastes.

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that this is the sort of approach his Presidential mentor, Lincoln took to another dastardly institution of which he was not especially fond, but for which he made purely political accommodation: That, of course, would be slavery.

But the President will need to move quickly, and not in the baby steps we've seen. He should not push this one too hard. Although I admire the President, I will be among those who fight this one.

[glinda]

4. Allowing this will allow the Oil Companies to go elsewhere and to keep on drilling. I just saw

Big Ed interview Shell Oil Company President (?) and he had a glint in his eye that said loud and clear "Drill baby drill and keep on drilling". No mistaking it at all.

[bhikkhu]

6. I'd blame the consumers along with the producers

I don't drive myself, but how many democrats holding the decades-long stance against oil production have given up driving themselves? As long as there is demand, it will be produced - the same principle applies in the farcical "war on drugs"; it doesn't matter how much money we spend fighting trafficking, as long as demand has $ to spend it will find a way.

[glinda]

7. True. Consumers are to blame but since we need a car as we live too far from anything

the Corporations and the Government have a moral obligation to assist in making greener alternatives affordable to the middle and lower classes.
When I lived inner City, bike and bus was what I took all the time. It is unrealistic to expect everyone to be able to use a bike. My 100 lb dog would not travel on a bike although I wish he could as that would be cool.