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Jewish World Review July 19, 2005 /12 Tamuz, 5765 U.S. symbol is the eagle, not the ostrich By Peter A. Brown
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
I find it hard to understand why anyone would want to know less, rather than more, about a problem before deciding how to solve it.
Especially when the nation's future is at stake.
Yet a big dispute before Congress these days is whether lawmakers should know how much oil and gas lie beneath our coastal waters before they decide energy policy.
But, of course, since we are talking about the interplay between our elected representatives, the interest groups that sustain them and conflicting views of the national interest, no one should be surprised that common sense does not dominate their conversation.
The side sticking its head in the sand may surprise you, although this issue is much more complicated than the typical Republican/Democratic face-off.
It is not the Bush administration, which critics say suppresses important intelligence that doesn't fit its worldview and pressures scientists to disregard research data contrary to its way of thinking.
In fact, it is those cute, cuddly environmental folks, who want us to believe that they are the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, who are acting like members of the Know-Nothing Party.
(A little history lesson here: The Know-Nothing Party was formed before the Civil War as the political instrument of anti-immigration forces. Members were told to tell anyone who asked that they knew nothing about any such organization.)
The current-day opposition to having everyone know how much energy lies beneath U.S. coastal water reflects their mentality that economic development is primarily a threat to Mother Nature, and only secondarily about helping people earn a living.
At issue is what to do about a problem everyone agrees upon:
The United States is too dependent on foreign sources of oil, primarily the politically unstable and not terribly Uncle Sam-friendly Middle East.
Congress has been working on presidentially inspired energy legislation for more than four years, with the lack of a final product due to serious differences that generally, although not completely, fall along party lines.
Yet lawmakers could soon resolve conflicting House and Senate versions.
Perhaps because of the skyrocketing price of gasoline this spring and summer, the legislation, which would include incentives for boosting development of domestic energy sources, promote conservation and rebuild the nation's electrical grid, has passed the House and Senate in different forms.
A major sticking point is whether the federal government should survey its offshore oil and gas reserves so that Congress might actually know what resources are available when it decides whether and where to allow drilling.
Since 1982, a moratorium has prohibited drilling in most coastal waters except for part of the Gulf of Mexico. But drilling is not allowed in areas adjacent to Florida.
This is not a strictly partisan issue. In general, Republicans support the notion of knowing what they are talking about when they make these policy decisions, but they have some Democratic backers, mostly from inland states.
However, there are many GOP lawmakers — most prominently those from coastal states like Florida and California — who don't like the idea for parochial reasons.
They are so opposed to the idea of drilling, they don't even want to know how much oil and natural gas is off our nation's coastline. They worry such knowledge might make it easier to win approval for exploration.
They are probably right, but that does not mean the survey is such a bad thing for the country. I tend to agree with those who argue that drilling off the Florida coast is probably not worth the risk to our tourist-based economy, but that position should be based on hard knowledge about what is available under the water.
Moreover, what might not be right for Florida might be just fine for other coastal states that think the risk of a pollution-causing accident might be worth the economic benefits offshore drilling might create.
Remember, the reality is that we don't have enough energy resources to meet America's future needs.
Even if proposed alternative- energy sources such as wind, solar or biomass somehow become viable alternatives to fossil fuels, which they are not currently because of their cost, it would be many, many years before they could make a real dent in the nation's energy problem.
If environmentalists are serious about alternatives to oil and gas, let them start promoting nuclear power, which has been a political no-no for decades due to the efforts of many of the same folks who think drilling is evil.
Until then, what's wrong with knowing all we can about the available alternatives?
Last time I checked, the eagle, not the ostrich, was the symbol of the United States.
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Peter A. Brown is an editorial page columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
