Energy, fiscal responsibility, & GOP hypocrisy

The Gulf oil spill has been front and center in the news, and rightly so. Most of America has watched the spill with great concern about both the impact and how this will affect future energy policy. Predictably, the spill is being exploited from all sides.

The Interior Department has temporarily halted new drilling leases; drilling they had recently approved. President Obama has put a 30-day hold on current offshore drilling, believing that we should wait for the results of the investigation into the Gulf oil spill. Many politicians are backpedaling on their former approval of offshore drilling. The Right would say that this is politicizing the oilspill. Rational people would say 'THIS IS WHAT YOU DO WHEN SOMETHING GOES MASSIVELY WRONG'. (To be fair, I do feel that we should take advantage of the oil spill to re-think our energy policy.)

My first question/complaint: How does the Right justify this whining that the oil spill is being politicized when you have politicians who are using the Times Square bombing attempt to try to gain support for stripping citizenship from people suspected of terrorism. SUSPECTED, not convicted, not tried, not even charged. Piss poor.

So what is the Right's politicization of the oil spill look like? This. Ok, ok. The list is not ALL Republicans, but still. How is this insanity ok? How does justifying, ignoring, minimizing, mocking, whatever asshattery they can imagine NOT politicizing? My crusty old uncle used to call this 'talking outta the side of yer neck'.

My second complaint/question: How can you say things like 'Obama wanted this to happen' and then complain that the administration is politicizing the oil spill? Better yet, why is the knee-jerk position from the Right to always complain instead of offering solutions? Seems to me that we should use this event as a stepping off point to bring energy independence and policy back to the forefront.

Here is where I am really frustrated.  I will grant you that 'energy independence' by definition means relying less on the oil-producing foreign countries with which we have tenuous and/or shady relationships, that is true. But overarching energy policy is the bigger picture. The 'drill baby drill' crowd (who have now decided they never supported that position ... meh) makes the argument that offshore drilling will prevent $4.00+ for a gallon of gas. Point taken. But here is where I have a problem. These are the same folks who believe in fiscal conservatism, which is a crock of crap political term in my opinion. These are the same individuals who in the midst of the financial meltdown believed that governments and individuals had the responsibility to rein in spending, to live within our means, to budget and prioritize, to let capitalism run it's course. Blah blah blah blah.

Really? Ok. Let's take that mindset and apply it to fossil fuel use. If we do not want to depend on foreign oil, then let's don't! Let's live within our means. Tighten our belts, use less gas. Drive less. Force companies to find ways to use less gas. If we do not have the gas, we cannot use it. Market forces will just have to strain to work it out. Families, businesses, local governments will just have to trim the budgets.

'Not possible!' they scream. 'You are being unreasonable!' they shout. No, I am talking about the difference between energy independence and energy policy. We could make ourselves energy independent, we are just too lazy to do it. We are too set in our lifestyles. That is why we should be talking broad energy policy, clean energy, alternative energy. But Republicans just want to 'drill baby drill'. Awesome policy.

If Republicans truly believed in making good energy policy decisions, they would support clean/alternative energy from a capitalists' position. After all, green technology is going to be a multi-billion dollar industry. China is already trying to jump out ahead in the industry. Going back to the fiscal responsibility analogy, this is synonymous with changing careers or adding a new revenue source to the household budget. If one cannot live within their means, go out and find new means .. yeah! Get that, new means, not new ways to use more money.

But, alas, when you are talking outta the side of yer neck, you cannot make much sense anyway. The hypocrisy ... it burns.