A Letter To My Congressman

The following was emailed to my congressman, CW Bill Young, serving Florida's 10th District in Pinellas County, Fl. Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez were CC'd.

Dear Congressman Young: If you are already on the house floor this week, please disregard this mail. If not, then I urge you to go there immediately. I am expecting your support of increased drilling for oil and natural gas throughout the United States, wherever those resources may be found. That includes The Gulf Of Mexico up to 25 miles from our shore, which is well over the horizon. As a resident of your district who lives on the Intracoastal Waterway and a stone's throw from the Gulf, I obviously have a direct interest in this matter. However, I can find no rational basis for opposition to exploration and drilling in our waters and remaining the only country that places its oil and gas resources completely off limits.

The hundreds of rigs already in the Gulf have proved to pose almost no environmental threat, despite being battered by numerous storms. Indeed, far more oil and other pollutants enter the Gulf every day due to mere runoff from everyday activities on shore. Our tourism industry would not be harmed but helped, in that people could actually afford the fuel to get here. Additionally, oil exploration in our waters would not only provide greatly increased economic activity at the Port of Tampa, it would bolster our commercial and recreational fishing stocks as these rigs invariably become huge havens for marine life.

We must couple this with exploration and drilling throughout the Outer Continental Shelf and ANWR, additional nuclear power, coal to liquid, shale oil and any other technology that will increase domestic energy supplies.

This is not only an economic issue but one of national security. It is inherently dangerous to depend on oil supplies from governments that at best don't like us very much and in many cases are outright hostile toward the U.S. I'm old enough to remember what happened to this country during the Arab oil embargo of the 1970's. No matter how much we conserve at home, countries like China and India will continue to increase their energy usage at a rapid pace. That's over 30 per cent of the world's population. World demand for oil will go up drastically, no matter what we do or wish would happen. It will also go up here if we still want to grow our economy. Alternative sources such as solar and wind are at least decades away from becoming an efficient substitute for current technologies and as of now are nothing more than a pipe dream and a distraction.

Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat Party have obviously been co-opted by Eco-Marxists whose goals have far more to do with damaging our free market economy than protecting the environment. Democrats are unwilling to do anything that will help the little people they purport to care about and are just insulting our intelligence with silly platitudes and scapegoats.

Pelosi is vulnerable in that her refusal to allow a vote on this issue reveals an admission on her part that she will lose when many Democrats defy her will for their own political survival. As you are well aware, this is winning political issue for your party.

As a congressman whose district is literally on the front lines of this issue, your vocal and unqualified support will prove invaluable in moving this issue forward. I am confident that you have the courage to do what is right for Florida and the Country.

Very Truly Yours,
Cliff Waldron http://www.radclown.com/

Another Oil Company Show Trial

It's becoming clear that Democrats are hellbent on destroying the US economy with their latest round of demagoguery, as they once again call oil execs on the carpet while doing absolutely nothing but stand in the way of increased domestic production. This is all to divert blame from themselves and appease their kook base with anti-free enterprise rhetoric

"Where is the corporate conscience?" Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies.

How does this jerk walk around with those big brass ones clanging around? Where is his conscience in refusing to allow more drilling and exploration within our own borders while mandating that we burn 25% of our corn. By now Durbin and his cronies must know the difference between profit and profit margin, but they pretend they don't. It's more important to score points with the economic morons back home than think about the country's security and future. What's going on here is nothing less than criminal malfeasance.

Speaking of crimes, National Review makes the point that congress is violating the very law it passed last week whereby they are trying to criminalize OPEC. That law, which I'm sure has been the source of much amusement in Ryadh, says in part:

"It shall be illegal and a violation of this Act . . . to limit the production or
distribution of oil, natural gas, or any other petroleum product . . . or to
otherwise take any action in restraint of trade for oil, natural gas, or any
petroleum product when such action, combination, or collective action has a
direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply,
price, or distribution of oil, natural gas, or other petroleum product in the
United States."

That's exactly what congress is doing right now.