I was disheartened by the President’s speech tonight. In the wake of all the details that leaked out today: BP’s dismissals of any and all safety standards; the boilerplate plans for dealing with oil spills that the energy companies all shared (they were all photocopying the same report, sporting walruses, which do not exist in the Gulf); and hearing about BP refusing to allow workers to wear the proper hazmat clothing because “it wouldn’t look right” for BP’s image; all these facts were a gift to President Obama to rile the public and to take action.
But the President punted. Tonight could have been a clarion call to push for a clean energy policy that would have been painful, but necessary. He could have given a “teachable moment” about the costs involved with our addiction to oil. But instead he gave us platitudes, boasted about his energy secretary’s Nobel Prize (why do we keep hearing that?), asked that we pray, and made no attempt to push Congress to pass any energy-related legislation.
Of course this is a tough sell. Telling Americans to consume less and be conscious of our energy consumption means we have to make a huge change in our lifestyle. No more cheap energy, no more large cars, and a shared sacrifice that no one wants to hear when we are in the midst of a horrid recession. I’m sure Obama’s advisors ran the poll numbers by him and told him to play it safe. But that fifteen minute speech ended up being a waste of my time. At this point, the President just needs to forget about the polls and just push ahead and make the opposition look like the party of no and of obstruction. I do not know about you, but I am disappointed by the pallid, empty speech.
Editor’s Note: Isn’t it interesting that no one hears from Al Gore? Did he disappear? With all the nonsense over “Climategate,” which was not a scandal, he should have been out there dismantling the ridiculous charges that climate change is a scam because of the shenanigans of a few marginal researchers. But Gore has retreated, and meanwhile, we have not heard at all from him on the Gulf of Mexico fiasco. Well, I wonder if it is because the Gore family has much of its money from the petroleum industry. After Gore’s father (Al Gore, Sr.), lost his reelection bid to the Senate in 1970, he became an attorney, and then a board member, of Occidental Petroleum. Armand Hammer, who ran the company for decades, essentially became the Gore family’s sugar daddy. I know it has been decades since the Gore’s family involvement with Occidental, and Hammer died in 1990. I find the silence deafening. Can someone explain what is going on with our former VP?
