Well, look at that. ._.

[xiane]

House Republicans received a thumbs up from President George W. Bush on
Monday when he said environmental rules and paperwork are obstacles holding up
U.S. refinery expansions.

Bush specifically criticized the relatively obscure "new source review" rule
administered by the Environmental Protection Agency as part of the Clean Air
Act. It aims to protect public health by ensuring that refinery expansions do
not increase acid rain and smog.

Comments

It's quite simple

[oberstgreup.livejournal.com]

Cheap gasoline and a clean environment are mutually incompatible. Americans demand cheap gas. Therefore we will have dirty air, offshore and arctic drilling, etc., as inevitably as night follows day. It's no use blaming government or big oil for this; they're only giving the public exactly what it demands.

If you don't want those things, you need to convince your fellow citizens to use less gas and to put up with paying $5+ for a gallon of it.

Re: It's quite simple

[xiane.livejournal.com]

Don't even get me started on how MUCH I hate our reliance on the oil industry. Note that I was very careful to not point a finger at anyone. We're all to blame. We've put the environment on the back burner for our own comfort. I do think that some people in the government stand to gain a LOT from these deregulations, because their fortunes are tied up in the oil industry. But people need to get more pissed off, DEMAND that some of the innovations that have been discovered in energy generation are explored. We need to wake up. Yes, I think that the government fucks up a lot in how they handle things. But the people LET them, because of our choices. Too many people are complacent and don't even pay attention to these events until they're affected.

I'm a greenie [that is, environmentally aware, not Green Party] but I'm not going to just uselessly point a finger... unless it's pointed at all of us. :D

Re: It's quite simple

[oberstgreup.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

Environmental issues are among the few that don't involve sin and vice on which I nonetheless drift leftward. But people do need to point the blame where it belongs: at everyone who consumes the products, not just the industry (and its government flunkies) that produces them. Exxon couldn't do all the things it does if people didn't pay them to do it, and if people were willing to pay $5,000 more for a cleaner car, GM and Toyota would be happy to sell it to them whether Exxon liked it or not.

Alternative energy is another subject. Sure, it needs more funding for research, but that's not the main problem. The main problem is that people are unwilling to use alternatives unless they're cheaper than what we have now, and they may never get to that point. After all, hybrids are available now, but how many people take advantage of them - and what would make a hydrogen-powered car any different?

The only thing likely to break that pattern is putting a hefty tax on fossil fuels in order to reflect their external costs, but that would mean lots of poor people who can currently just afford gasoline-powered cars will be unable to afford the new ones.

[ispokethewords.livejournal.com]

You know, I have no idea why people get in an uproar about these silly environmental protection thingies. Personally, I hate trees and clean air and little furry animals roaming the land. I want to see everything black and dead and unlivable!!

[xiane.livejournal.com]

I had no idea you were *so* gothic.

*giggle*