Republican Senator Tom Coburn, Oklahoma, is crying that the costs for relief of the recent disastrous tornadoes must be offset by cutting back elsewhere.
I have the perfect answer…. Cut back on the subsidies the oil companies receive.
They are profiting more than ever. Plus they’re the ones, whether knowningly or unknowningly, that are a main component of our aggressive climate change. They can chip in. More…
I have created a petition on the Whitehouse.gov website in their section called, “We the People.” Here anyone is allowed to create any petition they wish. When the petition reaches 100,000 signatures in 30 days, then the White House will review and at least respond to the petition. It used to be 25,000 signatures, but thanks to every Billy-Bob that petitioned for the state to secede from the Union, the White House had to increase the number of signatures. I do not necessarily believe that miraculously this petition would be placed before Congress, but at least it catches the attention of both governmental and civilian that we are aware of the profits and exports of fuel and we demand regulation and reform. More…
Three pickup trucks of TransCanada’s Keystone XL construction workers are arriving on Highway 2088 outside Winnsboro, Texas. Their purpose? Tear down the trees, clear the brush, flatten the land, and erect a portion of the southern section of the Keystone XL pipeline. This pipeline, if completed, will bring the tar sands from Canada down to the Houston area where it will be refined…. then sold to China and other countries. The Canadian Tar Sands is considered to be the most destructive project on Earth.
All the while the corporate leaders and their lobbyists are continually telling the people that the Keystone XL will provide millions of jobs and stock the United States with oil for many decades to come.
The Keystone XL pipeline was denied today by Obama – at least for now. TransCanada will be allowed to refile. This is hailed as a huge victory by those opposed to the pipeline, and I am sure the earth, environment and wildlife appreciate this as well.
I checked out #keystone on Twitter a while ago and just happened to catch Boehners tweet that Obama is killing thousands of jobs. Well, horse hockies! Do people really buy this line of crap? And as if this is the only source of jobs available in this country? First of all, bring back all our jobs that are now overseas – such as the 200,000 jobs displaced to China via Wal-Mart. This alone will well exceed Boehners over-inflated amount of jobs from the Keystone XL pipeline. I just bet that ol’ Sam Walton is turning over in his grave since he did found his company on the belief of all Made in the USA products – then his money-grubbing children changed all that. What about a combination of American companies, not just Wal-Mart? The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, says American companies have created 1.4 million jobs overseas in 2010. More…
I just returned home from a business/vacation trip to Seattle WA. While there, I took a side trip to do some whale watching off of the San Juan Islands near Anacortes WA. I had to catch the ferry in Anacortes, and while en route, I passed the Shell Oil Refinery (owned by Tesoro Corp). It was a horrible eye-sore… belching pollutants in the air, and who knows what else into the surrounding waters. The steel tower monoliths all lit up pointing to the sky paying homage to mans dependency upon oil. The crude containers all in line like sentinels protecting the block gold they held.
While out on the waters, I was blessed to watch the Orca’s and the porpoises playing, leaping out of the waters, and simply just being the magnificent creatures that they are. Sea Lions laid on the rocks in herds (or is it called a “raft”?). Witnessed a Bald Eagle eating a delicious lunch of fish caught from the bay, to be joined by a juvenile Bald Eagle. The Harbor Seals curiously watching us “oh-ing and aw-ing”, snapping thousands of pictures. The water fowl soaring ever so gracefully just inches above the water in search of their next bite of food. To me, I was in natures Nirvana. (Please see my pictures below.)
I have always loved wildlife and supported many environmental groups. But it was not until I actually was able to experience the wildlife that was I truly able to absorb the reality of our dependence upon oil while driving by the Anacortes refinery.
We have put man on the moon. At each of our fingertips, we have access to the world via the internet. Anyone can carry a cell phone and call, or text, anyone else from most places at any time. We have a space station where we can (well, used to) fly men in and out of with a reusable space craft known as the space shuttle.
Yet why can we not use alternative clean energy? I have a hard time believing that our technology is incapable of creating an inexpensive engine for our cars which does not require petro to run. Are we that bound to those with the money and power that our wildlife is left to suffer and eventually die off? Yes, I drive a mini-van which gets about 20 mpg simply because I haul my dogs for agility. I feel as though I am a hypocrite driving this gas-guzzling vehicle – but yet I have no option. There are more fuel-efficient autos around, but they are priced out of my budget, yet they still function on unclean energy resources – just not as badly (like that really helps ease the pain). People like the Koch Brothers, the oil companies, and that genre need to stop running our country from “behind the curtain.” It is with their power and wealth they control what is designed and invented. We have the technology to create vehicles powered with alternative clean energy, but if we do so, these power and money rich companies will stand to lose all they have built.
And in the meantime, our environment and wildlife loses all they have built. Remember, these creatures below all share the same waters as the refinery in Anacortes WA.
