Bud,
We don't see eye-to-eye on this one. I for one believe that the US public
has long subsidized the oil companies. Remember the oil depletion
allowance? Who eventually paid for the clean-up after the Exxon Valdez
incident? I doubt very strongly that the process of removing a diminishing
quantity of oil from the ground under extremely harsh environmental
conditions is as safe as you claim. After all, the profit motive means that
there is little incentive for the oilfield operators to spend money on
anything that isn't essential to getting the oil to market. Such niceties
as safety and clean-up are simply not a priority as they subtract from the
bottom line.
Your comment about stopping "stupid partisan politics" is exactly that:
anybody who sees things from a different perspective is playing politics,
your solution is the only correct one.
Personally, I feel that we are better off with most of our environmental
regulations and that the current trend to reduce regulation is a step
backwards. Don't think for one minute that the refineries would be run with
any consideration for those people , plants and animals downwind if they
were not forced to do so.
Right now gasoline is far from being expensive in historical terms.
Hal
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