There are some units of the National Park System that allow oil and gas drilling, but very few. And that's wrong, believes a congressman from Texas.
Republican Rep. Pete Olson said there are energy reserves scattered across the country that can't be tapped because they lie within the National Park System.
"Guys on the West Coast ... west of the Mississippi, they know they've got oil and gas under the land that they can't touch because it's on a national park or some sort of federal land," he told Platts, a media outlet that covers the energy sector.
Energy development already exists at places such as Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Aztec Ruins National Monument, Big Cypress National Preserve, Big Thicket National Preserve, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, Gauley River National Recreation Area, Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, New River Gorge National River, Obed Wild and Scenic River, Padre Island National Seashore, and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.
Rep. Olson, who made his comments while attending the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners annual convention, believes companies can safely develop oil and gas resources on National Park System landscapes.
"Working with the parks system, without destroying the parks' value, we can do both. We've proven that we can do that here in Texas," he said.
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Comments
Dittos Jim.
Hmm Jim, Maybe he is looking a little more forward than you.
Given his audience, it's more likely he was "looking foward" to some additional campaign contributions :-)
On a more serious note, looking forward is a good reason not to consider drilling in places that are currently "off limits." As described in my previous post, there's absolutely no demonstrated need to do go after every last drop of oil under every acre in the country right now. That day may eventually come, in which case places now off-limits could prove a lot more valuable as last chance reserves than they are now. Until then, what's the rush?
Jim, it really is pretty scary, and now with the latest supreme court ruling on campaign finance/ money is free speech/ corporations are persons mentality, we truly will be in a corporate oligarchy. It is interesting to note that the progressive republican party movement under Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Howard Taft actually tried to get a handle on corporations donating to political campaigns resulting in the Tillman Act. Well, here we are, a little over 100 years later right back to robber barons era. History does repeat itself. You are right, the Congressman knows where the money is going to be coming from.
Dwight David Eisenhower, farewell address:
" This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Of course, Ike was well known for his left wing liberal attitude. Obviously a RINO.
And hopefully, Jim, long before we need to start scratching for the last remaining oil on earth, we will have been smart enough to develop sustainable renewable alternatives to oil and coal.
But that's another political battle that is being fought even as we speak.
Unfortunately, money too often trumps intelligence. Especially in the halls of Congress.
To retrieve Lee's stat from another thread--"It takes more than 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce a year's supply of water bottles. That's enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars for a year"--it would seem that conserving oil by banning platic bottles in the parks would help mitigate the (albeit contrived, as Jim notes) pressure to drill in our national parks.
Which is .04% of all cars on the road. Meaningless. Made even smaller by the fact that the number of water bottles bought in the parks is a small fraction of a year's supply of water bottles. Made even smaller (in the context of oil demand) by the fact that automobile use is only about a quarter of our use of energy.