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Here is a link where people can send comments to Obama and others in Washington about the need to keep the moratorium lifted.

But the politics is more complex. The US is without dispute the richest and most technologically advanced country in the world. Still many European and Asian industrialized nations have basic infrastructures that are not only more advanced and environmentally friendly but even more cost efficient than their counterparts in the US. Why?

The answer is simple. There is a wide gap in the amount and quality of political leadership in building national infrastructure between the US and these other countries. In Europe for example much of the national infrastructure was built after the destruction of the war by the government for the simple reason that, unlike the lucky bastards on the other side of the pond, Europe did not have access to anywhere near the amount of private investment to get the job done. Wars do that, which is why Europeans tend to be so much more sceptical about wars than Americans who don’t have the experience the damage war causes to the societies in the war zone. (And why the British who were saved from enemy occupation by the Channel are more likely to support wars than the Germans and French who grew up hearing stories of what it is actually like.)

Anyway, the war forced Europe to rely on nationalized basic infrastructure when rebuilding to a modern society. In the US meanwhile building the modern infrastructure after the war happened largely on private investment. As the only industrialized nation that didn’t get devastated by the war the US was assured economic dominance and sufficient investment as long as the government gave some direction and didn’t actually prevent economic growth and development with bad laws and regulations.

This difference in the economic realities combined with the cold war propaganda against communism (and people using the effects Reagans reforms had to support ideological dogma instead of just noting that he fixed the economy by fixing in hindsight obvious problems that no longer exist on the scale they did – because he fixed them, I mean seriously, if lowering the taxes were always the right thing to do even politicians would have noticed it after few centuries of trying, but sadly sometimes raising taxes is actually the better choice) resulted in European politicians who are comfortable in taking responsibility over matters of infrastructure and feel responsible for the infrastructure working because when they and most of the voters grew up the government still actually run that infrastructure and American politicians who are so indoctrinated against government interference on economy they actually have a strong preference on inaction even on things that are actually run by the government.

BACK ON TOPIC:

The problem is that the power infrastructure needs to be reformed on a national scale if we wish to cut the environmental effects (and there are actually other problems as well) it has fast enough for it to matter at all. The private actors can do the actual work and even funding if need be. (Richest country in the world and all that.) What they can’t do is doing the governments work and lead the process by making the decisions and the commitment to those decisions on a national level. Even if we think of private corporations as charities that will spend stock owners money like water on fixing other peoples problems in order to gain the holy grail or some such nebulous reason, it is not their responsibility to take the responsibility for global problems. It is the governments job and responsibility to think about these issues and then lead the private sector by giving them regulations that tell them what are the right decisions to do in view of the big picture.

There are probably some reading this that think that the market forces can determine what the right decisions better than the politicos can. You are absolutely right, the market forces will always find the best and most efficient solution. The problem is that the market forces act exclusively in the present and do absolutely nothing to prevent interim solutions that result in bad things or even very bad things in the future, some of which may be irreparable. To avoid this the actors in the market have to be smart and look forward in order to avoid decisions leading to bad things. The problem is that most actors only look forward a limited time because of the structural problems of people being paid to make decisions about other peoples property with incentives that actively reward focusing on the short term. So you would need specialized actors who get paid to look farther ahead and then guide other shorter term actors away from the bad decisions they see causing problems in the long term. Call these specialized actors the ‘government’, and you may see the problem with the US politics I am worried about.

The markets require the government to avoid long term problems such as the environmental issues surrounding the greenhouse effect (or the foreign oil dependency), this is as it should be, worrying about such things is not the responsibility of private corporations. The problem is that in the US most politicians believe that they should not interfere with the economy unless absolutely necessary because thanks to historical accidents that has what can be made to look like a pretty good track record. So they will only do their job that the markets absolutely require them to do to work well, if there is a clear and present crisis that forces them to do so. In any other case even if they meddle in the markets it is only to look good in the next elections and deals with short term issues the markets could have dealt with without a single politician showing up for a photo-op, probably better as well. (Which explains why in the US most people see government interference in the economy as bad, most of it really has been.)

So the problem of solving these problems in the US is not what to do, it is how to force the politicians to do the job they swore an oath to do and get paid for. And the reason I oppose off-shore drilling is because it reduces the pressure on the politicians without solving the long term problems. And reducing the pressure on politicians is just another way of saying that nothing will get done on the difficult issues requiring decisions the private sector has great difficulty doing without government support. So I think off-shore drilling should be blocked by any means until the politicians get off their collective butts and do their job. After that happens, I am all for it.

Not trying to start an argument here or saying the posters before were wrong (I mostly agree actually), just saying that IMHO you also need to look at the bigger picture not just the specific issue and that the bigger picture can be argued to point to a ‘no’ even if the specific issue points to a ‘yes’. Really more trying to give another angle to look at it, than trying to claim I know the right solution.

The USA has the best environmental record in our country versus the rest of the world yet the greenies are silent about the record of drillers overseas. Hypocrites. I don’t know about you young kids under 30 but schools only teach politically correct revisionist history. I came back from Germany in ’75 and gas was (gasp!) 75 cents a gallon, double digit inflation and unemployment. Yeah it really was much worse back then unlike today. My point is both parties are gutless about moving forward, yet you and I are responsible for voting them back in over and over again. There is no easy solution but American have become mentally obese and very lazy and want a pain free solution just like the majic pill for losing weight. (right!)

Another lie is the ten year lie. We the nation that mobilized to defeat enemies overseas twice within 50 years are what? To lazy, unwilling or what to do this again. Help me here because I still believe as a nation we can get this done in less then five years. The Alaskan line can be done in 18 months by our own congressman’s testimony.

Call the Greenies what they are; Religious zealots that have historically offered only opposition and little money and engineering efforts to wards a solution. I have followed this since the 70′s .This is about a religion of saving mother earth. I’m calling them BS!

Yes we have more oil reserves then Saudi Arabia, one has to quit feeding at the trough of the enviro-left networks.

Enough oil? The Russians have shown high potential that petroleum is a abiotic process much like the gasses off the coast of California are showing it to be. High pressure high temps deep within the earth are a natural process of relieving pressure and we get petroleum Yeah its simplistic for illustration purposes but you get the point.

The other ploy of the left is the guilt trip that we consume more then others and have less resources then others. Another lie of the left. You young readers need to study up on Karl Marx and understand the language of subtleties like democracy, progressive, fairness, etc. These are all social engineering ploys to bring us down to third world status. Oil is but one methodology of the big picture of the downfall of the US. Shame so many cannot see it due to lack of understanding what liberty and pursuit of happiness and the responsibility that goes along with it. Because as a nation if you did grasp it we would have demanded to throw the bankers and auto makers out on their cans for dereliction of duty. Instead you all have witnessed the greatest wealth transfer in history greater then the contrived great depression and yet we as a nation are (in the age of the Internet) clueless.

Here take a bit to digest and learn how we all are being screwed: http://cafr1.com/

May God have mercy on us all………….

So yes we need to drill now and fast, move the Middle east psychology towards dropping prices; and quit sending trillions of dollars overseas to a religious group of fanatics whose only appeasement is total annihilation or conversion towards Islam.

The other thing though is the fact that it’s Demand that truly affects the price of oil and gas.

People around the world started consuming less gas, and the prices went down.

We really need to get serious and build more economical cars, etc.