Oil rig disasters a preview of things to come
The news on Thursday, Sept. 2, was big enough to warrant a column on energy. Yet again, there was an accident on an oil rig. To be fair, there were many differences between the fire that broke out last week on Mariner Energy Inc.'s oil rig and the massive explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig which caused the largest oil spill in U.S. history. But I'm not too concerned with the differences, because I'm not here to talk about regulation or safety practices. What concerns me most are the inherent risks and danger associated with drilling for oil, especially off the coast. These two incidents (it might not be right to call them accidents) reminded us all that we just don't have the means to make oil drilling safe, and that fact should be part of our impetus to change the way our country is powered. Given all of the problems which our country faces today, would you be in favor of creating millions of jobs, reducing the amount of money which we hand over to Middle Eastern countries, breathing cleaner air, leading the world, as a country, in the most promising new sector of research and production, and restoring American lives to the forefront of technology?