Drill Baby Drill? Now I've Officially Lost My Hope

Environmental politics. Those two words sum up my two favorite topics, and I think it will be my favorite class - ever! In a quarter of forest ecology with Dr. Busywork, and Oceanography which I've yet to determine if I like, there is a shining beacon every Thursday night. My biggest problem in the class will be narrowing down the topic of my term paper.

When I read the syllabus, I thought I would write about the recent presidential approval of offshore oil and gas exploration off of the Atlantic coastline from Delaware to Florida. However, there is some interesting county politics going on regarding two "sustainable" communities that have been placed on hold. I put sustainable in quotes, because I am always suspicious when the Democrat councilmen oppose the developers, and the Republican ones support them.

The oil exploration topic is interesting, though. Especially since Senate Republicans, led by John McCain, vowed not to cooperate with Democrats for the rest of the year. Then, as soon as Obama approves the oil bill, they suddenly want to cooperate on jobs and oil bills.

The approved zones in the Atlantic are off the coasts of "red states" with the exception of Delaware and Maryland which swing sometimes. The EPA recently announced a Save the Chesapeake campaign, naming it not only the largest, but most polluted estuary in America, but now it's okay to drill off the shelf 50 miles from the coast. The other zone is off the north coast of Alaska, directly off the shelf from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, infamously known as ANWR in Congressional debates. This is what the Republicans want for ANWR. This is the natural beauty that ANWR really is.

It's sad that Obama has folded like this. He promised to preserve the coasts from oil exploration in his campaign. Just like he promised Universal Healthcare instead of this Insurance Goldmine healthcare system they created. The Green Jobs are also no where to find, I'm currently visciously fighting for unpaid internships in an industry with no openings. The "Hope" has faded away. I'm happy Oilman Dubya is gone, and there will be no drilling in ANWR, but what happens when an extreme ice pack destroys a drilling rig or two, or some other accident occurs? What would happen to my Bay if an extreme hurricane caused an accident?

On a Sustainable note, I'd like to give a huge thumbs up to the City of Arlington for improving such a walkable community downtown. Yesterday, as I was still sans textbooks and waiting for Amazon, I went downtown to run a ton of errands, and got sucked into a few extra local businesses. Since the parking situation has improved, it's much easier to park, and walk everywhere, and the storefront improvements are really working. I'd like to see some more greenery, but not everything is practical in my perfect world. I found myself meandering, and picked up some good used references at the new bookstore on Division. I still have to place another order with Amazon, but, saving any bit of money is great.