I think you are just out of this world.
(((Thanks, I guess all those that oppose are.)))))
I am not advocating returning to the 1960’s, my God there has to be a balance between a healthy economy/prosperous country and maintaining reasonable environmental standards for all industries. There is a big different between what we have today and what is reasonable.
((((What is reasonable? You wanting to have a barbecue? I mean if that is what you want fire up your grill dude. Just make sure you don't complain about the affects later.))))
I read about Picher OK, funny thing is there is a lot more to the story that what is being reported in the blogs and news. I got some info this morning from one of the environmental groups that did as study on the place, pretty interesting stuff and I can not see why anyone would live there but this is one town out of how many millions of miles? Well they were hit by a tornado yesterday and I pray no one was killed.
((((
Picher Oklahoma Genealogy Noone is arguing the point that it is only one example. ))))
I can’t blame the government, there is something else going on and it seems from all I read the problems only started since the mine was closed. It is like in the UP of Michigan, they stopped copper smelting operations in one town and there were all of a sudden a lot of cancer related deaths. Is it something we did as a people or something that the companies were allowed to do? I know what happened in that town, I know it was because operations stopped, but can you think of a reasonable reason why it would happen 10 years after the fact?
(((You cannot blame the government? It is called mining for resources. Harmful or not. The people are getting cancer because they are being subjected to those resources not because they closed operations. Picher, OK was the biggest zinc and lead resource in its day. One of the places that made bullets for WWII. Copper, Lead, Asbestos, Mercury, etc. All killers. And you want to limit the powers of the EPA? Geez. You cannot even eat fish every day unless you want to die from mercury poisoning. One must have ethics in order to understand.))))
Here is the real point and maybe you don’t want to understand it;
The problem is our economy is made up of several pieces that rest on a foundation.
That foundation has always been energy and has been since the industrial revolution.
We face two threats to this foundation, one internal and one external, one you complain about a lot about some of the external threats but don’t seem to see the internal.
The internal one is really the biggest threat at this point and starts with the government being involved with making policies which don’t account for economical impact. This undermines the entire foundation that our economy rests on and when we are restricted in any part of that foundation beyond the basics of the industries themselves, the impact grows exponentially.
The external threat can only be solved when the internal one is. I mean, listen carefully, that until we get a grip on these internal problems and move the country forward instead of backward; we can’t use technology that is presently out of our reach to solve the bigger future issues.
FOR example – we are facing high fuel prices right now for two reasons, one is we can’t process fuel ourselves and we can’t use the resources we have already identified.
(((Wrong. It is one of a weakening dollar and speculation. To add, a willingness to use up those resources until they are depleted (Supply and Demand). We have the means to limit our dependence on foreign oil.))))
The former is clear problem; we import not only crude oil to process but buy ready refined gasoline and heavy oil (which is turned into Diesel and jet fuel). We buy this on the open market because Petroleum is an open commodity and we compete with not only China but the EU and India.
(((Yeah, that is included in one of my other blogs. Competition helps raise those prices. It is all based on the speculators.))))
Right now as we speak, the price of Diesel is NOT being affected just by China but really by the EU because we have to compete with them on purchasing heavy oil. But to make things worst, because it is an open commodity, we also have the speculation that the price will further rise in the near term that leads us to pay more to replace the petroleum we already used. The solution is very simple, first build more refineries, and then import more crude. This alleviates the issue of competing for specific products and allows us to get a buffer in there where we need it. When you see reports of refineries being at 70% capacity that means little about the supply because it does not take in account for the importation of the refined product that we further refine. Also in order to build these refineries, we have to use the same methods that were used for the primary seat belt law push from the DOT – if there is a refusal to build a refinery, than there is no federal road fund to that state. On the federal level it is even simpler, the congress and president can pass a resolution that prevents the federal courts not to take any cases that have to do with refineries.
The latter is complex because the knee jerk environmental groups and the “NIMBY’ groups are fighting drilling for oil in areas that countries like China and Mexico are drilling. Our technology is so far advanced than what it was 20 years ago that we can get a lot more oil out of the ground in a more environmental friendly way at the same time we can reduce all the speculation just by announcing we are drilling.
(((Something else from one of my blogs.))))
So I look at where we were and what we already did to clean things up. We still lead the world on a lot of environmental issues but the real problem with the eroding of this foundation is we can’t move forward without a strong economy and emission standards and the EPA is one of the key factors holding us back.
(((The EPA is a necessary organization. That is as long as they are doing their jobs.)))
As for the Atomic bomb, let it rest, it was used for a reason and you seem to blame this country for something it had to do in order to stop a war. The continuation of arms building was a result of a political mess that we have had to deal with; some call it the Cold War. Don’t blame the US for liberating people during World War 2; it cheapens the sacrifices people made during that time.
((((We liberate by killing innocent people. Take a geiger counter over to Japan. They are still being affected by radiation TODAY. Crap floats down stream.)))))
Agent Orange, dude I sympathies with many on the issue but the person to blame for its use is still alive and I think is living near where my wife works. Can you guess who it is? I think if someone can sue anyone, this is the guy.
((((AGENT ORANGE was used by our government as a means to eliminate vegetation so our troops could see the enemy. My father died from its exposure in 2001. Innocent people are still dieing from it TODAY here and in Vietnam. And how many companies here in the USA sold chemicals to Hussein? Do you know? One of those sued for Agent Orange was DOW CHEMICAL, and then there was MONSANTO and DIAMOND SHAMROCK. Geez. Make a valid point.))))
