Drill, baby, drill?

Watch this spot for further discussion.

Experts weigh in on the economic effectiveness of drilling.

Here's a good repost to the mindless economics of the Economist:

Not counting opportunity costs, externalities and social costs - a rough estimate of the benefits of clearing the rain-forest for feed production is over $5 trillion. And? Ha - we estimate that 99.9% of all Brazilians would sell the rainforest for $500 per head. Let's do it, baby!

Obviously anybody against drilling is against: freedom, independence, prefers animals over humans and dislikes economic growth. Those who claim that our children need a healthy environment have a point but we believe that what they need even more is economic growth!!! Look - here - we have found an analysis that somehow "mentions" the environment and shows a break-even nevertheless. Let's drill baby - for our babies!

That is why we can all write page after page about oil, energy and drilling without even trying to estimate the environmental costs - the real ones - not the the costs of BRIBES. Estimating a bribe is not the same as estimating the real cost. What on earth is THIS?:

"Rather than estimate these costs and conduct a benefit-cost analysis, we calculate the costs that would generate a breakeven result. We find that the average breakeven willingness to accept compensation to allow drilling in ANWR ranges from $582 to $1,782 per person"

What on earth is this: "At today's price of oil, a rough estimate of the benefit -- not counting environmental costs -- is over $600 billion."

Not counting opportunity costs, externalities and social costs - a rough estimate of the benefits of invading Saudi is over $3 trillion.

A view from Florida. (Can't say we agree with it all, but it makes sobering reading.)

A succinct statement of the argument about why drilling does not make economic sense from a blog with a disturbing title. 

Here's a call to action.

A modest proposal from the Yes Men, anti-corporate pranksters.

As for "responsible" drilling along the coast, Grampy McSame is claiming that of-shore drilling is now disaster-proof. This has been debunked repeatedly. 

As if this were not enough, Hurricane Ike came along as if the Lord were telling the Republicans "Vengeance is mine!" Here are a few posts on the matter. 

Here's hoping that Obama is listening too...