Bailout, Sellout...What's the Diff?

Today feels like the day the last vestiges of democracy will die, as our government appears poised to demonstrate fully that they support Wall Street over and above their constituents. I am fed up. Here's what my Senator and Congressman received from me today...hope your letters were stern as well.

Dear Congressman Udall and Senator Bingaman:

Are you voting against this bailout bill today? I stayed up last night reading the bill, or the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” as congress is calling it, and I’m not happy about it.

First, the bill doesn’t place any limits on, or add any regulatory oversight over, the type of speculation that caused the crisis. That’s quite a departure from the days of FDR, who enacted the Truth in Securities Act and the Glass-Steagall Act to reign in speculation following the banking crisis of his day. Your first responsibility is to end the practices that have put Americans in harm’s way, but that’s not what’s going on in this bill. In fact, this bill would do more to perpetuate the bad behavior.

Second, the bill discusses, but doesn’t require, direct aid to the homeowners that were hurt by the speculative practices. We are not stupid – talking about helping someone is very different from actually doing it.

Finally, while the rhetoric in front of the cameras about limiting executive compensation has been firm, the language in the bill is not. The bill calls for the financial institutions to meet “appropriate standards” for compensation, but these are institutions that have already demonstrated that they don’t know what appropriate standards would be. The bill adds a few paragraphs on what the standards should include, but the language is so loose it appears to be idle posturing. Again, we are not stupid. Add some specifics, for heaven’s sake! Here’s an example:  “No one at any financial institution shall be compensated at more than five times the rate of the firm’s lowest paid worker, and all employees shall receive the same terms for severance at the conclusion of their employment.” Fair enough?

My overall impression is that Wall Street is running the show here. You must stand with your constituents and oppose this bill. I’ve been talking with a lot of them, and I haven’t found any that want this bailout. Saying that you have to vote for it won’t cut it this time. You represent us, and we need you now. Please don’t sell us out by going along with this charade.

Sincerely, Mark Sardella

Drilling Offshore in the Age of Hurricanes

This commentary aired September 2, 2008 on KUNM.

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There’s nothing quite like a hurricane bearing down on the world’s largest collection of oil and gas rigs to remind you just how bad an idea it is to drill offshore. Now, I know Hurricane Gustav was no Katrina or Rita, the pair that delivered the one-two punch to the Gulf in 2005, opening up 600 separate oil spills and dumping 750,000 gallons of crude oil into a fragile, coastal waterway. What’s that? You didn’t hear Katrina and Rita left behind one of the worst environmental disasters of all time? Well, a lot of news outlets reported that not a drop of oil was spilled, and Presidential candidate John McCain recently repeated this myth when he cited those two hurricanes as evidence that it’s now “safe” to drill offshore.

Even Barack Obama, in his acceptance speech last week, said that we need to do more drilling offshore. At least he called it a “stop-gap measure”, and boy, is it ever. We are already drilling fifty thousand new oil and gas wells a year in the United States, and the amount of oil and gas we produce STILL declines every year. We can’t possibly put holes in the ground fast enough to increase our domestic production of oil and gas. Every new well we drill simply offsets declining production from the other wells. Ten years ago we were offsetting those declines with about 15,000 new wells a year. Now it’s 50,000, and ten years from now, if you follow the trend, we’ll need 150,000 new wells a year. It’s like running on a treadmill...you can’t possibly win.

Perhaps the greatest reason of all for not expanding our drilling efforts in the United States is that scientists have discovered a clear link between the rate at which we un-earth carbon-based fuels and the rate at which our climate is destabilizing. Here again, there’s been a lot of confusion about this. From all the reports, you’d think climate change was caused by not having enough air in your tires, or using the wrong kind of light bulbs. But it’s not. Climate change doesn’t care how efficiently we use energy, or what we decide to do with it. The only thing that matters is how fast you dig up the buried carbon resources and release them into the atmosphere.

With this in mind, how can we say we are serious about addressing our climate problem while we push for more drilling? Instead of lamenting the fact that our domestic oil and gas reserves are depleting, shouldn’t we celebrate it? Are we finally getting a look at the end of oil, when we stop unearthing the carbon that is destabilizing our planet? I’m ecstatic!

Now, I’m fully aware of all the dire predictions about how our country would come apart if we stop buying energy from the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear companies. But seriously, if we took the two-trillion dollars we will give them this year and instead built a public infrastructure to harness and distribute renewable energy, would everyone have enough?

Isn’t it possible that the assertion that nothing else is feasible, that we have to keep handing two-trillion dollars a year to the companies that make dirty energy based on non-renewable, planet-killing fuels, is false?

To fix our climate, we need to start leaving carbon-based fuels in the ground. I say we set them aside, declaring them “protected wilderness areas”. The legislation for doing that is already in place – we do it all the time. You just say, “This area must be left untouched so that our children can have a decent future,” and your all done.

Now, if you still feel like you need more reasons to not drill offshore, check out the National Hurricane Center website. There are three reasons right on the home page, and their names are Hanna, Ike, and Josephine, and they’re headed for our shores.

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