[Peace-discuss] NG letter: McCain's offshore plan is of no value

[Walter Pituc]

Good letter. The solution to climate change and our energy problems is a
multifaceted one, but it has to be emphasized with reducing consumption -
not only oil, but most consumer goods. Ever since World War II America has
been obsessed with consumption.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle isn't just a meaningless recitation. It is a
hierarchy of waste minimization. And "Reduce" is the R we as Americans
should be focusing on.

Here is a good wikipedia article covering the waste minimization hierarchy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_hierarchy

On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 1:24 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com> wrote:

> McCain's offshore plan is of no value
> Wednesday August 6, 2008
>
> http://www.news-gazette.com/news/opinions/letters/2008/08/06/mccains_offshore_plan_is_of_no_value
>
> Sen. John McCain is urging Americans to support overturning a ban on
> most oil drilling off our coasts as a way to bring down gas prices.
> But the federal government's Energy Information Administration
> projects that McCain's proposal would have no impact on gas prices in
> the near-term since it will be close to a decade before the first oil
> could be extracted. The EIA projects production would reach 200,000
> barrels a day at peak production. It describes this amount as too
> small to have any significant effect on oil prices, even when
> production is at its peak.
>
> If the U.S. had raised auto fuel efficiency standards between
> 1985-2005 by a quarter of the amount it raised them annually from
> 1980-1985, instead of leaving them virtually unchanged, the result
> would roughly have been the equivalent of 3.3 million barrels of oil
> per day in new production, 16 times the projected impact of offshore
> drilling.
>
> If we negotiated a deal with Iran that led to the lifting of U.S.
> sanctions, oil production in Iran could increase one to two million
> barrels a day. That would be five to ten times the projected impact of
> drilling off our coasts.
>
> Wouldn't it be better to pursue modest conservation and negotiations
> with Iran, having the effect of bringing 20-25 times as much oil on
> the market, rather than endanger tourism, fishing and beaches on our
> coasts for a long-term effect that we won't even notice?
>
> ROBERT NAIMAN
>
> Urbana
>
> --
> Robert Naiman
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
>
> Ambassador Pickering on Iran Talks and Multinational Enrichment
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=kGZFrFxVg8A
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