The Energy Battle

Fox and Friends had Mike Gallagher and Robert Kennedy Jr on this morning. The topic, US energy crisis and policy.

Robert Kennedy Jr came off sounding a bit all over the map. In fact he tried to sound more like a Libertarian when it came to some issues. He wants offshore drilling to be a state's right issue. You heard me right, a child of the federal government has an answer for everything is now supporting state's rights. I wonder why it is? Perhaps because people like Rep. Jerry Lewis[R-CA] is wanting to lift the ban. So is Sen. John McCain[R-AZ]. But at the same time, Kennedy is already out of touch if he wants the states to vote on it. Gov. Crist[R-FL] is for off-shore drilling. Perhaps Gov. Crist is eyeing those oil platforms the PRC, Cuba, and Venezuela want to build off Margaritaville in the Conch Republic.

But its all a smoke screen about deferring to state's rights about offshore drilling. State sovereignty over water extends only one league or three miles out to sea. Areas where Lewis and McCain want to drill are fifty miles out in what are called federal waters.

If that is not enough, he tosses in a dollop of scare-mongering by mentioning the 1969 oil spill off Santa Monica. Whoops not Santa Monica, Santa Barbara Mr. Kennedy. That was an 800,000 barrel spill and since then there has only been one major spill in California waters that killed 700 birds. Or lets look in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina for a modern reference point, not a single barrel of oil was spilt there.

So in the end, Kennedy's whole argument against offshore drilling comes apart when examined a bit closely. Kennedy is a defender of the status quo: high dependency on foreign oil thus impoverishing the citizens of the United States.