Rush Proves the Opposition's Point Perfectly with Oil Terrorist Comment

I heard today that Rush Limbaugh suggested that the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico could be the work of domestic terrorists who don't want offshore drilling. You can read the entire transcript in full directly from Rush's website here. You could read the whole thing, but here's the gist of it:

"RUSH:  I want to get back to the timing of the blowing up, the explosion out there in the Gulf of Mexico of this oil rig.  Since they're sending SWAT teams down there now this changes the whole perspective of this.  Now, lest we forget, ladies and gentlemen, the carbon tax bill, cap and trade that was scheduled to be announced on Earth Day.  I remember that.  And then it was postponed for a couple of days later after Earth Day, and then of course immigration has now moved in front of it.  But this bill, the cap-and-trade bill, was strongly criticized by hardcore environmentalist wackos because it supposedly allowed more offshore drilling and nuclear plants, nuclear plant investment.  So, since they're sending SWAT teams down there, folks, since they're sending SWAT teams to inspect the other rigs, what better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig?  I'm just noting the timing here. "

Set aside the fact that Rush is speculating here and currently the cause of the explosion is not known and is thought to be an industrial accident of some type.

The beauty of Rush's statements is that he proves the problem with oil perfectly. The problem with offshore drilling, oil refineries, pipelines, oil shipments on tankers, and security for oil rich nations and regions is that they are all extremely ripe terrorist targets. Period. Doesn't matter if the terrorists are "hardcore environmental wackos" as Rush calls them, or international terrorists from Al Qaeda or wherever. The result is the same regardless of who blows the target up.

With the case of an oil drilling rig, you get millions of gallons of crude oil spilling into already strained and dying ecosystems. It will cost millions of dollars to clean up, money that is wasted with no return on investment. It will damage ecosystems that are not, unfortunately, valued with human currency values. Local economies will be impacted, and investments, plastic/materials production, and other economic impacts will occur.

That vulnerability = weakness, plain and simple. If you're vulnerable, you're weaker than you would be if you were not vulnerable. And if prices and everything else we do is dependent on that resource, then we're even more vulnerable because our production and our economy are also vulnerable. That's why oil is such great terrorist target. A person with a rifle can shoot the Alaska pipeline - it's been shot over 50 times - or you could blow it wide open and lock up supply for a good while as you damage a large area of pristine wilderness, all for the cost of a bomb and some hiking gear.

Now have a terrorist group blow up 1 wind turbine. Or 10 turbines. You get 10 busted turbines, which would likely be insured, and you'd get X amount of lost power supply to what hopefully would be a dynamic and integrated power grid system. No environmental damage to speak of. No big dramatic clean up costing millions of dollars, risking people's lives, and risking the performance of investments and markets. Same is true with a solar array.

Oil has provided humanity with great things, and it will continue to help us, but it needs to be in a steady decreasing capacity. It's moving into the category of stone tools, spears, bows & arrows, and whale oil. These things had value, but we've moved on to better things. Most importantly, oil has gone from our lifeblood to a liability, and a very serious liability at that. The negatives outweigh the positives. And to continue using it while avoiding implementation of sustainable power is to basically promote and amplify our own weakness, based on domestic security and market security alone - that doesn't even include the pollution and biodiversity impacts of burning fossil fuels.

(Two excellent books on the topic are Brittle Power, and Winning the Oil End Game, both of which were written in conjunction with the US military.Brittle Power is written specifically to the issue of energy security and, even though it was written in the 90s, it's all still relevant today - which is a red flag, of course.)