McKinney: "Leave the oil in the soil"

Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney sums up her energy policy with a simple, memorable rhyme: "Leave the oil in the soil."

"Right now we've got two energy policies in this country," McKinney told Grist. "One is war, the other is drilling. And neither one of them works." It's a message she hopes will win over voters who have tired of both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Read the full story and McKinney's interview with Huffington Post blogger Kate Sheppard

-OR-

More at the Huffington Post Green Energy big news page

Comments

[johnnyjust]

Since oil was recently discovered on Titan, one of Saturn's moons, it gives certain credance to the Abiogentic Theory proposed in the 1950's that oil is actually formed by carbon-bearing fluids in the Earth's mantle which make their way up to the crust.

If so, the supply is not limited. (There is no evidence that oil is produced from decayed materials.­)

[SolarPowerGuy]

There is also no evidence that oil near the Earth's surface is being replenished at a rate which will satisfy human demand. In fact, quite the opposite.

There is also ample evidence that burning hydrocarbon fuels creates a host of health and environmental problems for Earthlings.

Finally, the hydrocarbons found on Titan are *methane* and *ethane*. These are not the long-chain hydrocarbons which we like to use as liquid fuels here on Earth. The proponents of the abiogenic theory of petroleum have not offered an explanation as to what chemical process, other than life, would be converting methane or ethane into long-chain hydrocarbons.

Sorry, I'm not ready to adopt your "don't worry, be happy" point of view.

[1will]

Welcome back you crazy whackjob. I've missed your coverage.

[rwe]

Be honest envirophob­iacs.... Didn't you cringe and thought she was a detriment?

[UnbiasView]

The people in the green party are absolutly nuts . . .

http://cspanjunkie.org/?p=173

They stand for a "hip hop movement" ?

[leduck]

Cynthia McKinney knows about peak oil
and takes it seriously

i don't know much about her
but obviously she is neither your typical idiot politician
nor stupid

[sandiegoconservative]

Perhaps you need to learn more about her before you think she is not a "typical idiot politician".

[Egalitare]

Ms. McKinney has a very deep hole to climb out of before losing "idiot politician" status, that's for sure.

This is at least a step in the right direction for her political resurrection. I hope she plans to continue party building with the Greens after this election cycle, unlike that other Green Party nominee who only emerges every 4 years to celebrate himself...­.

[UnbiasView]

She knows a lot because she is running on the hip hop movement platform . . . why didn't Obama think of this?

I forgot, he isn't insane.

[samandally]

Of course if Oblahma had thought up this little diddiy it would be their new chant!

[Ajita]

Sure I'm against drilling. Of course my values lie in tandem with the environmental policies of the green party. However, we don't have parliamentary democracy here in the US and there is no way third parties can win, at least not with these election rules. Same argument as the one against Nader applies here. A vote for McKinney is a vote for McCain. Period. If you want the green party to win, get involved in calling for legislative changes to election laws. Don't let you idealism cloud your sense of reason.

[BlackbirdHighway]

It's really more like half a vote for McCain. If I vote for McCain, then it will take someone else to vote for Obama just to keep them tied. If I vote for McKinney oro Nader, then the next person who votes for Obama gives him a one vote lead, which is better than a tie.

Still, you've convinced me, next election cycle, I'm running for office for the Green Party. Better to work change from the bottom up than the top down.

[Egalitare]

Best of luck to you. What we need in this country is:

a) voting machines that work, or at least produce a paper trail

b) instant runoff voting

[SolarPowerGuy]

"A vote for McKinney is a vote for McCain. Period."

Not this nonsense again!

[Woggles]

Where does this woman thinks her food comes from?

If there was a natural disaster, she would probably be the first to state the obvious, "We need to ship food to them - fast!"

whaddan idiot.

[BlackbirdHighway]

Where do you think our children and grandchildren will get food from, after we've pumped the very last drop of oil out of the ground?

You act like we can't reduce how much we use. With very little effort, we can reduce consumption 10%. With just a little work, we can cut by at least 25%, which is about 5 million barrels a day.

You can drill every square foot of the USA and all of it's offshore territory, and you'll never, ever get 5 million barrels a day.

[wolfgangmo]

Where do you think your food comes from. Commercial food is largely produced by exchanging oil, in one form or another, for food.

When the oil runs out ... so do your twinkies.

[JohnKdrew]

This is FANTASTIC – we need so little room really to harvest solar energy – just the confidence to back this new (well actually very old ) energy source.. We can all help to make wise climate change resource decisions – read the emergency triage response to current climate change crises at - see more at
www.climatechangetriage.net

[jay1975]

And how does she propose we fuel our cars, buses, planes, motorcycles etc.? Not much of a plan, just a rallying cry to drum up support from the 25%ers who oppose drilling.

[ScooterLiddy]

Oil is going to run out eventually. What is your answer?

[sandiegoconservative]

It's real simple.

You drill to move ourselves from foreign oil and keep the jobs, sales and profits entirely in the United States (NO shipping out of the country, ONLY to companies who hire Americans to work on the rigs/ships/plants, etc. and NO visa workers).

At the same time, you place a reasonable tax on the sales of that oil, but no more tax than is currently on, and I would also be willing to place a small tax on some of the profits earned. You take that money and invest it SOLELY in alternative energy sources. At the same time, you implement an incentive program (perhaps a tax credit, or something else), for businesses and individuals who convert to alternative energy and you make the technology reasonably priced so they can pay up front, or spread out over time, with no interest.

You then create a reasonable, progressive requirement to move more to alternative energy sources (kind of like what California is doing, but not so steep), say 3% a year. In 10 years, you are at 30%, minimum.

[mijumom]

I don't oppose drilling, I oppose opening up more land to drill. The have over 60 million acres to work with, they should start with that and then we can talk about giving them more.

[TrevorAlan]

I have to admit that I am not religiously against drilling oil, I'd be willing to SOME new drilling areas if accompanied by sharper environmental regulations with real teeth ...

But even if we drilled like crazy and without regulation (and made our neighborhoods look like those ugly pictures from the Texas or California oil booms with drill rigs shoulder to shoulder) our most optimistic geological estiamtes say we can't BEGIN to become energy independent with domestic oil.

Domestic wind, solar and biofuels, that could be different.

So why rush headlong into environmental ruin to be only marginally better off than we are now?

[wolfgangmo]

The crazy thing is that we could be energy independent in less than 10 years with current technology. Make all new buildings to be a mandatory 8 inch insulated wall and high efficiency electric appliances. And then use electric cars where ever possible. With the new batteries scheduled to come out of Japan this year [long charge and 1/2 hour recharge with a water base] electric cars will be a shoe in.

The bonus is that we know how to capture carbon off of big industrial smokestacks [we just, well, don't do it]. Off of cars? Not so much.

[GrainOSand]

I like this woman. She is much maligned and many consider her a quack, but to me, she is a fierce champion for truth and justice. She (more than likely) has no chance of winning, but because her voice is added to the dialogue, the process of change is made better.

Keep doing what you are doing Mrs. McKinney.

As for those who refer to the confrontation she had on the hill with security, you might want to read deeper into that story and understand that this woman was being belittled because of politics by a security person who could not carry her briefcase. Violence is not right, but some fools need (beg for) a slap up side their head to bring them to their senses when all civilized approaches fail.

[Egalitare]

No, it's more than the security confrontation.

Ms. McKinney wore out her welcome with some less than competent constitient service. If you don't take care of the folks back home, you're always vulnerable in an re-election.

[Badbone]

Doesn't really resonate with me. When I think oil and soil, I think of oil contamination, not about drilling. I know it rhymes, and thats mighty important in our sound-bite culture. But it just isn't accurate. Kinda ruins it for me.

[NL207]

Isn't this the mental dynamo who assaulted a police officer in DC a while back?

[BlackbirdHighway]

And yet she still has a better temper than John McCain.

[ohiomark]

"The next person who brings up drilling is gonna get a cell phone in the back of the head"

.........C­ynthia McKinney

[ThinkForYourself2]

Cynthia McKinney has a lot of important things to say and if you were wise, you'd take some time to listen. Believe me, it's important.