ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis archway, which I visited yesterday, may bill itself as the gateway to the West, but the real gateway this election to the West for Democrats could be through oil and gas politics.
A few weeks back, I wrote a New York Times magazine story on the prairie populist backlash to unbridled oil and gas drilling in key swing regions of the Rocky Mountain West that could be decisive in the upcoming presidential and congressional elections. This is a big theme in my book, THE UPRISING.
Today, Democracy Now! has something of a follow-up report, looking more deeply at just how much drilling is going on. Goodman's report coincides with the raucous fight in Colorado to tighten rules regulating oil and gas drilling.
Goodman is a great journalist, and though her show is often ignored in the blogosphere, it is an essential part of the growing progressive media infrastructure (and I differentiate the progressive media infrastructure from the partisan media noise machine). She was kind enough to have me on her show a few weeks back - and this report on the politics of oil and gas is terrific.
Check out Goodman's report - it offers more examples of local conservative constituencies fighting back against the national Republican Party's efforts to turn the Rocky Mountain region into an energy colony. If Democrats stand tall against the right's "drill at all cost" mantra, they could indeed win over a wide swath of independent and GOP voters who know the gas price profiteering crisis we face has nothing to do with a crude oil supply shortage - and that the "drill" mantra is a slogan to help pad oil industry profits.
This is an ongoing series from the national tour for THE UPRISING. You can order The Uprising at Amazon.com or through your local independent bookstore.
The supply shortages and oil prices have nothing to do with the increased profit margins being exacted by Big Oil. It's gouging pure and simple.
Perhaps if Americans weren't so lagging in math, we'd be a little more aware and angry about this, but we just let them gouge away.
Wake up America! Do the math. Their profit margin is completely disproportionate to the rises in oil costs. They're manipulating all of this to not only make outrageous profits, but to pressure you into being more amenable to wanton drilling. DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT!!!!!!! Write your congressmen and start making this an issue for the campaign.
This could easily be glossed over in the face of Iraq, the economy and other hot button issues, but this is inextricbly linked not only to those issues, but to the debate on the environment, as well,
Big Oil must be held accountable for profiteering during such a crisis. It's disgusting and more people need to get angry about this.
It's your choice. BTW, wind mills and solar panels will not power your car. And if you want to spend 10 units of energy to produce 9 units of energy via corn while at the same time, taking food out of people's mouths and putting it in your gas tank, well, have at it.
Drill Here, Drill Now, or Buck Up, Pay Up and Shut Up.
(This public service announcement brought to you by middle eastern terror groups everywhere.)