Gettin' Drilled
The Obama administration has approved off-shore oil exploration for the east coast, an area which as been off-limits for three decades. Predictably, the clueless dolts on the fringe left are mewling like kicked kittens. Go read the comments if you can stomach that level of ignorance.
What this reveals politically, however, is very interesting. Over the last five years -- i.e., Obama's presidency -- the energy industry has completley re-centered itself in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. They're drilling in west Texas every place you can kick a rock out of the way and all of the major energy corporation players -- upstream, downstream, you name it -- have moved their headquarters here. Employees are flocking here as fast as they can get the family car pointed south: the population of Harris County grew 18% from 2001 to 2010, most of it in the last tree years of the decade. While we in Houston are in the midst of the biggest boom economy in nearly 100 years, the economic future of the Ohio River Valley is still flopping around like a head-shot dolphin. The situation is a disaster from the Democrat point of view, so they're willing to do nearly anything in a belated and probably futile attempt to prop up the northeast economically. I suspect, however, that ship has already sank.
As with everything else they do, Democrats acted first and thought second. Their goal in shutting down off-shore expansion and crippling exploration was to destroy the Texas economy and thereby shift money and voters northward, but it had the opposite effect. Now the Donks are faced with a hard choice: drill off the east coast, or continue to let the economic power of the country shift from the northeast to Texas. I'd say I feel their pain, but I'm too busy laughing... all the way to the bank.
What this reveals politically, however, is very interesting. Over the last five years -- i.e., Obama's presidency -- the energy industry has completley re-centered itself in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. They're drilling in west Texas every place you can kick a rock out of the way and all of the major energy corporation players -- upstream, downstream, you name it -- have moved their headquarters here. Employees are flocking here as fast as they can get the family car pointed south: the population of Harris County grew 18% from 2001 to 2010, most of it in the last tree years of the decade. While we in Houston are in the midst of the biggest boom economy in nearly 100 years, the economic future of the Ohio River Valley is still flopping around like a head-shot dolphin. The situation is a disaster from the Democrat point of view, so they're willing to do nearly anything in a belated and probably futile attempt to prop up the northeast economically. I suspect, however, that ship has already sank.
As with everything else they do, Democrats acted first and thought second. Their goal in shutting down off-shore expansion and crippling exploration was to destroy the Texas economy and thereby shift money and voters northward, but it had the opposite effect. Now the Donks are faced with a hard choice: drill off the east coast, or continue to let the economic power of the country shift from the northeast to Texas. I'd say I feel their pain, but I'm too busy laughing... all the way to the bank.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 14:21
1 Comments:
I think my favorite is the comments. Almost 90% of them were screaming to know where the petition was to combat this so they could go sign it, but none of them were willing to go take the extra step of setting it up or actually doing anything. If that is the extent of the "activism" and passion from the newest generation (however misguided) we may as well just roll up the carpet.
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