Earlier this month, Florida Governor Charlie Crist won a lot of friends in the oil industry by suggesting that he could live with oil-wells off the coast of Florida. In the same week he also gained support from environmentalists for brokering an agreement that will reclaim 300 square miles of the Everglades from sugar farming.
So why should we care? Well it just so happens that Crist is the Governor of a crucial swing-state in the upcoming presidential election, as well as being a contender for the Republican Vice-Presidential slot.
Republicains lie. Why should we believe this?
Almost every word from the Bush Administration is an outright utter lie, although it is sometimes hard to tell if the reason for the lie is corruption or gross incompetence. I'm sure oil companies will greet us as liberators and Bush/McCain/Grist will declare "Mission Accomplished" any day now, but a small bit of more oil in 10 years isn't much help - especially when you deduct the loss of tourism from the ecological damage that the EXXON Valdez II Oil platform (or whatever they will call it) causes.
Of course, 10 years from now it could be a crime to burn oil because of the runaway climate problems, so the whole thing will be an investment that doesn't pay off. Luckily, the energy investments that Obama will make will pay off by then and we can run our country on solar and a cheaper oil-substitute made from algae.