Hello? Mom, it’s Jay Inslee.
U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee will be holding a telephone town hall sometime today. Phone calls will go out to residents in the First Congressional District. No inbound phone calls.
In the meantime the congressman says Barack Obama’s plan to drill offshore “doesn’t make an energy policy.”
The idea that we are going to solve our energy and economic problems by drilling offshore is not supported by fact. Evidence should inform our national energy policy and evidence tells us that new drilling won’t satiate our hunger for foreign oil. The United States has a mere 2 percent of the world’s oil reserve while consuming a quarter of the world’s oil supply. New drilling won’t change this fact.”
Inslee calls for caps or prices on carbons to help alternative energy compete.
The press release follows.
Rep. Inslee: President Needs “Innovate Baby Innovate” Plan
Washington, DC – Rep. Jay Inslee, a leading member of the Energy and
Commerce Committee and co-author of Apollo’s Fire; Igniting Americans
Clean Energy Economy, released the following statement regarding the
President Obama’s announcement of expanded oil drilling off U.S. shores:“Today’s announcement doesn’t make an energy policy. The idea that we
are going to solve our energy and economic problems by drilling offshore
is not supported by fact. Evidence should inform our national energy
policy and evidence tells us that new drilling won’t satiate our hunger
for foreign oil. The United States has a mere 2 percent of the world’s
oil reserve while consuming a quarter of the world’s oil supply. New
drilling won’t change this fact.“Any ‘drill baby drill’ policy must be accompanied by comprehensive
policies that put a cap and/or a price on carbon, what we need is an
‘innovate baby innovate’ policy. During today’s announcement, the
President praised new military aircraft that run on bio-fuels and
announced new support for hybrid and electric cars. While these steps
are productive and should be applauded, those technologies will not be
cost competitive without a cap and/or price on carbon pollution.“By restraining carbon emissions, as we did with sulfur and nitrogen
dioxide, the United States will be able to compete internationally to
create clean energy jobs. China is spending $12 million an hour on
clean energy technologies; Europe’s energy costs already drive
investments into new technologies. The United States can only compete by
harnessing our fundamental character for ingenuity and innovation. And
the billions of dollars in investment and millions of American
innovators need a price signal on carbon. Until we get that, private
investment dollars will continue to sit on the sidelines or worse, flow
overseas to our competitors in China and Europe.“A world in which the United States is increasingly dependent on oil
with no path toward clean energy development is a prescription for a
permanent position in last place.”
Jay Inslee’s New Apollo initiative helped Tim Botkin perpetrate the SEED debacle on us. How’d that work out?
Blue Light— So what? At least it was an attempt in the right direction, and you know if the economy was better, people would have invested in SEED. An example of the lack of innovation is the auto industry. The auto makers, etc. have been in bed too long with the oil people and Wall Street, and now our auto industry is in last place, as are other things. How’s that going?
I agree we should have “innovation, baby, innovation”. Our telephones and laptops are no longer wired to the wall, my vacuum cleaners, full size ones, run on batteries; my blower, weed whacker, etc. ditto. That is what people want, the sooner the better and in the least expensive way possible.
I have never pumped my own gas; it is smelly, dirty, flammable, and the handles on the pump hoses filthy with germs. I want a car that I can just drive in and plug in and is affordable, and I don’t want to buy any foreign car. I always buy American.
France has a nuclear powered energy supply and so do a few other countries. But just because a few people here want to get rich by continuing to force expensive dangerous gasoline on the rest of us is no reason to “drill, baby, drill” for the reasons Inslee stated. People have to wean themselves off gasoline-powered cars for their own good, and those putting up roadblocks against affordable alternative-powered cars are doing a disservice to Americans.
Emilie
Port Orchard, WA
“So what?” So you don’t mind taking the road to hell as long as it’s paved with good intentions (not that I think Kitsap SEED was “good intentions”; more I think it was misappropriation of public funds to keep a party faithful at the trough).
“An example of the lack of innovation is the auto industry.” Not that I’m a car guy, but I recently heard (and I don’t have a link) that automobile emissions have been reduced (via catalytic converters, etc) by, something like, 90% since 1970. In other words, today’s cars are 90% cleaner than those of the 70s. That sounds like innovation to me.
The evolution of your electronic gadgetry from AC to DC is a convenience to you, but it doesn’t necessarily “save” energy and it presents a disposal problem that has not been adequately addressed. As for your blower, weed whacker, etc… Might I suggest a rake or broom, a sickle and a manually operated etcetera.
Blue Light – Again I ask you, how’s the car business going? What causes all the smog in LA and Silicon Valley and Beijing? Why do you have to have smog controls in Seattle, but not on the Kitsap Peninsula? Our auto industy is still in last place. The innovation we need is to not use gasoline for the reasons I mentioned before. I hate the noise and smell that the yard-man makes with all his gas-powered gadgets.
Also, FYI, I have wielded a sickle. It belonged to my mother who used to cut down brush and corn stalks and sunflowers, etc with it. and she taught me how to use it, to sharpen it, etc. I still have my father’s stone sharpening wheel that has a bicycle seat and pedals on it, and my mother’s 1901 treadle sewing machine. Mom and Dad were born in 1902, and I was born in 1939. I used to trim a hundred foot hedge by hand, mowed the lawns with a push mower, etc. So, if I could still use those manual implements at my age with my infirmities for my large yard, I would, and I wouldn’t need a yard man. At least for the little that I am able to do, I don’t have to use gasoline.
Emilie
Port Orchard, WA
Well, Emilie, hopefully we won’t have to use another manual implement today: the snow shovel. I appreciate your history. Have a good weekend.
When is Jay “Who” going to have a real town hall meeting other than this 11 question scam pseudo-meeting? Inslee is afraid to meet with his constituencies face to face. Hey Jay “Who,” come out, come out, wherever you are.