Everything in Its Own Time

It was a facile complaint, but not entirely off base. Glenn Beck called out President Obama tonight for comparing the oil spill to 9/11. To be fair, and completely accurate, what the president said was true in its own way, but saying it the way he did was at best, a poor choice of comparisons.

“In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come” Obama told Politico.com.

First, it is inappropriate on its face to compare the oil spill with 9/11, if for no other reason, out of respect for the families of those that died that day. Then, in spite of any aspirations Obama may have for turning this situation into legislative opportunity, it remains a case of “apples and oranges” because it doesn’t involve an active attack on our country. (Additionally, I doubt the president would like to leave an open invitation to compare any of his energy or environmental legislation with the Patriot Act or the war on Iraq.)

Additionally, this is not a situation for Obama and Congress to use for their own benefit in pushing through sweeping changes in our energy and environment policies. Tempting as it may be, regardless of how badly it is needed, this is not the time to upend our economy with radical changes. Yes, green jobs would be nice, but not at the radical expense of fossil fuel jobs. If the economy was in better shape to begin with, that would be something to consider.

The primary problem goes back to the time when OPEC was created. Instead of spinning our wheels without a care in the world about where we were going to get oil for all of these years, once the U.S. wasn’t calling the shots on the oil market, we should have buried ourselves in research to come up with alternatives. The writing was definitely on the wall when T. Boone Pickens started talking about a future without fossil fuels. Even he was late to that dance, though. And it isn’t about bowing down to ones like Al Gore.

“This is a consciousness-shifting event. It is one of those clarifying moment that brings a rare opportunity to take the longer view. Unless we change our present course soon, the future of human civilisation will be in dire jeopardy.” – Al Gore on the BP Oil Spill

Opportunities to take the longer view are not rare – they’re rarely taken. Yes, the future is in jeopardy, but not in the way Gore implies. We cannot continue to leave ourselves open to the whims of crazed dictators, societies that we disagree with on basically every root principle, and bluntly, any other nation in the world. It is not a matter of returning to isolationist policies. It is a matter of lessening our dependence on unstable nations – or nations we have no business trusting. At this point in time, dependence on any nation in the Middle East is folly, and instead of dabbling in their affairs as we have been with no real success, we should be focusing on removing the necessity to deal with them at all in the first place. We need to get off our dependence on oil. That is the wake-up call that this spill is giving us.