Print Edition: September 6, 2008
JIM NEFF
OIL EXPORTS, TOXIC CLOUDS, AND THE LIONS
Outta the Zone…The politicians keep debating whether to end the Congressional moratorium on offshore drilling and open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. But here’s a question I’d like to ask: If we need to drill for more oil within the borders of our country why are we exporting 1.8 million barrels of it every day? You heard me – EXPORTING!
In fact, as of August this country was on a record pace for exporting oil. The amount we export constitutes 10% of our daily consumption. The Department of Energy estimates that if we reach peak production of offshore drilling in 2030 it would produce 200,000 barrels per day. What we now export is nine times that amount. And, even if ANWR is opened up for drilling by the time we see one drop pumped we will have exported 40% of the total amount of oil we can expect to extract from ANWR.
Now, I’ve never been accused of being a pointy-headed intellectual, but even I can see that if we stopped exporting the domestic oil we already have and use it in this country we could stop importing that same amount from our buddies at OPEC. We’re already "drilling here and drilling now," What we need to do is stop "exporting now." As a bonus we won’t have to wait a decade for ANWR production to kick in.
…Speaking of imports and exports, the United States is at least importing something from our pals in China – brown clouds of toxic pollution. Tracking by satellites shows these clouds dumping 10 billion pounds of pollutants on places like Oregon and Washington. Included in the toxic cocktail are mercury, soot, and carbon dioxide. Things won’t get better any time soon either because China has warned that pollution in their country could quadruple in the next 15 years. So here’s the cycle: American jobs are exported over to China so corporate bigwigs can rake in the dough and then Chinese pollution is imported to kill off the American workers who are of no use because they’re jobless anyway. How’s that outsourcing working for you now?
…With all the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands the auto executives are doing these days you would think the American auto companies would be spending every ounce of their energy and limited resources to produce cars that would sell to vast numbers of customers. You’d be wrong. The geniuses at GM are wasting their time on the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, a car that has a 638 horsepower V-8 engine, tops out at 205 miles per hour, and costs a mere $105,000. Last quarter GM lost $15.5 billion. They plan to build 7 ZR1’s per day. Gee, that ought to turn things around for GM.
…School started this week for districts across the state. Be glad you live in northern Michigan and not in Flint. According to the Flint Journal, in August, the Flint Board of Education hired four convicted felons to work in its schools. That goes with the other nine convicted felons they’ve hired since May – 13 convicted felons in all. The latest census rankings have Flint as the third most dangerous city in the entire country. We’ll at least the students are paying attention to the role models the Flint schools provide.
...Finally, the NFL football season begins this week and that means our annual migraine headache, the Detroit Lions, will be inflicted upon us for the next 16 Sundays. I know the Lions went 4-0 in the fake games known as the NFL pre-season; that’s where guys who will never make your team play guys who will never make your opponent’s team. I also know that the Lions have touted the fact that they are going to strike fear into their rivals by running the football for a zillion yards per game.
Here’s what I really know, however. The architect of the Lions’ new running game, the mastermind behind it, is new offensive coordinator Jim Colletto. This is the same Jim Colletto who was 20-40-3 as Purdue’s head coach and was fired because his offense was unimaginative and predictable. He then was hired by Bob Davie at Notre Dame as the offensive coordinator and eventually Davie was fired because the ND offense was unimaginative and predictable. UCLA’s Karl Dorrell then hired Colletto and it wasn’t long before Dorrell was canned because (you guessed it) his offense was unimaginative and predictable. Do you see a trend here?
All that said, I’ll still be watching the Lions every Sunday, just like the rest of you poor saps. At least some good will come of this. There are thousands of workers in aspirin tablet factories who thank the Lord each day for Lions fans.
Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.
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