Well,
I am going to post my very first time on my blog. I have been thinking a lot about the up coming election in the US. To any of my friends and family it is no surprise that my support is for Obama. I worked for him here in my state of Pa. There are a lot of subjects that will be discussed this summer and fall heading into November. One of them is about of course oil..oil...oil! Gees, over 4 bucks a gallon and I am lucky enough to have access to NJ where they have the cheapest gas in the country...so at 3.85 a gal...I think I am getting a deal?! So, what is the answer? My brother who is a conservative republican...has asked me to engage in a little conversation about this with him sometime soon. To drill or not to drill? We enjoy doing this from time to time. We very much enjoy discussing political issues as we are usually on oposite sides of the issue. It's a wonderful relationship...my brother is a good man and I respect him deeply. We disagree on just about everything...but the fact that we love and respect each other. He is very busy with 2 businesses and 7 children...so he and I try and catch a conversation a couple of times a month in our vehicles...via cell phone. I love the fact that he hits me up for the current events and debates...being that I am single with the ablility to devote 5 hours a night to msnbc...LOL. I really love the idea that he knows he can trust me...that I wouldn't ever sway the events in the news...that I am very capable of seeing both sides of the issue...I may not agreee with the other side but I understand and respect their view. I will be posting a lot of information about all of the political issues over these next few months as it is obviously current to all our lives. But, for tonight I am trying to do some research about the drilling issue. It seems that the problem is that gas prices are astronomical and then what to do? Well in keeping with the idea of this blog what would be the most peaceful way to resolve the problem? I understand that drilling for oil is an option...that comes with risk of real damage to the enviroment if there were to be a spill. But what I didn't know is that we would not get that oil for years to come even if we were to start the process today. I also understand that the amount of oil that is estimated to be off the shore of Alaska is enough to meet the US needs for about 2 years. Needless to say this is not a quick fix to our problem...and we obviously need to weigh the risk against the outcome for that limited amount of oil. So where does that leave us? If the soonest we could get any relief would be years, what other options that would take the same amount of time be? If we raised gas emissions standards to 40mgp we would no longer be dependent at all on foreign oil. Is that doable? How about other energy sources for all of our enegry needs...what about say nuclear? Solar? wind? are these options viable? Is it possible that we could pursue in the same amount of time a solution to our problem that not only is peaceful and friendly to the earth we have to live on but also frees us from the chain and ball to oil that we currently have in this country? Is it possible that it could be a win win solution? I will keep pursuing that idea.