King County Executive Dow Constantine released the following statement in regard to Shell Oil's announcement that it is halting its plan to drill for oil off Alaska's shore:
"While we should all be relieved that Shell Oil decided not to drill in the Arctic, this will not be the last proposal to drill for fossil fuels in that region, posing both local and global environmental risks. Let's seize this opportunity to make King County a hub for clean-technology development and take the lead in creating a sustainable 21st-century economy."
Odd . . . "fossil fuels" are used to tar our crumbling roadways (with lousy "overlays"), fuel the various heavy construction and first responder vehicles owned by the county, power the generators that keep cell towers alive in windstorms or grocery stores open . . . Dow appears to have purposely failed to mention that economics was the driver of Shell's decision, not anything environmental. Get us back to $100 a barrel oil and that field will yield potential for Shell. So, cheaper per oil barrel pricing has us driving more and using more fossil fuels, giving the county and state more gas tax revenues but means more foreign importation which makes us dependent. Yet higher prices, which makes us more independent because of wells and fields companies like Shell exploit, help our local economy but decreases the desperately needed gas taxes the county and state needs.
ReplyDeleteOdd position to be in Dow.