What President Obama Should Say About the BP Oil Catastrophe Tonight

This oil spill is a greed made catastrophe due to one corporation cutting corners and costs to make the biggest profit they could out of an experimental drilling effort. This along with the complete corruption of the MMS under the Republicans produced a perfect storm of ignorance and stupidity on the part of all voting Americans that put two Texas cowboy oilmen into the White House for eight years! There is pretty much nothing anybody can do about this now because it involves forces beyond our capabilities to handle at the moment. The president must show that new science is coming out of this and that new engineering will follow the science. Here’s what he should propose as actions to take:

(1) Maintain the moratorium of deep ocean drilling until the U.S. puts in place an agency that can inspect and direct the operations of all oil companies working in U.S. waters at all times. Further, this agency must generate and maintain a technical team to operate and evolve technologies to control spills.

(2) The U.S. must go solar in a major way and to do this we should (a) place a major tax on oil use and production and profits, (b) cover every mall parking lot and every mall roof in this country with solar cells which will produce shade for mall patrons at the same time it produces power for use, (c) build a national government controlled solar power grid to replace the early 20th century power grid that companies like Enron use as their private piggy banks, and (d) force the auto industry into making the most efficient hybrids possible with today’s technology.

(3) Completely bar any possibility of drilling in the arctic wildlife refuges forever.

(4) Maintain a moratorium on all nuclear power activities until the U.S. has an agency that can inspect and direct the operations of all nuclear power companies working in U.S. at all times. Further, this agency must generate and maintain a technical team to operate and evolve technologies to nuclear waste spills.

This will be a good start to move us into a rational energy use culture for the future.