Uncle Sam bans states from drilling in the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf mainly to protect the environment. Some 85% of the U.S. coastline is off-limits to energy production — including huge reserves off Florida’s coast, which China is exploiting in Cuban waters.
To change that, a lawmaker is offering a novel idea. Rep. Sue Myrick of the House Energy and Commerce panel wants to let coastal states decide whether drilling is environmentally risky. She has introduced a bill that would give coastal states that want offshore drilling the power to opt out of the Interior Department’s offshore restrictions…
But the bill faces major hurdles. Even if Myrick can get the House panel’s Democrat chair, Rep. John Dingell, to take it up, it would face stiff opposition in the Senate. Florida Sens. Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson have blocked previous attempts to lift the ban on drilling — although Martinez, a Republican, lately has shown signs of softening.
Foes have successfully cloaked their arguments against offshore drilling in eco-apocalypse, claim it will lead to oil spills. Fearing tar-ball-pocked beaches, the tourism industry has joined the greens in lobbying against such bills.
Their fears are unfounded. And politicians concerned about America’s energy security ought to do a better job educating the public with the facts. For example:
• Less than one one-thousandth of a percent (0.001%) of the 7 billion-plus barrels of oil that Washington has allowed to be produced offshore over the past 25 years has been spilled, according to the Interior Department.
• A whopping 63% of petro pollution in North American seas comes not from offshore rigs, but from natural seepage from the sea floor. Source: National Academy of Sciences.
• There hasn’t been a major oil spill from an offshore well since 1969 even though rigs since then have been lashed by Katrina and other major hurricanes.
Today’s drilling operations are safer and cleaner. Offshore operators are subject to at least 17 major permits and must follow 90 sets of federal regulations. Clean beaches can coexist with offshore production. The mammoth reserves can be captured with little risk to the environment.
In fact, the government estimates that 50% of our undiscovered oil lies offshore. It’s time to let states go after it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House announced Friday that a Pennsylvania soldier who jumped on top of a grenade in Iraq and saved the lives of his comrades will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor.
The nation’s highest military honor will be given to 19-year-old Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis of Knox, Pa., on June 2.
McGinnis “distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism,” said White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto.
He was in the gunner’s hatch of a Humvee on Dec. 4, 2006, when a grenade sailed past him and into the truck where four other soldiers sat. He shouted a warning to the others, then jumped on the grenade that was lodged near the vehicle’s radio. It blew up and killed him.
Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman, said McGinnis easily could have jumped out of the truck and saved himself.
“The instinct is, jump out of the vehicle, but his four buddies were in the vehicle with him … and he chose to place himself on top of the grenade and absorb the impact, and it saved their lives,” Edgecomb said.
McGinnis was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, in Schweinfurt, Germany.
Three others have also been awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for their actions in Iraq. They are Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor and Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham.
INDIANA — When he returned home from World War II, Hollywood icon James Stewart was featured on the cover of Life magazine in front of the Indiana County courthouse.
“In New York, Stewart refused a hero’s welcome,” the text read. “Instead, he drove to Indiana, Pa., 50 miles from Pittsburgh. There, in his parents’ comfortable red-brick home overlooking the town, he slept late, played the piano and joked with his family about the old days.”
Just plain folks. That was the Jimmy Stewart legend. It also appears to have been much of the reality.
Starting with a community church service today, Indiana will celebrate the centennial of Stewart’s birth on May 20, 1908, with events titled “100 Years of America’s Hometown Hero” scattered over the next week.
As Stewart slowly fades from popular culture — while still finding new audiences with the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” — Indiana’s 14,000 residents cling ever more proudly to a native son who seemed to embody all that was right and good about living a small-town life.
The Stewart family had deep military roots as both grandfathers had fought in the Civil War, and his father had served during both the Spanish-American War and World War I. Since Stewart considered his father to be the biggest influence on his life, it was not surprising that when another war eventually came, he too served. Unlike his family’s previous infantry service, Stewart chose to become a military flyer…
Since the United States had not entered the conflict and due to the Army’s unwillingness to put celebrities on the front, Stewart was initially held back from combat duty, although he enlisted as a private, he earned a commission as a Second Lieutenant and completed pilot training…
In August 1943 he was finally assigned to the 445th Bombardment Group in Sioux City, Iowa, first as Operations Officer of the 703rd Bombardment Squadron and then its commander. In December, the 445th Bombardment Group flew its B-24 Liberator bombers to RAF Tibenham, England and immediately began combat operations. While flying missions over Germany, Stewart was promoted to Major. In March 1944, he was transferred as group operations officer to the 453rd Bombardment Group, a new B-24 unit that had been experiencing difficulties. As a means to inspire his new group, Stewart flew as command pilot in the lead B-24 on numerous missions deep into Nazi-occupied Europe. These missions went uncounted at Stewart’s orders. His “official” total is listed as 20 and are limited to those with the 445th. In 1944, he twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions in combat and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. He also received the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters. In July 1944, after flying 20 combat missions, Stewart was made chief of staff of the 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing of the Eighth Air Force. Before the war ended, he was promoted to colonel, one of only a few Americans to rise from private to colonel in four years…
Stewart continued to play an active role in the United States Air Force Reserve after the war, achieving the rank of Brigadier General on 23 July 1959.
…
Politically, Stewart was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party. He was an active supporter of the anti-communist movement in Hollywood in the late 1940s.
“The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.” –from The Law
“The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.”
Narathiwat - Militants launched a terrorist bomb attack at an annual charity event in Narathiwat province, setting off a bomb that wounded at least 12 persons, police said.
The Sunday night attack occurred at the annual Thai Red Cross fair, held in a Narathiwat municipality park. The bomb was hidden inside a canned milk container left in a garbage can, officers said.
The 12 wounded persons were sent to hospital for treatment. One was treated and discharged; the others were kept for treatment abd observation.
The 10-day fair, which began on April 30, copntinued on Monday, but police revised security measures for visitors.
Extremists also burnt two schools in Rueso district on Sunday night, police said, and six roadside pavilions were torched by suspected insurgents.
A high voltage electricity transmission tower in Rangae district was blown into two pieces after a bomb was remotely detonated by a cell phone, causing a complete blackout in one village.
In nearby Pattani province, closed circuit television captured the images of four men wearing knitted ski-masks who stormed into an automobile showroom and burned five cars in an operation that took only three minutes to complete.
