Romney Energy Plan Includes Drilling ‘Virtually Every Part’ Of U.S., Even National Parks

[SunsetDreams]

But this morning’s Washington Post sheds more light on Romney’s energy plan, including the fact that he would open up “virtually every part of U.S. lands and waters” to drilling regardless of whether they are national parks, national monuments, or protected in some other way. As the Post reports:

Asked whether any place would be off limits for oil drilling, campaign spokesman Andrea Saul said, “Governor Romney will permit drilling wherever it can be done safely, taking into account local concerns.”

Current law sets some public lands and waters off limits to drilling, including national parks, national monuments, and wilderness areas. These places are protected for other uses like hunting, fishing, sightseeing, and recreation.

Presumably, if there was oil and gas found there, Romney would allow drilling in places like the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, and Isle Royale National Park in the Great Lakes, regardless of its impacts on them. In essence, he would take lands that belong to all Americans and turn them over to oil companies.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/09/496886/romney-energy-plan-includes-drilling-virtually-every-part-of-us-with-no-protections-even-for-national-parks/


Romney oil adviser also a big super PAC donor

Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm didn't wait long to make a nearly $1 million donation to a group supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney after he became one of Romney's top energy advisers in March. Just weeks after Hamm joined the Romney campaign, he gave $985,000 to a pro-Romney super PAC, according to campaign reports.

Hamm's company, Continental Resources Inc., oversees oilfield stakes in North Dakota and Montana, and Hamm has been disdainful of President Barack Obama's energy policies. On his personal website, Hamm complained that Obama and his administration "have done everything in their power to stop fossil fuel usage."

Hamm, whose company did not return telephone calls from The Associated Press, is among a group of energy tycoons who have made lucrative donations to Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting Romney. Unlike the others, Hamm has matched his contributions with his role personally advising Romney on energy policy - blurring the line between the campaign and the super PACs that support them but are legally barred from coordinating with candidates.

"Given the idea that super PACs were supposed to be independent, it seems odd when you've got someone working for the campaign who turns around and gives large contributions to the independent group," said Lawrence Noble, a Washington attorney and former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission. "That's not what most people's idea of what independent is."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2018264324_apusromneyoildonor.html

Mitt Romney bows at the Oil Company altar

[patrice]

1. They're robbing us blind of our labor-capital which they are going to off-planet ASAP. nt

[KansDem]

2. I'm not an economist, but I understand wealth comes from labor and resources

Our labor is being destroyed and now our resources are threatened.

These folks operate like leeches on speed...

[patrice]

7. Agreed. My reference to labor-capitol is something I was thinking about from Adam Smith's

The Wealth of Nations, a CONSERVATIVE bible of economics published in 1776, I believe.

I'm not an economist either, but I like to read.

The first thing Smith does is to lay down the definition of *R*E*A*L* Value, as opposed to what could be called DERIVATIVE value, I suppose. He says LABOR is the Real Value without which there can be no economy. He then goes to describe how all other "values" are built on top of LABOR.

This got me to thinking about how uncommon it is to see work that way in the U.S.A. and how we need to start talking about work/labor, describing and identifying it according to the value that it produces so that we can say what it is "worth". That about what other values Real Value/Labor produces (and my own work experiences) made me think of how we INVEST our work with the expectation that it will produce a benefit/profit of somekind, so work is a form of capital, i.e. Labor-capital. And it is the economic DUTY of Labor-Capitalists, like all good little capitalists, to invest their REAL VALUE (Labor) in ways in which it IS protected by appropriate profits/benefits ("duty" because it's for the HEALTH of the whole capitalistic economic system), of which MONEY is not necessarily one (i.e. not an appropriate profit on my labor-capital), because money is a BAD economic value-deal since it is a PRIVATE, and hence arbitrary, commodity comprised of 0s and 1s processed in privately designed custom-made accounting processes, by privately owned computers, within layers and layers of PRIVATE economic enterprises, many of which include FOREIGN economics that ARE anathema to MY/OUR benefits/profits. Which problems lead to the idea that the surest investment for Real Value/Labor-Capital is Labor-Capital in exchange for Labor-Capital, Socialism, in which the means of producing value are owned and controlled by those who produce Real Value/Labor-Capital.

[patrice]

8. Links:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Wealth_of_Nations.html?id=LfZYW5hI5rsC

[pintobean]

3. He's got my vote

for dick-head of the year.

[ThomThom]

4. we need to get a fair price for our national resources if we sell it

Why do we subsidize big oil again?

[KamaAina]

5. How about right next to the car elevator?

[Life Long Dem]

6. I'm not seeing any difference in Romney over Bush