I'm watching CNN just laughing at the concept Republican's are pushing - that climate legislation should be kept separate from the oil spill.
WTF? WTF? WTF? Really? How stupid are Republicans to think that the oil disaster in the Gulf has no relation to the need for climate change legislation? WTF?
Anyway - as you can probably tell - I disagree with Republicans. The Gulf Oil Disaster - if anything - is proof that we need a new solution for our energy needs.
Let's talk ...
There is an economic issue that perhaps does need to be factored in - we are trying to climb out of a recession. And there are a lot of people who work in the Gulf oil industry that could be economically hurt by a moratorium on deep sea drilling.
OK. That's true. But as with any recovery plan - we need to look at the long term perspective. And there is a way to rapidly ameliorate some of the economic harm to middle class gulf oil workers: An Emergency Gulf Wind and Solar Stimulus.
We need this new stimulus now.
This is both an economic and political issue.
How would an emergency gulf stimulus work
A few simple things:
- All lost wage compensation should be paid for by the government - immediately as a form of unemployment benefits. This is for speed as well as accounting accuracy purposes.
- BP must then reimburse the government for lost wage compensation.
- What about the oil workers? Free training on land/sea wind power installation (on top of unemployment benefits - that'll stem some complaining) Oh, and out-of-work fishing/shrimping workers should also be allowed to get the free training too.
- Oh, and BP should pay for the lost wages of out-of-work oil, fishing, and tourism workers.
- Emergency appropriations and approval for utility-scale wind and solar projects in the gulf region - with hiring preference given to local displaced oil, fishing, and tourism workers.
I just wanted to whip out some of my quick thoughts. How about you? Any thoughts?