[The Manila Times, The Philippines]

 

 

El Tiempo, Colombia

Insults, Irony and Energy: Populism American Style

 

"While the scandalous part is the repeated changes in the positions and posturing of the two candidates, what is most regrettable is the populist spirit of their electoral proposals. … neither candidate nor the Congress are acting to find a responsible way of resolving the energy crisis being experienced by the country."

 

By Sergio Muñoz Bata

                                      

 

Translated By Barbara Howe

 

August 5, 2008

 

Colombia - El Tiempo - Original Article (Spanish)

Between insulting statements and condemnations that border on slander, recent electoral activity by the U.S. presidential candidates has focused on their proposals for energy policy. And while the scandalous part is the repeated changes in positions and posturing of the two candidates, what is most regrettable is the populist spirit of their electoral proposals.

 

This Monday, for example, Barack Obama surprised the public by contradicting his earlier statements that he favors resorting to oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves to try and lower gas prices. 

 

 

And that wasn't the only occasion in which Obama changed his cloak. Last week he announced that he now supports the limited extraction of oil in areas along the U.S. coast until now preserved from exploitation. Until this latest amendment, Obama had opposed this type of oil extraction, arguing that coastal drilling entails a risk to the environment so great that the nation could not allow it.

 

McCain, meanwhile, has not distinguished himself by his consistency. The Arizona senator has also had radical change in his stance on the subject of increasing coastal drilling. In fact during the primary elections of 2000 when he competed for the Republican nomination against George W. Bush, McCain transformed himself into the best advocate of the environmental cause, emphasizing that that the existing ban on coastal drilling should be extended.

 

In recent weeks, however, McCain has taken up the desperate cause of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, in a very visible campaign to discredit Congress and require it to permit oil exploration off the coast. The brazen political tint of the Republican campaign leaves no room for retreat. What's at issue is an attempt to expose the Democratic majority in both houses of Congress as a gang that is irresponsible and insensitive to the suffering of captive gasoline consumers.

 

Obama is correct when he says that it won't be easy for the next President to resolve the enormous challenge of reforming the nation's energy policies, “given the financial disaster that we will inherit from the current administration.”  

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

The irritating thing, however, is that neither candidate nor the Congress are acting to find a responsible way of resolving the energy crisis being experienced by the country. Both candidates know perfectly well that tapping the nation's petroleum reserve won't solve the problem. With regard to coastal drilling and the oil industry, they also know that four fifths of the existing oil reserves along the coast are already open, and that drilling in areas protected by the moratorium would only marginally effect gas prices, if at all, in no less than 15 years.

 

Unfortunately, they are also fully aware of surveys which show that the presidential race becoming increasingly competitive and that the energy issue is vitally important to the citizenry. In addition, the high price of gasoline affects the cost of transporting people and food, which hits voters hard in the wallet. This is how political opportunism prevents them from seeking an integrated approach to the energy problem.

 

Meanwhile, aside from the irony of their proposals, leaders of both parties in the Senate have agreed to meet in that serpentine monument to energy waste known as Las Vegas to discuss a new energy plan for the nation.

 

CLICK HERE FOR SPANISH VERSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US August 15, 9:50pm]