Taking Oil, Subduing the Earth

In a huge victory for the Republican Party-or as I call it, the "True American's Party"-the Senate passed a bill to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The bill is sure to pass Congress, and Bush is already eagerly waiting at his desk with a silly grin and a pen for when the bill appears on his desk.

This is great news!

The United States, which represents 4% of the world's population, uses a mere 25% of the world's energy. As the world's sole superpower, we must do better in this regard. Bush's energy policy will allow us to keep our dependency on foreign oil stable, while we simultaneously increase our consumption. Brilliant! Simply brilliant!

At a recent world conference, leading industrialized countries recognized the following three things:

1. Global warming is occurring as a result of fossil fuel emissions.
2. Humans, especially those in industrialized countries, are responsible for these emissions.
3. For the sake of our children and our earth we must work together to find ways to use renewable energy resources.

But I say to those tree-hugging, European, scientist-types, "Come on, be real. If you were the most powerful country in the world, could pollute this much and get away with it, and your economy depended on continually spiraling energy usage, what would you do?"

Experts have commented that we could equal the supposed benefits of drilling in ANWR by simply keeping our tires inflated, or not having those little US flags on our vehicles. But they miss the point completely: this isn't about flying a flag on my SUV-don't ask me to be un-American-this is about my right to drive an unnecessarily large chunk of metal to show how American I am. This is about my right (and the right of other Americans) to drive the biggest, most obnoxious vehicle I can find.

Every year the US budgets $30,000,000,000 to subsidize oil. Many democrats argue that this money would be better spent researching and building an infrastructure for renewable energy sources. This plan would create a few million jobs, supposedly improve our environment, be an important step in fighting global warming, and cut our dependency on foreign oil, creating a more peaceful world.

As a strong conservative, I come back with, "yeah, well Bush is following God's command in Genesis to subdue the earth." And you ask, "What about Jesus' commandment to love your neighbor, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the prisoner . . . and how do justify Bush's plan to cut social programs and safety nets for the masses while giving money to the already wealthy, running a huge fiscal deficit to satisfy an unnecessary war machine . . ." "Well he's all for building and privatizing more prisons... so we'll have more prisoners to visit, right? . . . Who's Jesus?"

Email: justin.shenk@emu.edu