Month 5, Day 4: Schwarzenegger is Now Opposed To Offshore Drilling. Mr. President?

Okay, I’ll send another letter to the President. Why not?

Dear President Obama — It is becoming clearer by the day that offshore drilling for oil is too high-risk an activity. The idea that fossil fuels are inherently cheaper than renewable energy sources is now as obsolete as the phlogiston theory of combustion. Oil and coal are only cheap if we don’t count the enormous costs of cleanup, public health effects, and environmental/climatic impacts (not to mention all those expensive wars we wage to protect our oil sources). Renewables are only expensive if we don’t count the value inherent in an unspoiled environment, in benign climatic effects, and no longer spending billions of dollars every year propping up the big oil companies.

As the Deepwater Horizon disaster shows us, we can no longer afford the potential negative impacts of offshore drilling. This catastrophe makes it crystal clear what was obvious to some of us quite some time ago: there is no room at the negotiating table for Big Oil, for they have abdicated their responsibilities to the citizens of the USA, and of the world.

Please reinstate the ban on offshore drilling immediately.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders