Hurray for High Prices?

          On Wednesday President Obama released statements pertaining to the current oil crisis and showing his sway towards more renewable energy. His plan of action is to cut America's imports of oil from other countries by a third by the year 2025. Many republicans feel that he should be addressing the rising oil prices head on rather than planning for the future and not showing immediate results. The thought that he is ignoring the rise in oil prices as a way of gaining America’s support for alternative fuel sources has been brought up, but seems borderline conspiracy theory in my opinion. Americans seem to be growing more paranoid and skeptical of the government’s intentions and while, I myself do often question the reliability of the government, I also think that in this situation Obama is simply thinking in a way that many other countries have began to follow through on. The search for reliable and affordable alternative fuel sources could have been up and moving decades ago, but America’s heavy dependency on oil and the oil companies dependency on American’s support has crippled the evolution towards a more sustainable future. The Texas economy was once built on the discovery of oil, which in moderation would have been all right, but instead resources were exploited. It seems that Obama is the first president to truly address this issue in a forward thinking way, particularly with the crisis in the middle east going on, and the fights for oil that seem to spring up in new locations yearly. With higher fuel efficiency standards being set at the end of this year, and the country becoming more self sufficient, I think that we are on our way to a much more environmentally conscious and affordable standard of living. Because Obama has chosen to make such a controversial stand I wonder what his next move will be. Energy and oil are two very important issues in an ocean of even larger dependencies we as a society hold under our belt. This positive change could possible cause enough outrage and support that all things be reconsidered down to the very standard of living in an average American’s daily life. People are ready for a self sufficient, renewable future, some just don’t know it yet.       

A Case Reopened

This article from the New York Times addresses the reopening of a case once closed in 1992. The case is regarding the Exxon Valdez, now Exxon mobile, 1989 spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The case was originally settled in 1992 and the company paid around one hundred million dollars for the damage, but the rocks still seem to be coated in oil and certain fish still remain absent from the waters. Rick Steiner, a marine biologist, is responsible for bringing the case back to public attention. On January 14^th the case was finally reopened by a judge leaving Exxon to challenge the reopening by stating, “the Prince William Sound and the oil spill area are in good ecological shape.” This article, unlike most in current news, shines a positive light on the efforts to restore the damage done to our ecosystem, while providing hope in the government for taking necessary action.