I thought Entergy’s Hangover-laden presentation had the quotes of the week. But Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) just topped it.
Politico has the amazing story:
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has thought of a novel way for oil industry executives to protest her party’s attacks on their federal subsidies: Pack up your things and go elsewhere.
“I don’t think the oil executives would ever do this, but if I were one of them, I would be tempted to just shut off the spigots and go elsewhere and maybe America could run everything on solar power for the next decade or two and see what happens,” Landrieu told POLITICO.
Really, Senator, ya think Big Oil won’t turn off the spigot that enriches them?
The overwhelming majority of Democrats in the Senate don’t think taxpayers should keep engorging Big Oil’s record profits and understand “eliminating the tax breaks would slash the deficit by $21 billion over the next decade.” But for Landrieu, any talk of trying to make the most profitable industry in the country pay its fair share as the deficit is reduced — rather than, say, the middle class and poor — means the industry needs to take its ball and go home. Let those tree-huggers fend for themselves.
As the song goes, It’s hard out here for a … person shilling for Big Oil.
Finally, a quick search on CP reveals just what a flip-flop this is from the Louisiana Senator:
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Sick fish in Gulf are alarming scientists
Unusual number a ‘huge red flag’ to scientists, fishermen
“I’ve had tens of thousands of fish in my hands and not seen these symptoms in so many fish before,” said Patterson, who has been studying fish, including red snapper, for 15 years. “All those symptoms have been seen naturally before, but it’s a matter of them all coming at once that we’re concerned about.”
http://www.pnj.com/article/20110508/NEWS01/105080328/Sick-fish-Gulf-alarming-scientists
——————
ABC News reported last night that the E Coli bacteria count in the flood waters at Memphis was 2,000 times above “normal” readings.
Well… I don’t know, Ms. Landrieu, I suppose worse things could happen. Like, say, maybe an endless stream of climate and ecological disasters running through the final few generations of humankind?
Hey Senator, this ‘argh, if you don’t allow us big bad companies to screw the population then we’ll pack up and go elsewhere!’ a.k.a. ‘we are going Galt!’ charade has been going on for eons, and it’s getting really, really old.
– frank
I think Landrieu is on to something. Please, let the oil execs do exactly as she suggests. Then we can nationalize the energy sector for reasons of national security, which is a conversation we should be having anyway.
You can say anything you want about the leadership qualities of our currently seated Senators and Representatives….
Mere words can’t take you there. But it never hurts to try.
When sea level rise inundates all of Southern Louisiana it should be named the “Mary Landrieu Salt Marsh.”
Who are (currently) the smartest races in the world…
http://climatecrocks.com/2011/05/12/germany-japan-charting-non-nuclear-low-carbon-renewable-futures/
@7 Did anyone notice….its a race….
“…two of the world’s top economies have now explicitly declared themselves as front runners for leadership in the multi-trillion dollar race to become sustainably-powered societies.”
Big oil is making a boatload of cash off of the American people. The more oil they pump the more money they make. If they lose a couple of billion dollars (and that’s for only the big 5) in tax breaks it will make no difference to the bottom line. Landrieu is just spraying nonsense around at the behest of her corporate master. More disingenious twaddle by the senator of big oil.
The subsidies were provided when the price of a barrel of oil was approx $30 dollar and we all know that today the price hovers in the $100 range. Simply put, they don’t need tax payer money to explore. They are doing more exploring today and ever before and not because of subsidies. It’s the price of oil and I suspect that little Landrieu is well aware of that fact…or certainly should be.
Oil price makes Americans to pedestrians
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?ie=UTF8&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/0,1518,762240,00.html&usg=ALkJrhjNCni0F9tPj4f14CNk6X7AQfsWLQ
Not if you have electric transportation
Usually, I don’t read comments on Politico. However, this one just cracks me up:
“Making only $10 billion profit in three months is an unbearable hardship that no company should have to endure, according to Landrieu.”
Kudos, TJ!
Spigots? Spigots? Give me an effing break. Yes, dear Sen. Landrieu, let the oil corporations leave and go to the hundreds, if not thousands, of overly developed, consumer driven countries that will buy there product like the blind, deaf and mute automatons that they have here in the good ole US of A.
Spigots? In my best Amy Poehler voice: Really. Really?
As one of the most vulnerable states to global warming, you might have thought that their Senators would be worried. With natural isostatic sinking because of the immense weight of the Mississippi Delta, further sinking due to extraction of underground fluids, rising sea levels from global warming, loss of sediment to the delta from attempts to control the river, and a low topography, one might think, if you were an igrunt Librul like me, that they had more than most to lose from global warming. Oh, I forgot the already salubrious climate.
The British Labor MP, Gerald Kaufman, when he saw his own party’s 1983 loony left manifesto, described it as “the longest suicide note in history.” Kaufman was right; Mrs Thatcher cleaned their clocks thoroughly. With enemies like that, she didn’t need friends.
As I look at the Republican Party now, and their apologists in the Democratic Party like Landrieu, I think that Michael Foot’s 1983 manifesto pales into insignificance. Now we are seeing the suicide note for the whole human race, with Louisiana one of the first places in the US likely to jump off the cliff.
It took the Labor party another fourteen years to recover, but I doubt the human race will be so lucky.
I almost agree with Mary. The coal, oil and gas industry executives should just quit and go home. The industries should be nationalized and put on a diet till they die. Production should be reduced by 6% per year every year for at least 35 years in a row. That should provide the renewable energy industry with an appropriate level of demand for its services.
Where is my head vice?
Actually I need a head vise!
My head vice is my addiction to this blog.
From Reuters:
REFINERIES AT RISK FROM FLOODS (in bpd)
*Alon USA Energy (ALJ.N) Krotz Springs, Louisiana : 80,000
*Chalmette Refining (XOM.N) Chalmette, Louisiana: 192,500
*ConocoPhillips (COP.N) Belle Chasse, Louisiana: 247,000
*Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 504,500
*Marathon Oil Corp (MRO.N) Garyville, Louisiana: 436,000
*Motiva Enterprises (RDSa.L) Convent, Louisiana: 235,000
*Motiva Enterprises (RDSa.L) Norco, Louisiana: 234,700
*Murphy Oil Corp (MUR.N) Meraux, Louisiana: 120,000
*Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) Memphis, Tennessee: 180,000
*Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) St. Charles. Louisiana 185,000
NUCLEAR FACILITIES AT RISK FROM FLOODS
* Entergy’s (ETR.N) 1,176-megawatt Waterford nuclear plant in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana.
* Entergy’s 978-megawatt River Bend nuclear plant in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.
* Entergy’s 1,268-megawatt Grand Gulf nuclear station in Clairborne County, Mississippi
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/usa-flooding-refineries-idUSN1225203320110512
This old ploy is so transparent that her internal organs are showing. Obviously this is to spook the American citizen/driver into imagining lonnnnnng gas lines and shortages and double/triple priced gas. And when that image is pounded into our heads over a few days and weeks, we’ll “willingly” let the Grand Oil Party keep their tax subsidies and regret we ever suggested their giving them up. At least try not to be so obvious, Senator.
Landrieu seems to me fit to be judged ‘Sycophant of the Week’, only the high probability is that he sees his actions as simply ‘services rendered’ unto Caesar. What the plutocrats and their lackeys seem to forget, in the ecstasies of their self-adoration, is that they produce almost nothing. Not one drop of oil, not one puff of gas. No, that is the product of working people, the poor stiffs blown to bits if something goes awry, or poisoned by toxins when they clean up the mess. Of course they use technology, but it too was built by workers, and invented by technological and scientific workers. Even the capital that the parasites utilise to pay for these wonders, was created by past generations of workers exploiting the natural resources that ought, in my opinion at least, be the common wealth of humanity, not a tiny claque of foot-pads in suits. All those blackguards really produce is the bodily waste they excrete after they have digested their caviar, champagne and haute cuisine.