Some videos simply need to be seen to be believed.
Yes, on the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OIL), said oil and gas are pollution free:
People complain that we are buying “” importing from the Middle East “” oil and gas. And then they find out that we have it all right here. We don’t have to do that. If their argument there is “Well, we don’t want to use oil and gas because we think it pollutes” “” which it doesn’t “” but if that’s their argument, then why are we willing to import it from Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East?
Just for the record, the Natural Resources Defense Council wrote in a 2008 report:
Oil and gas drilling operations can release a number of hazardous pollutants, including hydrogen sulfide, benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, and diesel exhaust. Exposure is known to lead to short-term illnesses, cancer, or even death. For example, benzene and formaldehyde are both known to cause cancer, and diesel exhaust contains a number of compounds known to cause cancer. Emissions can come from oil and gas itself, chemical additives used in drilling, or fuel combustion.
And Think Progress further notes the obvious:
Of course there are also oil spills; big oil spills put approximately 37 million gallons of oil into the world’s oceans each year. Several hundred million more gallons wind up in the waterways through other means, such as air pollution.
For Inhofe, it’s not enough to absurdly assert that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” Now it turns out pollution of all kind is a hoax. What’s next — coal is actually clean?