George W. Bush likes to be thought of as an oilman. So does Dick Cheney. They aren't. As we say out west, putting a hat on a jackass doesn't make him a cowboy. George W. Bush's Arbusto Energy went broke looking for oil in the Permian Basin (sort of like looking for sand in the Mojave) and Dick Cheney's position at Halliburton was nothing more than a front for funneling political connections into cash.
My granny was twice the oil man as either of these lumpkin.
This is an important thing to understand. A real oilman knows that any given well has a limited lifetime. Once the oil is gone; it's gone. They don't want to pump a hole dry and move on - they want to manage their business for the benefit of the entire society. They understand that high energy prices hurt working families and that, in turn, cuts demand for their product and kills their own business. In short, there's no better friend to the environment than someone who knows his life depends on that environment.
So I give you Harry Teague for Congress. Harry started off working as a laborer in the oilfields - a position sometimes referred to as a "worm". He worked his way up the rig and now owns his own oilfield services company. So he must want us to drill a hole in any lump of ground that doesn't move, right?
Wrong!
Take a look at Harry's statement on energy policy:
In 2007, Congress took a major step forward toward energy independence and reducing harmful carbon emissions, but was eventually stopped from accomplishing two critical pieces; investing in alterative energy and requiring utilities to produce renewable energy. Both of these pieces will create new jobs in New Mexico and help New Mexico become a net exporter of clean electricity generated from solar, wind and biomass.
Yeah, there's an oilman saying that the problem with our energy policy is that it doesn't invest in alternative energy and that there is no clean energy requirement. That's an oilman saying that we need to shrug off the oil economy and move on to something that's sustainable.
Harry knows that clean energy won't cost jobs in New Mexico - it will create them. Southeastern New Mexico has some of the most economically feasible (pdf) sites for air turbines. Yet most of the wind projects in New Mexico have been sighted in Northern New Mexico.
And you want to talk solar? New Mexico boasts over 300 days of sun per year - and no place in the state gets more sun than the southern half of the state.
So what is Harry's opponent's plan for our energy addiction?
On the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Tinsley said he thinks that agency is largely over regulating business including the oil industry.
"Three dollars and fifty cents a gallon is not the fault of the domestic oil companies," he said. "The EPA is holding our way of life hostage."
Yes, folks, Republican automaton Ed Tinsley believes that the reason we have high gas prices at the pump is that the EPA is "holding our way of life hostage". You just have to wonder which EPA building is big enough to hold an entire way of life at gunpoint. Those damn EPA terrorists!
To be serious - our next Congress is going to have the responsibility of putting into legislative language the vision for the future that moves us away from dependence on petroleum. Most of that work is going to happen in the Congressional Committees that deal with energy policy - and the Representative from NM-02 is almost guaranteed to be on that policy in the House. Which voice do you want - one that will filibuster to castrate the EPA?
Or do you want the voice of an oilman? Please, give to Harry Teague.