First, a brag - I have apparently been accepted to the University of Houston School of Law. This is good news for me, although it apparently means they haven't read have the stupid stuff I've posted on KOS. (wink nod).
I am especially excited about this because there are two areas of law and policy I really want to be an expert on.
The first is election law. No more Floridas! Although I'm not really sure what options there are for that at UH.
The second is mineral rights, which is something that I hold near and dear to my heart, and not just because I had a crush on the Geology 101 TA for, like, half the semester. (UH has both environmental law and energy law programs).
Mineral rights, in Texas anyway, generally means one of two things - oil, or water.
Now, oil is incredibly important stuff. As I told my grandmother recently, there may be nothing more exciting on planet Earth than oil and natural gas.
I guess growing up where I did - just a few exits down Interstate 45 from some of the most important oil refineries in the country; just a couple dozen miles from one of the storage pits for the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve - that oil is something that one develops a love-hate relationship towards.
As a kid, I used to enjoy reading the reports on how many new oil platforms were being set up offshore. When the number of offshore wells went up, I thought fondly of all the new jobs and money my neighbors (and many friends' parents) were going to be getting. Even today I get excited thinking about all the progress oil and natural gas exploration (and refining) is bringing to southeast Texas.
It makes me proud to be from "southside, Houston Texas" every time I see a super-tanker pull in to port in Texas City, or a new platform pull out of port in Galveston.
I think it's so fascinating, I'm even working on writing a movie-script about wild-catters in the 1930s.
At the same time, though, I got "tarred" multiple times going to the beach when I was a kid, and I still see some wash up every now and then. I get to breathe in all the lovely exhaust refineries put off. I get to be on the front-lines everytime an oil slick kills half the fish in Galveston Bay. I get to see all the environmental destruction that's being done. If that's the price of progress, it is a very, very steep price to pay.
One of the biggest reasons why I decided I wasn't going to vote Republican any more was when I was helping out on Bush's 1998 gubernatorial campaign, and the local Republican activists were whining about restrictions on offshore production.
Now, while I was one of the Kerry-bashing heathen for quite some time, I ended up voting for John Kerry when I voted early yesterday. In part I voted for Kerry because, as a rule, I never vote for anyone who has dropped out of the race. With Kerry being only a few delegates shy of a straight-out majority, I felt I would be a real jerk to deny the man my vote.
We need to get this nomination over with so we can beat Bush.
At the same time, though, I admire John Kerry's enthusiasm for reigning in the excesses of the oil industry (e.g. ANWR) and for calling for an "Apollo Program" to move towards a post-petroleum economy.
Honestly, what's going to do more for America - an "Apollo Program" to find new sources of energy on Earth (Kerry's plan), or an "Apollo Program" to search for, I don't know, weapons of mass destruction on Mars (Bush's plan)?
It hurts to say it, but the oil that we've got is not going to last. We might have 50 years, or a 100. But some time before I die, I heavily suspect that the tap is going to be permanently turned off.
No more oil means no more jobs. And not just for us Texans -- it means no more jobs for every civilized country on the planet.
Unless we act now to do everything we can to look into bio-fuels and other renewables.
So anyway, I suppose since we're all Kerry-nesians now, I'm supporting John Kerry because of Juice, Jobs, and Justice.
Juice, because I trust him to lead the country in search of new sources of energy.
(And of course, that means Jobs.)
And Justice, because any Democrat is going to be better than Bush when it comes to keeping America safe and free.
George W. Bush is leading southeast Texas on a road to nowhere. Only by voting Democratic can we ensure the long-term economic security of our region, and our country.