Supporters of offshore drilling offer snake oil

The proponents of offshore testing and drilling for oil have unleashed their latest big lie and conservative-based fear factor to try, once again, to sell their “snake oil.” Now, they are using their “it’s in the national interest” ploy to promote the continuation of testing and/or drilling.

Once again, their hope is that we will buy into the protection of the nation’s security as the reason to proceed. More than 20 coastal communities have said “No.”. The proponents’ promises of jobs have come under legitimate scrutiny and the revenue streams to the state they promised have been debunked and will not happen.

So, in their latest attempt at getting us to buy more of the “snake oil,” the oil barons with support from Republican U.S. Representatives Tom Rice and Jeff Duncan and our governor are playing the national interest and security card. But, we are smarter than that.

The people have spoken. Communities up and down the coast know that the clean industry of tourism and the billions of dollars that it already generates to the economy of the state, and where thousands of jobs already provide major employment could be at great risk by another Valdez or Gulf Coast disaster.

If we, as a society, don’t learn from our mistakes nor pay attention to what has happened in the past we run the risk of repeating these kinds of disasters.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 8:10 AM with the headline "Supporters of offshore drilling offer snake oil."