The Great Dog Fight

It is now well over a month after the BP-Halliburton disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and oil is still spewing into the water. We have learned that these companies are very good at finding oil, drilling for it, and making obscene amounts of money for their investors (full disclosure: I buy shares in index mutual funds every month,so I am sure that somewhere in my portfolio there are energy company shares). This disaster reminds us of a story about the waning days of the Bush Administration, when it was learned that the MMS was literally in bed with the oil industry, trading sexual favors for lax regulations. Unregulated capitalism might mean more profits for the shareholders, but is that socially responsible? Of course not.

And speaking of the Bush Administration, who can forget Dick Cheney's secret meeting with oil executives at the beginning of the Bush years? We now reap whatever they sowed.

What a month it has been. New phrases have entered the public lexicon: "top kill" being my new favorite. The right wing has tried to equate the great leak in the Gulf as "Obama's Katrina". Meanwhile, a libertarian-Tea Party senatorial candidate from the old Confederacy has scolded the President for being too tough on BP. The President has been curiously detached, although lately there have been some high-profile firings of "regulators". Each day, it seems, we are treated to new revelations about the un-holy alliance between Big Oil and Big Government.

But the American people bear some responsibility here as well. We like to drive our cars and heat and air-condition our homes. We have made NO HARD CHOICES regarding energy and climate change, and we allow the right-wing to dominate the conversation, convincing a nation that it is UN-AMERICAN to do anything other than continue our unsustainable ways.

So, as a progressive capitalist, I have a dog in this fight:I want my investments to be profitable. As an environmentalist I have another dog in there as well: I want a clean planet. As a teacher of American Government and Politics I guess I have a third dog in: I want a fair debate about policy.