Salt In the Wound

Where can I get some of these state of the art Wind Turbines? England, of course! While BP was busy drilling off our shores, and might I add, screwing it up, they were building a Wind Farm!

While we handed out billions in incentives to lure foreign companies to drill off shore here in the United States, the English and the Dutch have been quietly embracing the future, while taking some of our cash.

These wind driven turbines are at the mouth of the Thames River in England. There are 100 units which went into operation yesterday, and can supply electricity for 200,000 homes. That's 2,000 homes per unit. They are set 7 miles offshore and occupy an area of 22 square miles. The total cost to build the Wind Farm was $1.4 billion. It will take more than 20 times that amount to clean up the mess that British Petroleum created while drilling 1 mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. By comparison, the Wind Farm pictured here is anchored in waters that are about 80 feet in depth.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, with most mysteries revealed. But while we are looking backward, it would seem prudent to ask why the British, and the Dutch, have been looking forward without us? Was it the lack of regulation on our part? Or was it the desire to take advantage of the loopholes that we ourselves left in the regulations concerning the drilling? I don't have the answers, but I do have to wonder - with friends like these, who needs enemies? And while it would be easiest to lay the blame at their feet, I have to remember Pogo and his assertation that, "We have met the enemy - and he is us!"

A Rare Editorial

I try hard to keep this blog politics free. I have often referred to it as an "oasis" in a cyber world of turmoil and misinformation. But this morning I read something that made me angry enough to take the rare step of writing an editorial.

This weekend President Obama will meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron in an effort to get President Obama to "tone down" his criticism of BP, the British oil company that owns and operates the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The meeting comes amid reports that the extent of this disaster has driven down the stock prices of BP and is affecting thousands of retirees who own that stock. With President Obama about to demand billions more to pay for the cleanup, there is a fear that BP could become the target of a "takeover." And that would not bode well for Britain.

My belief is that BP should pay for every cent of the cleanup. If the Queen needs to sell her Rolls and the Crown Jewels, as well as a couple of palaces, that's just too bad.

The fact that this meeting will take place over the weekend is also troublesome. Rather than take her case to the American people, who are, for the most part a compassionate group, Britain's Prime Minister Cameron has chosen to sneak in for a meeting with the President in an apparent attempt to sidestep Britain's fiduciary responsibility to the American people. If the Crown is so concerned about the loss of the retiree's income, then she would be better served by helping the British victims of BP's greed by further forcing BP to make up for those losses. It should be noted that, at this time, BP claims to have "strong finances" to weather the storm.

Let us all hope that President Obama will stick to his guns on this issue and tell Prime Minister Cameron to head to the nearest pawn shop with the Queen's crown.