SPIROING OUT OF CONTROL

In 1968 21 billion barrels of oil were discovered in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay. They found the oil but needed to build a pipeline. Congress has passed the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) which required congress to regulate things like pipelines but provided no guidelines for doing that. There was fierce opposition to the pipeline, very similar to what we have today. Congress would probably still be arguing over this, but OPEC imposed an oil embargo on the U.S. in retaliation for the U.S. supporting Israel during the Arab-Israel war.  In an act of desperation, because we were literally running out of gas, Congress took up legislation called the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act. It passed in the House, but predictably the Senate was deadlocked. Enter Vice President Spiro Agnew, who cast the deciding vote. That’s right folks, Spiro was the hero who saved the pipeline and the day.

Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. After Joe Biden, with roaring support from liberal Democrats, cancelled the Keystone pipeline there was rejoicing, by people like Warren Buffet who owns all those rail tank cars and oil tankers. The rest of us, not so much, because we were already set to run out of gas, again. Those of you too young to remember should ask your parents or grandparents about the days of Jimmy Carter. Speed limits on interstates were limited to 55 miles per hours, Jimmy was lecturing us from the Oval office, wearing a sweater, saying we needed to use less energy. If you could find a gas station, with gas, there was a long line, and the price would probably increase three times before you got to the pump.

Trump came in and made us energy independent for the first time in decades. Gas was cheap and abundant. Something had to be done. So, Joe stopped the pipeline. Now the Colonial Pipelines is down because it has been hacked. This is no big deal, because it only delivers about 45% of fuel used on the East Coast. The DOT had to issue an emergency declaration to reduce regulations for drivers carrying gasoline and other fuel products. Some are saying that Russia is behind this, but we know that cannot be true, because they were too busy trying to help Trump beat Joe Biden in the 2020 election. No one knows how, exactly, they were doing this, but why let a good Russian conspiracy go to waste.

The Administration said not to worry, because the COVID 19 restrictions make it hard to travel anyway. So far, we do not know when service through the pipeline can be restored. This pipeline is barely 5,500 miles long and only supplies about a million gallons per day, so no big deal. One wind farm in Washington D.C., located near Democratic Senators could easily replace this amount of energy. Some would call that clean energy, but they probably haven’t listened to what is actually being said.

Meanwhile the Palestinians are fighting with Israel. The Biden administration is criticizing, Israel.

Israel calls on Biden administration to stay out of Jerusalem crisis (yahoo.com)

President Biden has thus far viewed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a very low priority in comparison to other foreign policy issues.

  • The White House was not interested in spending much political capital or time on the issue, and was seeking to avoid a fight with Israel over the Palestinian conflict.
  • But the Jerusalem crisis that erupted over the weekend prompted many members of Congress and progressive organizations to weigh in and demand that the White House intervene.

 

Israel responded by telling the Biden administration to back off.

  • Israeli officials said Ben Shabbat told Sullivan during the phone call that Israel believes the Biden administration and the rest of the international community should stay out of the crisis in Jerusalem and avoid pressing Israel.
  • Ben Shabbat told Sullivan that “international intervention is a reward to the Palestinian rioters and those who back them who were seeking international pressure on Israel,” according to an Israeli official briefed on the call,

This reminds me of a skit that used to run on Saturday Night Live, back when it was occasionally funny and worth watching. Several people, including Bill Murray, Gary Kroeger, Terry Sweeney, and Phil Hartman played Senator Ted Kennedy. At some point the actor playing Teddy Kennedy would offer to give one of the females a ride home. Since most people know about Mary Jo Kapecki. they always, wisely, said thanks but no thanks.

No sane person, other than the anchors on CNN, who are not necessarily sane, takes Joe Biden seriously. Wise people absolutely do not want or need his help trying and failing to fix things. The more he does get involved, the faster things will “Spiro” out of control. Currently Joe is working a good solid 20 minutes per day. It is frightening to think what he can fail to accomplish if he is given even more time.

TDM