Bush Allows Oil Drilling On Pristine Texas Beach

Independent (UK) ^ | 11-23-2002 | David Usborne

[blam]

The article says these will be gas wells. I wonder why they used oil in the title.<>

[My2Cents]

Good catch! As in "natural gas"? Nothing could be cleaner.

[Shermy]

Is this the same story about the island that only had two turtles?

[isthisnickcool]

Padres has about the cleanest beach in Texas. If Texas indeed has any clean beaches.

I recall going down there shortly after getting out of high school. I remember a couple of girls in the surf buck naked who apparently had little prior experience with some kind of drug. Quayludes (sp?) or mushrooms I thought at the time.

Anyway, they ought to check the beach for young nekkid women. If they don't find any they might as drill something. Gas wells will do.......

[muleskinner]

"The beach at Padre Island is starting to look more like a highway than a National Park," said Fred Richardson, communications director of the Texas chapter of the Sierra Club, a green lobby group.

Heck, it looked like a highway 20 years ago. Padre Island is way over-rated, like most things in Texas.(Uh-oh)I said "most". G.W., Texas women and Texas Freepers excepted.

[Shermy]

I checked, it is...

Sierra Club sues Interior Department to stop Padre Island drilling

"....Ken McMullen, chief of science and resources management at the Padre Island National Seashore, said he could not comment on the lawsuit but said the park service determined drilling would have a minimal impact on the sea turtle.

"It was our finding, and that of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, that based on the number of sea turtles we get and the methods we use to protect the species, we don't see an adverse impact," McMullen said.

'At a legal standstill'

In the last 20 years, 11 nests were the most nests found in any one year, McMullen said. Last year, there were two or three nests.

Park service volunteers drive along the beach 10 hours every day, looking for turtles, McMullen said. Also, big rig drivers must drive at a slow speed - 15mph - with a trained escort in a lead vehicle looking out for nesting turtles, McMullen said...."

[RightWhale]

the longest stretch of undeveloped beach in the US

Those in Alaska are used to this kind of statement. It doesn't matter that Alaska has coastline, too, a lot of it, and almost all is undeveloped.

There aren't just 48 States anymore, but who would expect the average American to know that thanks to our public ed system.

[umgud]

Lets put this in perspective. We can't drill a few oil or gas wells on a beach, but we can have oil tankers all over the oceans that are just full of endangered species.

[muir_redwoods]

Good, we have plenty of beaches and really need the fuel. Now, on to ANWR!!

[JSteff]

Isn't it just amazing that the Sierra Club and others never hold press conferences about the EXPLOSION of life that has been caused by the off shore oil and gas rigs. They are veritable hot beds of sea life!

I saw a marine biologist on T.V. who was saying how much life they brought to regions of the ocean where these running and decommissioned rigs are. They are some sort of super reefs. Man made, like the sunken wrecks that become reefs, and enabling life where it was not possible before. Humm.....

Everything man made is NOT bad for the environment you enviro-weenies. Go get real jobs where you produce something for a living instead of sucking off the liberal donations trough.

[txhurl]

OK, so maybe you get to live another day, hedgeboy.

Today media blasts new oil drilling in Alaska, too.

The free market says it's time to drill our own freakin' oil. Who, among us would like alternatives to ME weirdos having us by the petro shorthairs?

[Dog Gone]

"Energy development does not belong within our national seashores," Randall Rasmussen, of the National Parks Conservation Association, said yesterday. "People and marine life will be put at great risk in the rush to sink wells because of Bush administration policies designed to speed up drilling without careful consideration of its impact on the environment.

This is an old and long-running story. The Park Service determined that there would be no adverse environmental effects. There have been lawsuits. The wackos have lost on every attempt.

The fact remains that drilling causes no permanent impact, and only limited temporary impact. Temporary impacts are certainly far less than what a hurricane would cause.

[thatsnotnice]

Bush allows oil drilling on pristine Texas beach

I’ve spent time in Padre Island, Corpus Christi, Matagorda, Freeport, Galveston… all the way around the gulf to Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe in Florida and I can’t remember anything “pristine.” Not that they’re terrible, but there is nothing pristine there.

Maybe I’m being overly picky, but I wonder if David Usborne has ever been to Padre Island. Maybe I should write him a note and let him know that the Bush administration is trying to foul Sparkling Downtown Pasadena. Or maybe someone should invite him to the mosquito festival in the Paradise Of Clute in July.

[ChadGore]

Drill ANWR, dammit !

[tall_tex]

Great response.

This UK writer should consider comming on down to Texas, and check out our pristine beaches.

I lived in Corpus Christi for several years in the early 90's.

We lived right there on Padre Island. Our beaches stunk, most of the stinkey stuff washed up from Mexico.

He could come to the U.S. and look for himself, but he can't, because of course, our borders are secure..

I pass gas several times a day, it does not impact much of the environment. I do not strike a match close to the source, wouldn't strike a match there either.


I may dress funny to anyone other than Texans, but I am not stupid.

Tom

[txhurl]

You know, and not only that, when we go barefoot on our beaches and we get tar on our heels, we know it comes from natural oil seepages off-shore, not some Valdez.

'Twas ever thus.

[El Gato]

As in "natural gas"? Nothing could be cleaner.

And if the use of fuel cells takes off as it is appearing to do, we'll need the natural gas as fuel or a source of hydrogen.

[Cobra64]

"Energy development does not belong within our national seashores," Randall Rasmussen, of the National Parks Conservation Association, said yesterday. "People and marine life will be put at great risk in the rush to sink wells because of Bush administration policies designed to speed up drilling without careful consideration of its impact on the environment.

If memory serves, we have been drilling oil wells offshore of LA and TX.

[orfisher]

The Kemp's Ridley makes great soup. Too bad I can't fuel my SUV on it.

[red-dawg]

This just means that I'll have to refrain from smoking as I drive past the gas wells while the front transfer case is gear. I would very much appreciate if these "enviro-terrorists" would make the hardheads become extinct.