Yeah, that’s actually what happened after Obama’s oval office address. Obama took a lot of serious criticisms from the left after his speech on the oil spill. And it was a serious shock to find myself agreeing with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. They both made the point that Obama did not show a strong command of the situation. I agree, I’ve just picked up on Obama’s lack of strong command way before this speech. I also agreed with a point Rachel Maddow made in her own fake President Oval Office address. She said that one of the things she would do would be to mandate that companies prove they can solve the problem if there is a leak in order to drill in the first place. I agree with that also, which felt really weird. Like a lot of people, I’ve just been assuming that if an oil spill happened the oil companies would know what to do. After all, it would certainly be in their best interest to resolve a situation as serious as an oil spill as quickly as they can, but now I’m seeing the reality that there was no plan in place to solve the problem and that, two months into this massive oil spill, there is still no real solution in sight.

I’m not against drilling. I think we should be putting the resources we have to good use. And I absolutely oppose the cap and trade legislation. That places the burden on the wrong people and doesn’t really solve our energy needs. However, there are obviously very serious consequences when things go wrong and the people responsible do not know how to fix the problem. Oil companies should have to prove that they can deal with the consequences when something like this happens. BP obviously could not handle this oil spill and now all of us are facing the consequences. Making companies prove they are capable of clean up is drilling for our own oil responsibly. Assuming the oil companies have got it covered is not.

~Eliza