Karma Goes Around

Karma Goes Around
by Diane Alden

Most of the time the old saying "what goes around comes around" is accurate. Its most recent application may be seen in the latest gas-price crunch. Having lived through the last price-crunch-shortage in the 70s, I suspect the US will survive this one also. However, most likely there will be fewer independent truckers and farmers because of it. These real world folks have had to bear the brunt of OPEC's latest price squeeze. They live with the consequences that the US has to import more oil than it did in the 70s, at the mercy of OPEC. The small businessman is getting screwed once again because of dumb government policies and the mind set of the elitists.

I made the mistake of listening to one of the Sunday morning talking head shows, "This Week with Sam and Cokie." Although they have the token conservative, columnist George Will, I was aghast as he ridiculed the concern over increased gas and oil prices. Obviously, Mr. Will has never had to fill up an 18 wheeler or gas up farm equipment in anticipation of spring planting.

Poor little Cokie, however, pouted that the cost of filling up her car was $30 a pop. As is common with most elitists living in the Northeast corridor or on the gold coast in California, they have very little comprehension or appreciation for what happens to real people in the real world. As in the case of soccer moms, environmentalists, politicians and the New York media, the real world is happening to other people who don't count for much.

Nonetheless, in their insulated little world, what goes around may finally be coming around. The SUV driving soccer mom and the hordes who live in the Northeast corridor are discovering that karma bites. These people could have had consistent and reasonably priced oil if common sense energy policies had been enacted in the 70s. If taxes on gas had not been raised to obscene levels and turned into another cash cow for the growth of government at all levels.

The elitists on the other coast are getting the go around come around as well. According to the American Petroleum Institute, California has the fourth-highest gas tax rate in the country, totaling 50.4 cents per gallon in federal, state, and local taxes. California gas is the most expensive in the country because of state- mandated reformulated gasoline, which costs more to refine -- between 5 and 15 cents more per gallon, according to the California Air Resources Board -- and may be damaging to the environment. In other words the environmentally friendly gas in California - isn't. It also costs an awful lot.

In Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Delaware, California, the coastal dwellers have consistently voted for bigger (and more) government. They have contributed big bucks to environmental groups, as well as elected officials who raise taxes and encourage unsound, and often unscientific based regulations on natural resources. They vote for the Ted Kennedys, Peter Kings, Chuck Schumers and Susan Collins' and think they are doing a good thing. Or perhaps they are not thinking at all.

But the chickens are roosting and the cows have come home. Since the folks on the coasts are the biggest contributors and supporters of goofy elitist politicians and movements that are the birthplace of idiotic policies, it is only fair they should bear some of the unintended consequences. Obviously they don't care that taxes are at a confiscatory level or that they are creating a mindless collectivist world where government will tell everyone how many times a minute to breath and how much it is going to cost. I can't feel much sympathy because they fall for every dumb "humane" program, law and tax regurgitated by the New York-Washington based media elites and politicians.

As one who lives in fly over country, I have come to the conclusion that the Northeast corridor and California is this era's British Empire under King George. It is obvious in so many ways. In the way the media covers news. In the policies enacted in Washington. In the TV shows which cater to urbanites and suburbanites. There is an attitude that exists which seems to say, as long as it isn't happening in my backyard - who cares. If it isn't entertaining to New Yorkers, it must not count. Haven't you figured out that the red necks in fly over country don't count except during elections.

Recently, I was stunned as I watched Representative Scott McInnis of Colorado beg his eastern colleagues to take into account the needs of the people in his rural area before they create laws or programs destructive of the rural way of life. Unfortunately, the Joe Liebermans and Peter Kings don't listen. That is why I am happy when karma comes around.

The Liebermans and Kings are responsible in no small measure for closing down rural America; it is they who create more dumb laws and programs which have little effect on their constituents as it does on the people who live in the big wide somewhere. It is their power base, the triad of government, environmental movement and the foundations which have succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams in terminating US based logging, mining, oil drilling, and livestock growing. The folks who support them deserve what they get. If that sounds harsh, tough.

If the environmental movement starts to lose ground as people snap out of the feel good euphoria of one too many unscientific "nature" specials on TV, or preservationist policies which have no basis in science -- it couldn't be better for the country or the environment. When the electorate puts the east coast politician on the spot and throws him out - I will shout hurrah and hope they put people in there with sense.

As soccer mom loads up the kids for a trek to Yellowstone this summer and finds it costs as much to fill the gas tank as it does for a year's worth of utilities - too bad. When the denizens of Starbucks in Seattle or San Francisco can't get their beans because there has been a slow down in delivery as independent truckers go belly up - waaa! When the price of food rises due to the fact that more has to be imported since there are fewer farmers and ranchers in the US - oh well.

The current oil crisis would not have been as severe, or it may not have happened at all if environmental policies had allowed the development of a very small area of the Alaskan Coastal Plain in an area called the ANWR. Additionally, if off shore drilling had been permitted and encouraged the OPEC nations would not be putting the screws to America. The enviros, government bureaucrats, and politicians lie through their teeth when they say the development of oil fields in the ANWR would involve huge areas and create an ecological disaster. The area pin pointed for drilling in the ANWR is miniscule, located on the coastal end of millions of acres of "wilderness."

But common sense is not the rule anymore so this small repository of a huge amount of oil is left to the mosquitos and the Birkenstock crowd, who now can declare an entire section of a sovereign state as "pristine" and off limits to all but the hardiest backpacker. They would rather not have anyone notice that developing this small area, using a hook-up with the existing Alaskan pipeline would mean jobs and less dependency on foreign oil with very little if any harm to the environment.

They also don't want people to know some other interesting data. For instance, not one single catastrophic ecological disaster has happened since the Alaskan pipeline was built. But tankers coming from the middle east have gone aground resulting in dead fish, birds, and miles of ruined shoreline. The Exxon Valdez was not a drilling rig - it was a tanker.

The Alaskan pipeline has been a blessing to Alaska and the US. The off-shore drilling which still exists off the California or Louisiana coasts have not been responsible for one oil spill or the death of any wild life. But the environmental movement lies and then lies some more, and counts on the lazy media, a complicit government, and well meaning Americans to fund its lies and the destruction of US natural resource based business.

Last year House Resources Committee Chair Don Young (R-Alaska) introduced legislation - The Arctic Coastal Plain Domestic Energy Security Act of 1999 - that would allow oil and gas leasing in a small part of ANWR's Coastal Plain. Young's legislation is similar to an ANWR provision that was approved by the House and Senate as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1995. President Clinton vetoed it. "Major labor unions support opening the Coastal Plain, as it creates jobs in almost every state in the nation," he said. "The Alaska Federation of Natives supports ANWR leasing because it will provide needed revenues to help them escape Third World living conditions. Numerous other states and national organizations support our proposal because they know that ANWR leasing can be done in a manner to protect the environment and the economic health of our nation."

Where the Caribou Roam

The locally published ANWR newsletter maintains that, "Four major herds migrate along the North Slope. Populations rise and fall by natural cycles. Of note, the Porcupine and Western Arctic herds do NOT migrate or calve near existing oilfields. The Teshekpuk and Central herds do. In addition, it appears that pregnant cows in the Porcupine Herd did not use the "Core Calving Area" on ANWR's Coastal Plain again this spring. According to Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game records over the past 25 years, the herd's cows have used the core calving area only about 40% of the time. This flies in the face of Gwich'in Indian rhetoric that insists calving must occur over oil accumulations."

However, while some Indians complain about problems with Caribou calving other Indians see it differently. Mayor Ben Nageak, an Inupiat from the affected area in the ANWR wrote to Bruce Babbitt and Bill Clinton begging them to allow oil drilling in the very small area set aside for that purpose.

Congress needs to listen to those most affected by the closing of the ANWR but most likely they won't. Republicans and Democrats have lost their concern for the folks in fly over country like the Inupiat Indians of the ANWR. Mayor Ben Nageak begged that drilling be allowed saying that of all people, the Inupiat respected the environment. That the oil companies had always tried to be helpful in maintaining the environment while providing oil and jobs to the area and for the United States -- open the ANWR.

Karma Goes Clockwise

But Sam and Cokie, George Will, the soccer moms, and the rest only hear what they want to hear. Having swallowed the myths and propaganda and deciding we live in a brave new world where the only thing that counts, the only policies which matter are those which are born in the Northeast corridor and shined up in California's gold coast.

The citizens of this Republic who support the people in Washington who refuse to roll back the gas tax and encourage gas exploration are derelict in their duty. The soccer moms who won't uphold those who favor off shore drilling or opening the ANWR better get used to driving less and paying more - for everything. The obliging urbanites and suburbanites who send lots of money to the Sierra Club and groups like it are going to pay the price.

The folks who cheer at Al Gore rallies, even as he fails to tell people of his desire to get rid of the internal combustion engine as soon as possible, will find themselves living with the expensive results of their thoughtless if well meaning politics.

The "moderates" like Peter King, Chris Shays, and Susan Collins don't listen to the pleas of their colleagues who live in the intermountain west or in rural areas. They deserve to be heaved or term limited at the ballot box.

The New York/Washington media doesn't care what the people in the colonies think. Nor do they care that what may be true for them and their area may not be true for the rest of us. The one size fits all policies is all they know. It is easier to think that way. King George would feel at home in their world.

Karma is moving around. It is about time folks who don't live in fly over country paid attention before it bites them on the rump.

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