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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (216204)	1/9/2002 7:37:38 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

You say - to paraphrase - that the 'environmental movement' has been wildly successful in it's PR efforts (far out of proportion to any underlying technical merits their arguments may have), and that some unnamed 'others' (oil industry, chemical industry, pesticide industry, lead smelters, asbestos miners... who knows) have been comparatively 'unsuccessful' in making their cases to the public. ... Maybe. Or maybe many 'radical' environmental arguments really have had technical merit... from DDT to PCB, to uranium tailings... and the public has come to a quite rational decision on many matters, and acted in their own self interest. Maybe also - as I argued - existing economic interests choose to act in THEIR own economic interest, to maximize their economic returns. Maybe all the real estate and commercial development interests, maybe the fishing interests and the retirement and golfing communities simply decided to act in their own interests... and you simply don't like their decisions. All very capitalist, don't 'cha think? The argument those folks in Florida were making was that all those miles of clean beaches were worth more economicly to the state over the long run than oil exploration would be. Maybe there are right... maybe they are wrong, I don't know, but I'll defend their right in a free capitalist society to defend their property rights. And maybe in 50 years when oil is TRULY scarce, and comes in the open market for $100 or $200 a barrel, then maybe Florida will decide that it is more in their interest to drill. After all, the oil has been their for millions of years, it is not a wasting asset. American oil undrilled today is oil in an 'American Bank'.... It will still be there for us to drill tomorrow.