O'Rourke might halt new oil and gas drilling on federal land

[TexasTowelie]

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke said Thursday he's willing to consider a moratorium on new leases to drill for oil and gas on federal lands as a way to help combat climate change.

The Democratic presidential hopeful told reporters while campaigning in Nevada on Thursday the nation needs to rethink how it protects its public lands and "keep them from being diminished in size as has happened under" the Trump administration.

O'Rourke said that concern, combined with the need to reduce total greenhouse emissions, makes it especially important that U.S. taxpayers don't allow oil and gas companies "to contribute more to the problem."

"So, rethinking the leasing of public lands and perhaps creating a moratorium on any future leases — and reviewing all those that are in existence — is in order," he told reporters after a speech to the University of Nevada Young Democrats at a packed coffee shop on the edge of the Reno campus.

Read more: https://www.oaoa.com/news/state/article_63b74088-6d63-597e-9f82-074d430479b9.html
(Odessa American)

[Indygram]

1. I hope this will help stop the town hall plants that keep reading questions off their phones

Falsely accusing him of taking money from the fossil fuel industry. It's really dishonest to mislead people that he's in the pocket of oil and gas just because individual people who work in that industry donate under $200 to him. Oil rig workers, secretaries and truck drivers have no control or decision making capacity in the companies they work for.

[JI7]

2. out of touch types that come from well to do families

attacking people who need to take what they can to get by.

[Indygram]

3. I'm not sure I'd go that far

But there are a lot of people who read things online that are not true and just believe them and then attack others based on falsehoods. I wish people were not as gullible.

[dalton99a]

4. +1.

[karynnj]

5. His "willing to consider a moratorium" may be among the weakest responses of the field

Seriously, why can't he rule out drilling on land already designated as parks or for preservation. Here is Warren - https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/15/elizabeth-warren-proposes-oil-and-gas-drilling-ban-on-federal-lands.html (Sanders, Gillibrand and Gabbard have proposed legislation to do this. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17042019/warren-sanders-coal-oil-gas-drilling-moratorium-federal-lands-offshore-renewable-energy-campaign-2020 Biden has not spoken of this, but he strongly supported Obama's moratorium. Inslee, as governor of Washington fought to remove the waters off Washington state from the Trump offshore drilling plan.

I do agree that it is dishonest to use the open source tally of contributions by industry to mean that they are "bought" by that segment. It reflects how people fill out Employer on their contribution. I remember fighting that since 2005!

[Indygram]

8. If he has talked about it and said he's considering something it means he's researching and learning

everything he can about it before taking a firm position. Something a lot of candidates don't do is look into cause and effect, who is impacted by something and how. Beto puts a lot of thought into something before taking a position. He is fully committed to clean energy and fighting climate change, though.

[karynnj]

9. That rather insults other candidates

I doubt any of them just take positions. Many, like Booker, joined legislation in the past. Warren had a very clear statement of her position and no one is more thorough than she is. Biden knows everything there is to know about the moratorium that Obama instituted.

I respect that you are committed to a candidate and are impressed with him. I know - from my own experience of finding a candidate in another election whose vision - especially on clean energy and climate change made me a very strong supported of him for President, and when that did not happen as a Senator and statesman - how great that can be. My favorite was in a stronger position - even in 2004 - of having already worked on environmental issues for 2 decades. I hope that years from now we will see that Beto, whether President or not, fights for this -- as did the American most essential to getting the Paris Accord done.

[Indygram]

10. Let me clarify...

I'll give Medicare for All as an example. It sounds great on the surface...but when you stop and really think about the cause and effect...it would have an extremely negative impact on many people, including me. I have employer provided insurance where I only pay about $46 a week for medical, vision and dental insurance. I don't have any problem finding a provider and I like what I have. I have family members who support their families and children from working in the insurance industry. I don't want them to lose their job and possibly lose their home and not be able to provide for their children. There would be damaging fallout to Medicare for All. I really like that Beto supports Medicare for America instead, which provides Medicare for everyone who wants it but doesn't penalize the rest of us or decimate an entire industry and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Thinking about how every policy impacts ALL people on ALL sides of the debate is important to me and I don't think all candidates take that into consideration. Part of why I support Beto is because he does that. It doesn't make those other candidates bad in any way. This is just a trait that is important to me. It may not be as important to others.

[madville]

6. "Rethinking" , "perhaps", "reviewing"

"Might halt", ok Beto, is he willing to make the same speech in West Texas, Southeastern New Mexico, or North Dakota?

[Indygram]

7. He doesn't poll test anything...so yes he will

That's what makes him so special. It doesn't matter how unpopular something will be with a given audience...he says what he believes. He also does not just say what people want to hear. He only says what he actually believes...and if he isn't specific about something it's because he is gathering facts first and learning the full situation before making a decision. When he says we need to review something and might have to change something it means he wants to research it fully before saying exactly what he thinks needs to be done.