Watch CNN's Dana Bash Stop Rob Portman's Keystone XL Lie Dead In Its Tracks

[jaxexpat]

19. I want to speak to a particular phrase Portman used

Last edited Sun Mar 13, 2022, 04:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Re: Biden, "he issued an executive order stopping exploration on public lands and water." The term "exploration" needs to be parsed out a bit.

There's drilling, which is a type of exploration which involves a full-on monetary commitment to harvest oil. Its function is to determine the likelihood that additional drilling with additional rigs would be cost effective. It's quite an invasive proposition and whether it produces long term or is abandoned due to non-profitability, it leaves a pretty big footprint. Also, to be considered are the access roads which must be improved adequately to move heavy equipment. They're not just off-road tracks. They're dozed relatively level and often have culverts installed which impact the natural drainage and cause problems because they're not maintained over time. I've seen board roads and staging areas used on flat muddy soils and whereas they are removed when their usefulness is complete, there is still the dozed clearing and inevitable debris.

Then there are other techniques, usually seismic geophysical operations. They're not so invasive and not intended to leave a permanent footprint. But heavy vibroseis trucks or the drilling, placing and exploding of light charges of TNT do leave a bruise. There are, of course, the occasional multimillion dollar lawsuits over property damage caused by these operations as well.

It's disingenuous to use the term without defining the intent. It's the classic "big-oil" double speak, and it leaves the audience intentionally uninformed. It would, on the face of it, seem just mean for Biden to deny people the right to walk out on the public lands and try to find oil. But neither "exploration" technique leaves the land untouched or undamaged.

The real message they're trying to avoid saying out loud is that they don't want to let anyone know what they intend to do. Even though their language is mostly lies and inuendo, they clearly don't mind leading people along, providing an opportunity to reinforce their distrust of any government regulations, especially those designed to regulate the oil industry's impact on the environment and by extension, the society at large.

Oh, and I just remembered it's almost identical "talking point" phraseology the Doochey boy tried to use on Jen Psaki last week.