The Gas Wars Are Back On

Photo by Teresia, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tea_time/3942238453/sizes/m/in/photostream/">via Flickr</a>.

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If you drive, you don’t need me to tell you that gas prices are going up. And with that recurrent phenomenon, the congressional debate about what to do is revived. In 2008, the Democratically-controlled Congress let the moratorium on drilling in the outer-continental shelf expire amid hysteria about $4 gasoline. This year, the drilling debate is back in action as House Republican leadership calls votes this week on a set of bills that would expand offshore drilling while at the same time lowering environmental standards.

The House passed the first of the bills, H.R. 1230, or the “Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act,” on Thursday afternoon. This measure reopens lease sales for the areas of the outer-continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia that were canceled after the BP spill last summer. It does so without requiring any further environmental analysis, despite the fact that the Gulf disaster last year raised some pretty real questions about impacts of a potential spill. The other two bills, which are also expected to pass, would open new areas for drilling in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans; speed up the process of approving drilling permits; and offer economic incentives for oil companies to use seismic technology to survey for oil reserves.

I guess it’s worth repeating that drilling in every orifice of the United States isn’t going to do a damn thing to lower gas prices anytime soon, even if you wouldn’t know that from listening to spin on these bills.

The question is whether these bills will go anywhere. Given the Senate’s inability to pass much of anything, I would guess no. The White House also issued a statement of administrative policy on Thursday opposing two of the bills and saying that the proposed changes would “undercut” reforms made since last year’s spill.

But as E2Wire points out, the White House didn’t actually say the president would veto the bills, and the administration maintains that it does want “safe and responsible” offshore drilling expansion. So yes, just a year after the Gulf disaster, we are again debating offshore drilling as if it were not only safe but also a miracle cure for high gas prices.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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