Coleman repeats debunked China/Cuba myth

by: Joe Bodell

Sun Jul 06, 2008 at 19:16:19 PM CDT

At the same time, we've got to be producing more...outer continental shelf exploration. The Chinese are able to begin operating nintey miles from our shore by working with the Cubans, American companies need to tap into those resources.  I read estimates, estimates of over 80 billion barrels of fuel being available in our reserves in the outer continental shelf...

But mislead he does, and with a thoroughly false myth. New Hampshire's John Sununu (also currently locked in a tough reelection battle) has modified the myth for his own purposes and been caught.  Rudy Giuliani repeated it last week on Glenn Beck's show. Vice President Dick Cheney was dinged for passing the myth off as factual just last month, so at least Norm Coleman isn't the highest on the totem pole to do so.

But what is it with Republican elected officials these days repeating repeatedly debunked rumors as fact?

If we were in some kind of time warp to the late 1950s, this might be considered some kind of Red Scare: The Communists are stealing our oil! Instead, it seems like a new market-based approach to political scare tactics: China has long been seen as an ascendant power in world politics and economics, and supposedly shared political ideals between two nominally Communist governments are simply a convenient detail to use when trying to scare voters into thinking that our oil is being stolen out from under the continental shelf.

There was a similar joke put forth a few years back about how the Iraqi people had been unfortunate enough to have their country's borders positioned on top of so much of America's oil supply. But it's probably out of style by now.

The bigger issue here is simple economics.

More after the break

Again with the simple economics. Here's a novel idea: why not try to lower demand?

Getting petroleum out of the residential and commercial electrical grids seems like a good starting point. Germany is planning to build windfarms in the North Sea, why can Minnesota not take a national lead and build them on land and help power the Upper Midwest?

As for the gas-guzzling vehicles that inhabit our roadways, that's a bit more complicated. The economics of buying a hybrid don't add up for many people right now -- if you're still paying off the Explorer, TrailBlazer, or (ack!) Escalade you bought two years ago, you'll be short-selling yourself if you try to get rid of it -- and adding a new payment for a Prius, Civic, or Escape Hybrid on top of it.

The direction of public debate needs to focus on how to lower demand for oil in a systemic way by providing economic incentives for people to consider replacing 14 miles per gallon with 45 mpg. Heck, even the 30 I get in a Ford Focus wagon would be a huge improvement if multiplied by two or three million replaced Escalades.

Bigger, longer tax breaks are a possibility. There are certainly others. But Republican leaders' talking points-fueled focus on pushing a myth as fact -- that Communist China is trying to or already drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba and thus off the coast of Florida -- doesn't even come close to fulfilling the needs of that debate.