Last week, President Obama shocked environmentalists by opening millions of acres of the American continental shelf to oil and gas drilling. The announcement reminded me of a backpacking trip I took to Malaysian Borneo several years ago.

Stranded in the sweltering city of Kota Kinabalu with a day to kill, I wandered inside the state museum to escape the equatorial sun. The main part of the museum itself was underwhelming. I walked the floor devoted to past heads of state, a section of interest only to those with a weak spot for campy, post-colonial propaganda. After an hour of staring at dusty old photos of primary school classes, wedding receptions, overseas vacations, and smiling handshakes with mid-level foreign dignitaries, I was ready to leave. That was when a guard directed me to the new wing of the museum.

The new wing, sponsored by an international oil company, was devoted to the wonders of petroleum. A shiny, multimedia exhibit introduced the visitor to petroleum geology and the many methods of exploration, drilling, recovery, production, transportation, and refining.

The exhibit also highlighted the social and environmental benefits of exploration in Malaysia's offshore waters. One colourful display boasted that corals sometimes grow on the legs of the massive offshore drilling platforms in the South China Sea, creating artificial feeding grounds for fish. Another told of company's work on sustainable development, albeit without any examples or explanations other than a few images of employees donating blood and teaching schoolchildren how to use fire extinguishers. There was no mention of the environmental impacts of Malaysian oil production, nor of the global climate impacts of oil use.

The most memorable part of the museum – better even than photos of former head of state Tun Sakaran bin Dandai's family trip to Egypt – was the dunia tanpa minyak, or "world without oil" display.

There, the visitor received the petroleum industry's equivalent of the Charles Atlas treatment. The first panel featured children playing in a colourful den equipped with a TV, VCR, vacuum cleaner, and telephone. The second, oil-free, 97-pound-weakling panel featured naked, dejected-looking children in an empty white room.

Let’s be clear. Obama’s decision to permit offshore drilling is about winning votes for upcoming climate legislation. It is not about sound energy policy. The amount of recoverable oil on the outer continental shelf of eastern North America and the Gulf of Mexico is far too small to have any meaningful impact on U.S. oil imports, let alone provide that political Holy Grail of energy independence.

The environmental community is crying foul over the move. It’s a shame, because this decision represents an important opportunity to shift the environmental movement into the 21st century.

Read more at the Mark.

Link to original post