Even Republicans like Mark Schoesler oppose drilling for oil off of Washington’s coast

Years ago, back when Jon Stew­art was still the face of Com­e­dy Cen­tral, The Dai­ly Show aired a seg­ment in which Stew­art joked that the mas­cot of the mod­ern-day Repub­li­can Par­ty was not an ele­phant, but rather a por­trait of Jesus drilling for oil. That joke has aged extreme­ly well, espe­cial­ly con­sid­er­ing Ryan Zinke’s dec­la­ra­tion this week that he wants to give oil com­pa­nies free rein to drill off both coasts.

While it may appear that the Repub­li­can Par­ty’s love of the oil indus­try and its desire to extract, refine, and burn every last drop of black gold has no lim­it (even if our com­mon home, the Earth, is destroyed in the process), it turns out there are a fair num­ber of Repub­li­cans who just aren’t com­fort­able giv­ing the oil indus­try unchecked per­mis­sion to plun­der and pil­lage Amer­i­ca’s nat­ur­al resources.

That includes Repub­li­cans who aren’t con­sid­ered to be the slight­est bit green.

Take Mark Schoesler, the top Repub­li­can in the Wash­ing­ton State Senate.

Schoesler — who is now the cham­ber’s Minor­i­ty Leader fol­low­ing Man­ka Dhin­gra’s win in the 45th Dis­trict — is as right wing as they come in Wash­ing­ton State, and was rec­og­nized last year by Tim Eyman as one of his key allies in the statehouse.

Nev­er­the­less, Schoesler is among those who oppose Zinke and Trump’s uncon­scionable scheme to open Wash­ing­ton’s waters to oil drilling.

Schoesler said unequiv­o­cal­ly today dur­ing City­Club’s 2018 Leg­isla­tive Pre­view that he does­n’t sup­port drilling for oil off of Wash­ing­ton’s coast in response to an audi­ence ques­tion, to the sur­prise of many in the room.

The ques­tion was as follows:

“I won­dered what your posi­tion is regard­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­men­t’s announce­ment that they’ll soon be drilling off the coast of Wash­ing­ton State for oil, in our fine waters,” inquired Kather­ine McConnell.

Democ­rats Sharon Nel­son and Lar­ry Springer field­ed the ques­tion first, telling the audi­ence they are appalled. Then it was the Repub­li­cans’ turn to weigh in.

“I’m opposed to drilling off­shore in Wash­ing­ton,” Schoesler stat­ed sim­ply, lean­ing back from the micro­phone after speak­ing those sev­en words to sig­ni­fy that that would be the extent of his answer. State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan Kris­tiansen, the top House Repub­li­can, then offered his take. He was less emphat­ic in his answer, but stressed he also had con­cerns with the prospect of off­shore drilling.

U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dave Reichert (WA-08) also indi­cat­ed he thinks Zinke’s plan is irre­spon­si­ble in a press release issued yes­ter­day by his office.

“I am deeply con­cerned about the Administration’s pro­pos­al allow­ing for new oil and gas drilling oppor­tu­ni­ties in the Pacif­ic and Atlantic oceans, Gulf of Mex­i­co, and off the coast of Alas­ka,” Reichert’s state­ment said.

“This moves Amer­i­ca in the wrong direc­tion and has the poten­tial to have a neg­a­tive last­ing effect on our oceans as well as the shore­lines of states on these coasts. Our coun­try is at the fore­front of devel­op­ing effi­cient and cost effec­tive alter­na­tive ener­gy tech­nolo­gies and we should con­tin­ue to sup­port inno­va­tion in this area. These ener­gy solu­tions of the future must be a part of our ener­gy plan.”

Reichert pre­vi­ous­ly signed a let­ter to Zinke ask­ing the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or not to open Wash­ing­ton’s waters to oil drilling… a plea Zinke chose to dis­re­gard.

Repub­li­cans on the oth­er coast are also rather unhap­py with the Trump regime’s immoral post-Christ­mas give­away to the oil industry.

For exam­ple, take Rick Scott, Repub­li­can Gov­er­nor of Flori­da. He’s no RINO (Repub­li­can in Name Only). And yet, here he was this week telling Zinke (and Trump, by exten­sion) that they were mak­ing a big mis­take.

Gov. Rick Scott and U.S. Sen. Bill Nel­son, wide­ly expect­ed to bat­tle this year for Nel­son’s Sen­ate seat, said Thurs­day they both intend to fight a Trump admin­is­tra­tion plan to open pre­vi­ous­ly pro­tect­ed parts of the Atlantic Ocean and east­ern Gulf of Mex­i­co to off­shore oil and gas drilling. Scott said he has request­ed a meet­ing with Inte­ri­or Sec­re­tary Ryan Zinke to dis­cuss oppo­si­tion to Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s effort to expand domes­tic ener­gy production.

“Based on media reports, it is like­ly that the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or will con­sid­er Flori­da as a poten­tial state for off­shore oil drilling —- which is some­thing I oppose in Flori­da,” Scott said in a pre­pared state­ment short­ly before Zinke unveiled the drilling pro­pos­al Thurs­day. “I have already asked to imme­di­ate­ly meet with Sec­re­tary Zinke to dis­cuss the con­cerns I have with this plan and the cru­cial need to remove Flori­da from consideration.”

Mary­land Gov­er­nor Lar­ry Hogan, who isn’t as right wing as Scott, went even fur­ther, say­ing he’d like to see legal action to stop Zinke’s drilling schemes.

Mary­land Gov. Lar­ry Hogan and Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bri­an Frosh are both express­ing oppo­si­tion to drilling off Mary­land’s coast.

The Repub­li­can gov­er­nor sent the Demo­c­ra­t­ic attor­ney gen­er­al a let­ter Thurs­day direct­ing him to inves­ti­gate the U.S. Inte­ri­or Depart­men­t’s plan, which was announced ear­li­er in the day. Hogan called for “any viable legal claims, actions or suits against the U.S. gov­ern­ment to pre­vent” off­shore drilling in Mary­land’s coastal waters.

The Zinke/Trump drilling scheme unveiled yes­ter­day is tan­ta­mount to a dec­la­ra­tion of war on the Earth, and it must be defeat­ed. Future gen­er­a­tions are count­ing on us to stop the forces of greed from ruin­ing our plan­et, which is already in grave per­il due to the ever-wors­en­ing cli­mate cri­sis. It’s good to see that at least some Repub­li­cans are sim­ply unwill­ing to go along with an agen­da that puts the oil indus­try’s wildest dreams first at the expense of all of humanity.