Our value of luxury

What Ricky said.

It is not "our fault" that the oil spill happened because we drive cars and use oil products.

It MAY be our fault that we've continued to support politicians who don't give a damn about safety regulations, gut worker protections, and support "watchdog" bureaucracies staffed by drug addled industry sycophants.

But in the end this spill is the fault of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton. Those are the people responsible for this well's explosion that killed eleven people and continues to gush into our Gulf. There is not "collective guilt" for this. We could consume all the oil we want at prices that wouldn't change and still protect American workers and the American coast.

There are specific individual actors in corporate and governmental institutions who have allowed this disaster to happen through their own malicious corrupt behavior. Those actors need to be held accountable. The failed institutions need to be fixed. Any stupid hippie who wants to tell you "we're really all to blame" because we drive cars is letting the criminals off the hook.

Yes, I believe we need to make changes in the way we produce and consume energy. But those changes will only happen if we identify specific institutions and policies that need to be pressured. Nothing happens if all we ever do is throw up our hands and say, "we're really all to blame".