Dear God, is Oil a Blessing or a Curse?

Initially printed on EdenKeeper.org

By calling on Oklahomans to hope for oil, Governor Mary Fallin has stretched the bounds of my persistence and possibly a bit of bit little little bit of my larger judgment. Governor Fallin would have us all think about that it’s been a extraordinarily highly effective yr for the oil commerce.

The reality is, it’s been so unhealthy that she sat herself down and drew up a pretty state proclamation mandating a day asking people to “search His information and ask for protection” for Oklahoma’s oil and gas commerce.

Unphased by the unbelievable ignorance of this clearly unconstitutional fusion of church and state points, Fallin responded to the preliminary public backlash by amending her proclamation to include all faiths, not merely Christians, because the distinctive mannequin mandated. Her reply? “I really feel prayer is always an excellent issue, for anyone.”

I’ve little doubt regarding the actuality of that assertion. Positively, prayer is good for anyone. Nonetheless, I moreover agree with Bruce Prescott, a retired Norman, Oklahoma minister who talked about currently, “it’s not the governor’s accountability to call anyone to prayer.”

Prescott is very well-known in Oklahoma as the one who effectively sued to have a Ten Commandments monument away from the Oklahoma Capitol grounds in 2015. Referring to the Oilfield Day of Prayer Proclamation, Prescott talked about, “That’s a minister’s accountability.”

Prescott added, “One different issue that’s an irritant on that one — there are many points that could be prayed about on this state, and the oil space should not be on the prime of that guidelines.”

Dear God: Is Oil a Blessing or a Curse?

How does one even begin to hope for oil? If we take Fallin critically (type of), we should at all times “ask for protection” — Is the protection for oil? or from oil? Hmmm, let’s observe Fallin’s advice and “search His information.” Okay… Dear Associates, Permit us to wish… “Dear God: Is oil a blessing or a curse?”

Okay, so we didn’t get a extraordinarily quick reply. That’s, in any case, a considerably murky matter. Like all impatient seekers of God’s information, I turned to Google for some further guidance, asking what God says about oil. I spotted that, throughout the Jewish and Christian Outdated Testament, the most common phrase for “oil” is the Hebrew phrase shemen, occurring 192 events, and “throughout the large majority of those cases it refers to ‘olive oil’.”

Throughout the Christian New Testament, the Greek phrase corresponding to the Hebrew shemen, or “oil,” is elaion, occurring “eleven events and refers solely to ‘olive oil’.” Islam’s Holy Qur’an moreover confirms that the utilization of the phrase zayt for “oil” refers to “olive oil”.

Fallin, nevertheless, is clearly referring to “petroleum,” that “naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid current in geological formations beneath the Earth’s ground, which is commonly refined into quite a few types of fuels.”

Let’s Take a Prolonged Take a look at Petroleum

Contained in the span of a mere 150 years, oil, further formally typically referred to as petroleum, has insidiously infiltrated both sides of human civilization. It is toxic to simply about all sorts of life on Earth and however we for the time being are dependent upon it as a significant a part of virtually all sorts of monetary livelihood.

Transportation, heating, and the complete, pervasive plastics commerce shoulder the bigger burdens of guilt for the horrible environmental impacts that petroleum is inflicting on Earth. Scientists and governmental our our bodies in all places on the earth for the time being are positive that human-related burning of fossil fuels just like coal and petroleum merchandise are answerable for important native climate modifications which have led to worldwide warming.

There are all types of dangers to effectively being and life stemming from petroleum merchandise, none of which we should be requested to hope for, and a few of which embody:

• Supply Defects and Most cancers – Crude oil and petroleum distillates are extraordinarily toxic and have been confirmed to be every carcinogenic and related to supply defects.

• Air Air air pollution – Compounds just like carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide, methanol, and large particulates of soot enter the air when fossil fuels just like oil and petroleum merchandise are burned. These compounds set off lung and coronary coronary heart illnesses, along with entice the heat in Earth’s atmosphere, inflicting extreme native climate modifications from worldwide warming. Equally problematic are unstable pure compounds (VOCs), emitted from petroleum merchandise, like benzene and completely different vapors. Benzene is awfully toxic and is known to set off most cancers and DNA damage. VOCs from petroleum merchandise are dangerously explosive and should set off excessive respiratory troubles in the event that they’re inhaled.

• Acid Rain – Burning petroleum generates extreme temperatures throughout the air, heating nitrogen gas and producing nitrous oxides. Together with sulfur dioxide from sulfur throughout the oil, nitrous oxides combine with hydrogen throughout the atmosphere, resulting in acid rain. Acid rain is answerable for killing bushes, acidifying our our bodies of water, killing fish and coral reefs in these our our bodies, and contributes to  faster corrosion of apparatus, bridges, and obligatory historic monuments.

• Oil Spills – One different lethal kind of air air pollution, oil spills negatively have an effect on every land and water, along with all lifeforms present throughout the house of the spill. Cleanup and restoration of an oil spill can be extraordinarily powerful, counting on all types of issues, just like air and/or water temperatures, type of oil, type of terrain, shoreline, or physique of water affected. Greater spills can take just a few years to completely get higher from, such as a result of the horrible Deep Water Horizon spill of 2010.

Oklahoma is No Stranger to Oil Spills

As a major producer of oil and pure gas, Oklahoma isn’t any stranger to grease spills, each. The reality is, 3,793 oil spills had been reported in Oklahoma between 2009-2012, consistent with StateImpact and EnergyWire. Additional spills had been reported in Oklahoma than even in Texas, the primary oil and gas producer throughout the US.

Although North Dakota topped the guidelines, EnergyWire elements out that firms in that state should report every spill of 1 barrel of oil or further. In Texas, spills of 5 barrels or further needs to be reported, and in Oklahoma, solely spills over ten barrels are required to be reported.

Praying for Additional Worldwide Warming is Flabbergasting

So many components of Fallin’s plea for individuals to hope for oil are so farcical it’s downright flabbergasting. Asking people to hope for further worldwide warming is spectacularly foolish. Asking people to think about there’s no such issue as native climate change should not be solely dumbfounding, it’s a farce that even Exxon just isn’t subscribing to.

Revealed currently throughout the Guardian, as early as 45 years previously, the oil commerce knew that native climate change was coming and that that they had been primarily accountable. In 1968, the Stanford Evaluation Institute launched a report to the American Petroleum Institute (API) warning that CO2 launched from burning fossil fuels may end in “worldwide environmental modifications.”

The 1968 Stanford report, republished by the Coronary heart for Worldwide Environmental Regulation (CIEL), states, “Vital temperature modifications are almost positive to occur by the yr 2000 and these may end in climatic change.” The report continues, “If the Earth’s temperature will enhance significantly, loads of events could also be anticipated to occur along with the melting of the Antarctic ice cap, a rise in sea ranges, warming of the oceans and an increase in photosynthesis.”

“It is clear,” the report concludes damningly, “that we’re unsure as to what our long-lived air pollution are doing to the atmosphere; nonetheless, there seems to be little doubt that the potential damage to the atmosphere could be excessive.”

Launching a “well-oiled” (sorry ;^p) propaganda advertising and marketing marketing campaign over the subsequent a very long time, the science of native climate change and worldwide warming has been constantly beneath assault throughout the mainstream media. As early as 1981, ExxonMobil, an important oil agency on the planet knew about native climate change and spent a whole bunch of hundreds to promote mainstream native climate denial.

The Guardian experiences, “Exxon had a faithful in-house crew that established the connection between fossil fuels and native climate change, nevertheless the agency nonetheless spent years refusing to acknowledge the issue and funding native climate denial actions.”
 

GREAT #CLIMATE CARTOON #ExxonMobil now accepts #climatechange – The place’s that depart deniers? @ClimateHawkVote pic.twitter.com/CWNtsYQgTe

— Allan Margolin (@AllanMargolin) December 10, 2015

 
Although Gov. Mary Fallin doesn’t seem to have gotten that tweet, Exxon now accepts native climate science, and isn’t actively promoting denial of fossil fuel’s harmful environmental impacts.

Nonetheless, with virtually half a million {{dollars}} in contributions from the facility and pure sources commerce recorded in Gov. Fallin’s advertising and marketing marketing campaign funds, it comes as no shock that she’s nonetheless denying native climate change. An lively antagonist in Donald Trump’s camp of native climate ignoramuses, Fallin explains Oklahoma’s uptick in excessive droughts as “merely nature itself and the patterns that flow into.”

Hailing infamous native climate denier Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) as a “voice of logic on native climate change,” Fallin has likewise sided with Ohio’s Bill Johnson in opposition to the EPA’s Clear Vitality Plan.

Fallin has even signed an govt order which states that Oklahoma will refuse to regulate to the EPA’s pointers for carbon low cost.

That is, if Alabama’s State Prayer Request to dam the EPA carbon pointers goes unanswered…

Manipulating People to Pray for the Rich is Downright Disgusting

Lastly, manipulating people to hope for the rich is deplorable and downright disgusting. Crying enormous crocodile tears, Gov. Mary Fallin would have us all think about that the great state of Oklahoma goes bankrupt on account of misfortunate downturn in oil prices.

“There are numerous people struggling correct now who’ve misplaced their jobs throughout the energy sector,” grieves Gov. Fallin, “…there are many households who’ve been hurt, and I really feel prayer is always an excellent issue, for anyone.” That’s the pathetic “pious” pandering of a pathological liar.

The True State of Oil and Gasoline in Oklahoma

The Oklahoma State Chamber Evaluation Foundation (SCRF) merely remaining month printed its report, “Monetary Affect of the Oil & Gasoline Commerce on Oklahoma.” The headline states, “Oklahoma Energy is driving our state forward!”

Stating the true state of affairs, SCRF lists the subsequent highlights of Oklahoma’s oil and gas commerce contributions to the state’s monetary system:

• State crude manufacturing reached 157.8 million barrels in 2015, a 157% improve from 2005
• State pure gas output is up by 60% since 2003, to 2.5 trillion cubic ft in 2015
• Oklahoma now ranks fifth among the many many states in oil manufacturing and third in pure gas manufacturing
• Over the earlier 10 years, the state produced $15.4 billion yearly in crude oil and pure gas
• Oklahoma is the second largest oil and gas hub throughout the U.S., trailing solely Texas
• Oklahoma ranks as a result of the third most tasty oil and gas market amongst 126 markets worldwide
• Oil and gas train accounts for higher than half the mounted funding ($20.3 billion) in Oklahoma
• The state exported every crude oil and pure gas valued at $7.1 billion in 2015
• In 2015, the oil and gas commerce employed 53,500 Oklahomans who earned $5.6 billion
• 95,000 Oklahomans earned $10 billion in self-employment earnings from oil and gas train
• In entire, virtually 150,000 Oklahomans are each wage and wage staff or self-employed throughout the oil and gas sector
• Household earnings ($15.6 billion) from the oil and gas sector entire 13.2% of entire state earnings
• Widespread wages throughout the oil and gas sector ($104,000) are higher than double the state widespread ($44,178)

A Hypocritical Political Ploy

Framing the state-mandated day of prayer for Oklahoma’s oilfields as a non secular plea for God’s mercy and security for struggling households is a hypocritical political ploy to cowl budgetary mismanagement.

Former Oklahoma Governor David Walters addressed this hypocrisy in April 2016, stating throughout the OK Observer that “It’s Not an Oil and Gasoline Catastrophe.” Commenting on the official report that Oklahoma was going by way of a $1.3 billion shortfall in public funding, Walters set the story straight.

“Republican officers blame the shortfall on the cyclical nature of the oil commerce,” stated Walters, “nevertheless a evaluation of the numbers says that merely should not be true.” He outlined, “The value vary shortfall has 4 components: $500 million in one-time funds, $325 million a lot much less particularly particular person earnings tax collections, $229 million low cost in product sales tax collections, and a $224 million low cost in gross manufacturing taxes. Oil revenue can solely account for about 30% of the $1.3 billion shortfall. Accountable value vary movement might need prevented even that.”

“The upper harmful have an effect on on earnings tax collections is the relentless assaults waged by state officers in opposition to jobs in healthcare, coaching, and authorities suppliers, which contributes twice that of oil and gas to the Oklahoma monetary system,” Walters stated.

“The one pure oil- and gas-related shortfall throughout the value vary,” continued Walters, “entails the $224 million decline in gross manufacturing taxes. To be truthful, nonetheless, in 2010, the Legislature decrease the gross manufacturing tax value from 7% to 2%. They did this all through the $100 per barrel oil interval after they may have used the revenue to shore up funds in preparation for the next cyclical downturn.”

“Bottom Line: 70% of the $1.3 billion shortfall has nothing to do with oil and gas value declines.”

Prophetically responding to October’s day of prayer six months earlier in April, former Governor David Walters issued his private prayer request:

“Pray that Oklahomans discover elections have penalties.”

Amen, Brother David, now that’s one factor I can pray for! — Oklahomans and all US residents alike wish to perceive that our elections have penalties!