Republicans have a long and storied tradition of taking a national tragedy, such as the events of September 11th, 2001, and manipulating it in their favor. Their strategies often line the pockets of executives, wall street, government contractors and military contractors with excessive amounts of cash. Now is the time for the Democrats to employ a similar strategy and take advantage of the horrible eco-disaster taking place in the golf coast. Unlike the Republican party, however, their motives can be entirely pure. Help wean this country off of its oil dependence and on to cleaner, safer, and renewable energy sources.

The oil spill that began two weeks ago and continues to pump massive amounts of oil in to the gulf of Mexico today is a huge disaster of epic proportions. There isn’t a sane person in this country that doesn’t think so and if there is one positive thing that can come from this, it is to utilize the hugely negative view of oil, specifically offshore drilling, to help pass a sweeping energy bill that will pump money in to wind farms, solar technologies, and research of future clean and renewable energy sources. Many people might not realize this, but the United States is one of the more ideal spots in the world to utilize solar energy. If the government would help subsidize installation of existing technology, while promoting the research neccesary to produce less expensive solar technologies, the US could easily find itself requiring less and less of the dirty fossil fuels.

So why aren’t we doing this? There is an underwater volcano of oil spewing in to the Gulf of Mexico as I type this and I sincerely hope that the Democrats in the Senate and House realize that this horrible man-made disaster is their golden opportunity and take full advantage of the growing hatred of oil in this country and pass sweeping energy reform.