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State debate: Offshore drilling has appeal, Kenosha News says
A roundup of editorials from state newspapers
Offshore drilling has appeal, says the Kenosha News.
Though President Bush's call for Congress to lift its longstanding ban on offshore oil drilling was as much politics as energy policy -- and lifting the ban won't affect current price -- the long-term potential can't be ignored.
Opening the continental shelf would do nothing about current oil prices, and any impact on future prices when the new oil comes on line decades hence would depend on the state of the world oil market then.
The president also knowingly injected himself into the political campaign. His call for repeal came just days after John McCain urged Congress to do the same. Curiously, McCain remains opposed to drilling in the Arctic wildlife refuge. Barack Obama is opposed both to that and lifting the offshore ban.
The politics aside, offshore drilling technology his improved immensely since the traumatic 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. And the harsh reality is that no serious energy policy can ignore the potential of untapped offshore oil reserves.
The La Crosse Tribune favors eliminating drink specials, saying it is a public health and safety issue.
La Crosse city officials are being cautious about whether to ban late-night drink specials or encourage tavern owners to voluntarily ban them. That's because a federal court case is pending on whether Madison taverns violated anti-trust laws by voluntarily agreeing to eliminate the specials.
If the federal lawsuit goes along the lines of the state courts, which have allowed the ban, La Crosse officials should waste no time either banning the drink specials or encouraging the taverns to take action themselves.
Let's be clear. Drink specials after 8 p.m. serve only one purpose: To get people more drunk.
This is a public safety issue. If taverns don't see it that way, then city officials should take action.
The Appleton Post-Crescent says we should all pay for veterans' tuition.
Currently, the bulk of the burden will fall to other UW students. More than half of the 5.5 percent tuition increase at the UW System's four-year schools will go toward the veterans program.
In a state that already lacks college graduates, that's idiotic. But it's also the state Legislature for you.
The cost of giving veterans free tuition over the next two years is estimated at about $40 million. But in the two-year budget it passed last fall, the Legislature only allotted $9 million for it.
So, depending on which college a student attends, between $150 and $200 of his or her tuition will go toward the tuition costs of about 3,000 veterans in UW schools.
The Legislature should have found something else in the budget to cut, or raised taxes, to pay for the veterans program.
FILE PHOTO
The Kenosha News says offshore oil drilling has appeal. This photo of an oil platform off Seal Beach, Calif., was taken in 2005.
