I was going to comment on this the other day, but Ezra Levant, who has more of a dog in the fight (so to speak), has:
NASA used to be about exploring space — that’s what the S stands for. But NASA’s new boss, Charles Bolden, recently told Al Jazeera TV that Obama has given him new marching orders: Inspire children to learn math, expand international relationships. “Perhaps foremost. he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering.”
I guess that’s what happens when a “community organizer” becomes president.
But when you think about it, Hansen is following Obama’s instructions perfectly: The Saudis probably do “feel good” that NASA is trying to shut down their Canadian oil competitors.
I wish that Hansen was muzzled half as much as he pretends he is. He is, or at least should be, an embarrassment to the agency.
One more failure of the Bush administration with a Republican Congress that Hansen was never fired.
It is stupid to try to stop further tar sands exploration. There are not a lot of alternatives for getting cheap oil. Plus Canada is a stable democratic country which ensures reliability of supply. For the US it is also an oil source which is right next door.
What is sad is that this story could have been about US oil shale exploration. However the US government has preferred to fund stupid endeavors like corn ethanol. Thankfully the Canadians were not as short-sighted.