Oilman Runyan

by: deciminyan

Wed May 11, 2011 at 08:03:31 PM EDT

For many years, my wife and I have been lucky enough to take a week's vacation every summer on Long Beach Island. We look forward to a time of relaxation and enjoyment of the pristine beaches. But during his first term in office, Congressman Jon Runyan is working to take that pleasure away from us.

Working in lock-step with his Republican colleagues, Runyan is actively promoting off-shore oil drilling in the Atlantic and providing the wealthy oil companies (i.e his campaign contributors) with more financial benefits - as if they need them.

To be fair, Runyan is delivering on campaign promises. I don't understand why Ocean County residents would vote for someone who will put their tourism industry in jeopardy, but they did.

Now Runyan is making it even more attractive for oil companies to drill. He voted on a bill to allow these companies to obtain new leases, even while they owe the government payments for fines from previous sins. And while he's voting to cut Medicare in the (false) name of fiscal responsibility, he also voted against elimination of taxpayer subsidies to oil companies.

Drilling off the Atlantic coast is not the way to solve our insatiable lust for energy. It's not a matter of whether an oil spill will devastate Atlantic beaches, it's just a matter of when and how badly.

Our vacations on LBI have become even more cherished over the last couple of years, as we have started a family tradition of having our grandson (and his parents!) visit us at the beach each summer. They live 300 miles from the nearest ocean, so this is a special time for our grandson as well as us. Let's hope that Runyan's pro-oil, anti-tourism approach magically avoids Murphy's Law and that we don't see a repeat of the BP disaster in our back yard. For our grandson's sake and the sake of all those kids who love the beach.