That “Drill, baby, drill” chant popularized by frothing, taunting, right-wing crowds during the McCain presidential run has been conspicuously silent in recent weeks, huh? Yep, the silence is deafening. Where have the proponents of offshore oil-drilling gone now that the Gulf of Mexico is swamped in environmental disaster, millions of gallons of crude oil fouling the ecosystem, potentially headed our way via the Gulf Stream … heaven forbid?

So tell me, did anyone ever believe offshore drilling was safe and clean, that people who thought otherwise were hysterical loons? That’s what Sarah Palin and her Republican legions would have liked us to believe. But when you consider that heavy hitters like Florida’s own Jeb Bush, certainly no liberal, wants nothing to do with offshore drilling along his coast, it ought to tell you something loud and clear: Yes, there is potential for disaster. We’re living it now, have lived it before, will live it again. Trust me.

So, tell me, who in their right mind would trust multi-billion-dollar oil corporations to police themselves, make certain all the safeguards and oversight are in place and working to avert disaster? Who? And who would trust anything Halliburton had a hand in? Not me. Doesn’t it all come down to profit, not conservation, in the perspective of CEOs and investors? Don’t corporations make more money when the fisher cat’s guarding the hen house? Of course. So who would trust the oil industry, buoyed now and then by shifting political winds? It’s a never-ending gotcha game. One administration takes over and enforces or enacts watchdog regulations, then another comes in and turns its back, lets things slide and — BAM! — another dreadful “accident” that likely could have been avoided with due diligence, inspection and conscientious oversight, all of which tend to cut into profit margins.

When I think of manmade disasters like the one ravaging the Gulf today, my focus unfortunately turns to a similar catastrophe potentially waiting to happen next door, at Vermont Yankee, along the border in neighboring Vernon, Vt., just a calm northern breeze away. Could a meltdown occur at that geriatric plant? Has enough radioactive pollution already been released into the water, the air and soil to compromise our health? Don’t dismiss such questions as insane. There is much we do not know, are not being told, will never be told. Then those who shout it in the public square are called crazy. You can’t believe a word the public-relations men and lobbyists say. Those who take their rhetoric as gospel are misguided fools. Energy corporations cannot be trusted. They’re capitalists, not conservationists, no matter what they tell you.

And, yes, hate to say it (not really) but that includes snake-oil salesman Matthew Wolfe, our friendly biomass man — you know, the one who supposedly has Franklin County’s best interests in mind. It’s a joke, not just toxic smoke, something else he has no short supply of.

Sorry, fellas, not in my backyard. Why don’t you send it to Texas or Oklahoma, Alabama or Mississippi or South Carolina, places that deserve it.