Posted by
Rich on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 10:27:41 AM
We continue to be amazed at the editorial board of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. In their column, "
Same old drill", they take the totally illogical position that we should not drill for our own oil.
Their
rational is it will take us ten years to get the oil flowing. This was
the same rational that caused former President Bill Clinton to veto an
energy bill in 1995 that would allow drilling in ANWR. If that bill had
been signed we would have 1 million barrels of American owned oil
flowing now into our economy every day.
According to Robert J. Samuelson of the Washington Post,
"It may surprise Americans to discover that the United States is the
third-largest oil producer, behind Saudi Arabia and Russia. We could be
producing more, but Congress has put large areas of potential supply
off-limits. These include the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and parts of
Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
By government estimates, these areas may contain 25 billion to 30
billion barrels of oil (against about 30 billion barrels of proven U.S.
reserves today) and 80 trillion cubic feet or more of natural gas
(compared with about 200 tcf of proven reserves).
What keeps
these areas closed are exaggerated environmental fears, strong
prejudice against oil companies and sheer stupidity. Americans favor
both "energy independence" and cheap fuel. They deplore imports -- who
wants to pay foreigners? -- but oppose more production in the United
States. Got it? The result is a "no-pain energy agenda that sounds
appealing but has no basis in reality," writes Robert Bryce in "Gusher
of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of 'Energy Independence.' "
As
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said, "The real common sense solution, as we
transition away from dependence on fossil fuels, is to increase the
supply of domestic energy. We need to get the government out of the way
and allow use of plentiful resources under our control. If Congress
stopped penalizing and handcuffing our domestic energy production, we
could produce an additional 2.7 to 3 million barrels of oil a day
within a relatively short period of time."
Senator Cornyn went on to say, "That is why Senate Republicans have introduced legislation, The American Energy Production Act,
an important step towards driving down gas prices for all Americans. If
enacted, this new legislation would allow access 24 billion barrels of
oil—enough oil to supply America for 5 years with no foreign imports.
It would also provide for authorization to explore for American oil in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental
Shelf (OCS)."
We have shown over and over again that conservation
and greater efficiency (like fleet mileage standards) do not work.
According to the Manhattan Institute,
"The history of the twentieth century is one of gigantic increases in
efficiency—and even larger increases in consumption. The American
economy has experienced massive efficiency gains: for each unit of
energy, we produce more than twice as much GDP today than we did in
1950. Yet during that period of time, our national total energy
consumption has tripled. Paradoxically, when it comes to energy, the
more we save, the more we consume."
Prices do go down when you
increase supply. The best way to lower energy prices, and reduce our
dependence on foreign oil, is to accelerate production of all forms of
domestic energy.
We have taken off the table drilling for more
fossil fuels in Alaska, the East and West coasts and in the Gulf of
Mexico. We have not built a new gas refinery in over 30 years. We have
not built a new nuclear power plant in over 40 years.
The
Sarasota Herald-Tribune is oblivious to the pain caused by high gas and
energy prices. All they, and their environmental friends in Congress,
care about is reducing carbon emissions.
Americans don't care about carbon emissions. What American's care about is cheap reliable energy.
The "same old drill" is the solution. Increase supply and reduce price. Economics 101.