The asinine policies of the past are what put us in this predicament in the first place. Back in the 70’s is when we should have acted, but NO…. We have done nothing to prepare ourselves for the future. Now we are totally dependent on others for the majority of our oil.
As far as I can see it the Democrats don’t want us to do anything to get our own oil that way they can continue to go after bad oil but yet continue to reap million upon millions of taxes from them and us as the prices go up and up and up.
Kill the economy, force us into a corner and blame us for their ineptness and allow them to destroy the economy. Morons.
Charles Krauthammer: The oil we just can’t have
It’s there — in the Arctic and the oceans. It’ll help. But Obama won’t touch it, and McCain is only half-willing.
WASHINGTON – Gas is $4 a gallon. Oil is $135 a barrel and rising. We import two-thirds of our oil, sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the likes of Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. And yet we voluntarily prohibit ourselves from even exploring huge domestic reserves of petroleum and natural gas.
At a time when U.S. crude-oil production has fallen 40 percent in the last 25 years, 75 billion barrels of oil have been declared off-limits, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That would be enough to replace every barrel of non-North American imports (oil trade with Canada and Mexico is a net economic and national-security plus) for 22 years.
That’s nearly a quarter-century of energy independence. The situation is absurd. To which John McCain is responding with a partial fix: Lift the federal ban on Outer Continental Shelf drilling, where a fifth of the off-limits stuff lies.
This is a change for McCain, but circumstances have changed. When the moratorium was imposed in 1982, gasoline was $1.20 and oil was $30 a barrel. Since the moratorium was instituted, we’ve had two wars in the Middle East, and in between a decade of garrisoning troops in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE to preserve the peace and keep untold oil riches out of the hands of the most malevolent of our enemies.
Technological conditions have changed as well. We now are able to drill with far more precision and environmental care than a quarter-century ago. We have thousands of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, yet not even hurricanes Katrina and Rita resulted in spills of any significance.
McCain’s problem is that he’s only able to go halfway on energy production because he has locked himself into opposition to the other obvious source of domestic oil — the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
His fastidiousness on this is inexplicable. “I believe that ANWR is a pristine area,” he explains. Is it more pristine than the ocean, where he now wants to drill? More pristine than the Arabian Desert from which we daily beg the Saudi princes to pump more oil?
The entire Arctic refuge is one-third the size of the United Kingdom (which includes Scotland and Wales). The drilling site would be one-seventh the size of Manhattan Island. The footprint is tiny. Moreover, forbidding drilling there does not prevent despoliation. It merely exports it. The crude oil we’re not getting from the Arctic we import instead from places like the Niger Delta, where millions live and where the resulting pollution and oil spillages poison the lives of many of the world’s most wretchedly poor.
Our environmental imperialism does not just redistribute pollution to people who can least afford it. It generally increases the total overall damage because oil extraction in the wealthier and more technologically advanced United States is far more environmentally sensitive.
McCain’s unwillingness to include ANWR lacks even political logic. His policy on offshore drilling is a flip-flop from his past positions. Perfectly justified, but a reconsideration nonetheless. If you are going to take the hit for flip-flopping and for offending environmentalists, why go halfway?
The oil crisis handed McCain an unexpected and singularly effective campaign issue. A majority of Americans now favor drilling in the Arctic and offshore. Democrats stand in the way of increased production just as they did 13 years ago when President Clinton vetoed drilling in ANWR. Domestic oil production would be about 20 percent higher today if the Republican Congress had been allowed to prevail.
As expected and right on cue, Barack Obama reflexively attacked McCain. “His decision to completely change his position” to one that would please the oil industry is “the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades.” One can only marvel at Obama’s audacity in characterizing McCain’s proposal to change our policy as “old politics,” while the candidate of “change” adheres rigidly to the no-drilling status quo.
McCain is a lot of things, but the man who opposed ethanol in Iowa — as Obama shamelessly endorsed the most abysmally stupid of our energy policies — is no patsy of the energy producers. Americans know that increased production is needed to complement reduced consumption as the only way to get us out from oil shocks, high prices and national-security blackmail.
Alas, McCain’s proposed reform is only partial. Still better than Obama, however, who refuses to deviate from liberal orthodoxy. But that is the story of his campaign.
Charles Krauthammer column is distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group.
Tags: Congress Abuse
[...] is the source of the ANWR map, see the [...]
There is enough oil to last only 3 months in anwr…and if you think all of it will come to the US you are a ——…it will be sold to the highest bidder, YOU WILL NOT NOTICE A DIFFERENCE IN GAS PRICES…and that ‘little’ area that they would drill is an area absolutely vital to wildlife, specifically caribou, it is where they go give birth and one of the only areas left that holds enough nutrition for the newborns to survive…it would be a travesty if anwr is ever touched for oil
and the money and time that would be spent there needs to be spent on alternative energy development
I edited your comment you coward… I do not tolerate that language and the personal attacks are uncalled for.
ANWR
Here is your precious ANWR… See all the Caribou?
It is a fact that the Caribou are not there year round…it is a calving area and extremely vital…the 1002 area is one of the few areas that can be utilized by the caribou because of the high amount of vegetation, yes believe it or not there is vegetation in anwr.
It is also known that Caribou were pushed east by drilling in prudoe bay was opened, drilling in ANWR will push the caribou further and could have devastating effects.
And note I am using Caribou as only one example, this same thing will happen many other species.
And thank you for posting that picture, it is a truly amazing picture and is something that we should never put in jeopardy.
From the research I have been doing, it seems that the oil in ANWR would only reduce the price of a barrel of oil by at most $1.00, which would be less than $0.04 at the pump and because of the time needed to set up the infrastructure we wouldn’t see that $0.04 decrease for 10-20 years. Also, the oil is not found in one big reservoir, but in about 30 small reservoirs so most of the 1.5 million acre coastal plain would have to developed in order to get that oil out. And furthermore, now one that I have read has been able to give a reliable amount of oil to be found in section 1002. The last poll of Americans I saw taken in June of 2008 showed 55% supporting protection of ANWR despite high gas prices.
I would be interested in any numbers you have disputing the ones I listed above. I also have references for mine if you are interested.
wow this guy actually completely deleted my post that showed what is actually in anwr so he could maintain that it is a vast nothingness…what a joke
hello, thank you for adding your thoughts you are right about the oil prices…we claim we want to be energy independent but yet when our government sells the leases (im not just talking oil here, natural gas, etc…)for these lands to drill on they are often purchased by foreign companies…and as ive said before, oil from anwr WILL NOT all come to the US, it will go to wherever is willing to pay the most for it because our government will not put that regulation on the oil companies. And doesnt that describe our economy to a ‘T’, rich get richer and everyone else takes it good and hard (see all the bank buyouts)
the fact is that this country is a joke right now(economically and environmentally speaking)and is dragging the rest of the world down with it.
Bush deregulates everything for his buddies, his buddies rape the economy for everything it is worth, when it collapses we bail them out with our tax dollars and they take vacations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and they “buyout” CEO’s with millions of dollars.
I didn’t delete it, it was caught as spam because you had more than one link in it. I set it to no more than one link because of all the porn sites that spam blogs. This site has caught more than 10,000 spam posts.
ok well i apologize for the accusation then.