THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 148, June 15, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
A WORLD AFLOAT ON AN OCEAN OF OIL
By Alan Caruba
ENVIRONMENTALISM, U.S. PUBLIC POLICY, & AMERICA'S ENERGY NEEDS: AN OIL & NATURAL GAS SHORTAGE
CREATED BY U.S. ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES WHICH IMPLEMENT THE ENVIRONMENTALIST POLITICAL AGENDA --
HOW THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF & IN CAHOOTS WITH THE POLITICAL
ENVIRONMENTALISTS, HAS CAUSED AN ENERGY SHORTAGE & ESCALATING ENERGY PRICES FOR AMERICANS, DESPITE THE
FACT THAT THE U.S.A. HAS AN ABUNDANCE OF UNTAPPED OIL & NATURAL GAS RESERVES -- THE ENVIRONMENTALIST
MOVEMENT & ITS ABILITY TO SHAPE & CONTROL AMERICAN GOVERNMENTAL POLICY DECISION-MAKING AT THE
NATIONAL LEVEL -- OBSTRUCTING & PREVENTING EXPLORATION, EXTRACTION, & EXPLOITATION OF U.S. DOMESTIC
ENERGY SOURCES
FULL STORY:
Considering how much untapped oil is known to exist, not just in the United States of America, but worldwide, one would
think that its current price was some kind of anomaly, and it is. It is more the result of speculation than anything else.
The most fundamental fact about oil worldwide is that there is lots of it. Though frequently overlooked, the ability to refine
crude oil plays an essential role in the supply and demand equation. More refining capacity is needed worldwide. Finally,
there’s the fact that, in general, oil is very expensive to get at and often found in the most inhospitable places on Earth.
For sheer insanity, however, consider a nation that has an estimated 31 billion barrels of oil offshore of its coasts and 117
billion barrels of oil under land owned or managed by the government, plus 139 billion barrels beneath privately held land.
In just one area, a desolate place designated a wildlife refuge, there’s an estimated 7.7 billion barrels of oil untapped. The
nation with this abundance of oil is, of course, the United States of America. Most of the areas where oil is known to exist
have been ruled by the U.S. government to be off-limits to any exploration or extraction.
In the areas where it is accessible, drilling for it is hugely encumbered and often denied by the National Environmental
Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.
If, however, you connect the dots, you will have noticed by now that America’s energy problems, namely the price of a
gallon of gasoline or heating oil, is making everyone miserable, thanks in great part to environmental legislation designed
to make it impossible to access oil on both public and privately held lands. Then, just to make matters worse, the
government requires that every gallon of gasoline include the additive, ethanol, which reduces its mileage and increases
its cost.
Further, we’re told that U.S. Senator Barack Obama (Democrat - Illinois), if elected President of the U.S.A., intends to seize
“windfall profits.” This is sufficient reason for American oil companies to decide to drill anywhere other than in the U.S.A.
The last time a windfall profits tax was implemented was at the end of President Jimmy Carter’s term. It had such a negative
impact on U.S. oil companies that drilling for oil domestically dropped dramatically. It has stayed that way since the 1980s.
The oil industry's actual profits are now less than pharmaceutical, high tech, and other elements of the economy. Imagine
how thrilled oil company stockholders and wxecutives were to hear the threat of U.S. Representative Maxine Waters
(Democrat - California) to nationalize the oil companies.
No profits. No exploration. No drilling. And no domestic oil with which to correct our dependence on foreign oil and thus
provide a measure of security to a nation that runs on oil.
If you wanted to bring the United States to ruin, you could not have designed and implemented a more perfect scheme.
Along with too many members of Congress, environmentalists are America’s Fifth Column.
As my friend, Seldon B. Graham, a veteran petroleum engineer and oil industry attorney, and a graduate of West Point, says
of oil, “If it is worth dying for in the Near East, it is worth drilling for in the United States.”
As to the claim that the Earth is running out of oil, that can be easily dismissed simply by reading information available in
respected publications, such as, for example, in Business Week, the May 29, 2008, issue of which reported:
“The Saudis have embarked on an ambitious expansion
program that should see more than 2 million barrels of
new production capacity come onstream by the middle
of next year.”
Those of us who follow energy trends read the Energy Tribune because it has some of the best information available
on what is really occurring. In its May, 2008, edition, Matt Pickard wrote about the expansion worldwide of offshore drilling,
noting that today’s prices are being driven by increased demand from rapidly developing nations such as China and India.
This demand is going to increase over the next two or three decades.
Unless the United States begins to free up its own oil and natural gas reserves, Americans are going to be paying more at
the pump and in their homes for a very long time to come.
The good news is that the offshore oil and natural gas industry, despite the huge risks and costs involved and despite an
aging, understaffed workforce, is making strides to meet demand. Whether it’s in the Gulf of Mexico or the North Sea, the
icy waters of the Barents Sea or offshore of Brazil and Africa, massive new reserves of oil are being found.
“Large discoveries offshore Brazil, the continued progress in every region’s major projects, and the ongoing push for
Arctic exploration and production point to the industry’s potential for growth over the next 20 to 30 years,” wrote Pickard.
Brazil is poised to become a major producer. In its Tupi field, “Petrobas announced an aggressive development plan, with
an early production system possible within two or three years,” reports Pickard. The nearby Jupiter field has natural gas
reserves to rival Tupi.
None of this is a secret! Both privately owned U.S. and foreign national oil companies are going to find more oil and
natural gas.
Neither candidate for U.S. President is telling the truth these days because both believe global warming is real and both
keep blathering on about “alternative” energy. The big problem for the rest of us is that you can’t pour wind or solar
energy into a gas tank.
The U.S. mandate for ethanol as a gasoline additive has already significantly put the world’s food supply in jeopardy,
but most Americans are blissfully unaware that it requires 1.5 gallons of ethanol to produce the same energy as a gallon
of gasoline. Ethanol actually emits more carbon dioxide than gasoline. It is an environmentalist hoax.
The world is afloat on an ocean of oil. Meanwhile, the United States continues to rule 85% of its offshore oil off-limits to
exploration and extraction. This is occurring while the Chinese prepare to pump oil just offshore of Cuba, a mere 90 miles
from Florida. It is occurring while the Russians are looking to plant their flag on potential reserves of subterranean oil in
the Arctic.
The next time you hear a politician say we need to be “energy independent,” ask him or her why Americans cannot have
access to the oil reserves known to exist in California, in Alaska, and in many of our other states or off the coastlines of
Florida and elsewhere.
Ask them why the fate of the condors and little known species is more important than the family budget of Americans
forced to make choices between more food and more gasoline.
Ask them why they continue to claim that global warming is a threat, when the entire Earth is now in a decade-old cooling
cycle.
Ask them why they insist on blaming investor-owned oil companies whose own reserves are barely four percent of the
world’s known oil reserves? Ask them how they expect these oil companies to compete in the global marketplace when the
politicians threaten to seize oil companies' profits.
Energy is the master resource. It determines which nations thrive and which lag behind. For now, America is being
ill-served by a Congress that refuses to permit access our own energy resources.
Ask yourself how we have arrived at a point in time when both candidates for President believe in a non-existent global
warming and whose proposals offer no practical solution to our current and future energy needs.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Agriculture, the Economy, & Human Welfare:
Policy Issues Relating to Food Production
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2008
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity