THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 158, June 30, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, DRILL ANWR:
To Pay Less, Save the Environment, & Stop
Sending Trillions to Foreign Dictators
By Paul K. Driessen
WHAT MUST BE DONE TO HELP SOLVE AMERICA'S ENERGY SUPPLY PROBLEMS: THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF
DRILLING FOR OIL IN THE U.S.A. -- THE NEED TO UNLOCK THE VAST ENERGY SOURCES WHICH THE U.S. GOVERNMENT,
UNDER THE PRESSURE & INFLUENCE OF THE ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT, HAS LOCKED UP & EXCLUDED FROM
EXPLORATION, EXTRACTION, & EXPLOITATION -- HIGH TIME TO RESUME AMERICAN OIL PRODUCTION: ONSHORE &
OFFSHORE, IN ALASKA & THE LOWER FORTY-EIGHT STATES
FULL STORY:
“We can’t drill our way out of our energy problem.” This daily mantra underscores an abysmally weak grasp of economics
by the politicians, activists, bureaucrats, and judges who are dictating U.S. policies. If only their hot air could be converted
into usable energy.
Drilling is no silver bullet. But it is vital. It won’t generate overnight production. But just announcing that America is finally
hunting oil again would send a powerful signal to energy markets, as well as to speculators, many of whom are betting that
continued U.S. oil drilling restrictions will further exacerbate the global demand-supply imbalance, and send “futures”
prices even higher.
Pro-drilling policies would likely bring lower prices, as did recent announcements that Brazil had found new offshore oil
fields and Iraq would sign contracts to increase oil production. Conversely, news that supplies are tightening – because of
sabotage in Nigeria’s delta region, or more congressional bans on leasing – will send prices upward.
One of our best prospects is Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which geologists say contains billions of barrels of
recoverable oil. If President Bill Clinton hadn’t bowed to Wilderness Society demands and vetoed 1995 legislation, we’d be
producing a million barrels a day from ANWR right now. That’s equal to U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia, at $50 billion
annually.
Drilling in ANWR would get new oil flowing in 5 to10 years, depending on how many lawsuits environmentalists file. That’s
far faster than benefits would flow from supposed alternatives: devoting millions more acres of cropland to corn or cellulosic
ethanol, converting our vehicle fleet to hybrid and flex-fuel cars, trying to build dozens of new nuclear power plants, and
blanketing thousands of square miles with wind turbines and solar panels. These alternatives would take decades to
implement, and all face political, legal, technological, economic, and environmental hurdles.
ANWR is the size of South Carolina. Its narrow coastal plain is frozen and windswept most of the year. Wildlife flourish amid
drilling and production in other Arctic regions, and would do so near ANWR facilities. Inuits who live there know this, and
support drilling by an 8:1 margin. Gwich’in Indians who oppose drilling live hundreds of miles away, and have leased and
drilled nearly all their own tribal lands, including caribou migratory routes.
Drilling and production operations would impact only 2,000 acres – to produce 15 billion gallons of oil annually. Saying this
tiny footprint would spoil the refuge is like saying a major airport along South Carolina’s northern border would destroy the
entire state’s scenery and wildlife.
It’s a far better bargain than producing seven billion gallons of ethanol in 2007 from corn grown on an area the size of Indiana
(23 million acres). It’s far better than using wind to generate enough electricity to power New York City, which would require
blanketing Connecticut (3 million acres) with turbines.
Anti-drilling factions also assert: “US energy prices are high, because Americans consume 25% of the world’s oil, while
possessing only 3% of its proven oil reserves.”
Possession has nothing to do with prices – any more than owning a library, but never opening the books, improves
intellectual abilities; or owning farmland that’s never tilled feeds hungry people.
It is production that matters, and the United States has locked up vast energy resources. Not just an estimated 169 billion
barrels of oil in the Outer Continental Shelf, Rockies, Great Lakes, Southwest and ANWR, but also natural gas, coal, uranium
and hydroelectric resources.
“Proven reserves” are resources that drilling has confirmed exist and can be produced with current technology and prices.
By imposing bans on leasing, and encouraging environmentalists to challenge seismic and drilling permits on existing leases,
politicians ensure that we will never increase our proven reserves. In fact, reserves will decrease, as we deplete existing
deposits and don’t replace them. The rhetoric is clever, but disingenuous, fraudulent and harmful.
The Geological Survey and Congressional Research Service say it’s 95% likely that there are 15.6 billion barrels of oil beneath
ANWR. With today’s prices and technology, 60% of that is recoverable. At $135 a barrel, that represents $1.3 trillion that we
would not have to send to Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. It means lower prices and reduced risks of oil spills
from tankers carrying foreign crude.
It represents another $400 billion in state and federal royalties and corporate income taxes, plus billions in lease sale revenues,
plus thousands of direct and indirect jobs, in addition to numerous jobs created when this $1.7 trillion total is invested in the
U.S.A.
It means additional billions in income tax revenues that those jobs would generate, and new opportunities for minority, poor,
and blue collar families to improve their lives and living standards. It means lower prices for gasoline, heating, cooling, food
and other products.
That’s just ANWR. Factor in America’s other locked-up energy, and we’re talking tens of trillions of dollars that we either
keep in the United States, by producing that energy -- or ship overseas.
This energy belongs to all Americans. It’s not the private property of environmentalist pressure groups, or of politicians who
cater to them in exchange for re-election support.
This energy is likewise the common heritage of mankind. Politicians and eco-activists have no right to keep it off limits, and
tell the rest of the world: We have no intention of developing American energy. We don’t care if you need oil, soaring food
and energy prices are pummeling your poor, or drilling in your countries harms your habitats to produce oil for U.S.
consumers.
Those attitudes are immoral and intolerable. It shows disdain for the world’s poor. And it’s bad for the global environment.
It’s time to drill again here in America – onshore and offshore, in Alaska and in the Lower 48 states – while conserving more
and pursuing new energy technologies for the future.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Paul K. Driessen is Senior Policy Advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality, the Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, and the
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. Driessen is author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death, which can be
obtained at www.Eco-Imperialism.com.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity