THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 156, July 15, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WHY OIL PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE:
NIMBYS, BANANAS, & GREENS
By Tom DeWeese
FULL STORY:
Prices at gas pumps are at some of the highest levels ever this Summer and Americans want answers. In particular they want the
names and numbers of those to blame. To answer that question, perhaps they should simply consult the phone book or look in the
mirror. Why? Because the main culprits in the rising gas prices aren’t necessarily members of OPEC, but the American people who
support policies that block new drilling and the building of new refineries. It’s that simple.
The real political parties in America are the NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) and the BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing
Anywhere Near Anything). These two political forces are driving the future of the nation by dictating the policy agendas of the
Republicans and Democrats. Soon, the national bird will no longer be the noble eagle, but the ostrich.
Americans are becoming adolescent children who want towns to remain small as they themselves have children who must have
schools, jobs, and homes of their own. They want to build their homes in rural areas with beautiful vistas and complain when
someone else wants to do the same thing.
They argue that a neighbor’s new home has blocked their “view shed,” never considering that their home used to be someone
else’s view shed or open space. Americans support programs to lock away land to keep wilderness pristine, free of human
development, power lines, and cell towers. Yet they want to use their cell phones and computers wherever they go. They want
three car garages to house the family van, the daughter’s little bug and the husband’s sports car; but insist that the landscape
not be blighted with filling stations, refineries, or power plants.
There’s no place in our pretty, clean, politically-correct, well-ordered world for industry to make the things we need, yet, when
all of our toys don’t work, Americans are outraged and they want heads to roll. Fix it!
Yes, what silly children Americans have become. Yet, one can hardly blame the results of two decades of implementing the
radical agendas of special interests like the Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy. These rich and powerful groups have
spent billions of dollars to push their agenda of no growth (called Sustainable Development) through Congress and to
indoctrinate the rest of us to feel guilty about our very existence. We’re sorry we need to use energy. We’re sorry that we have
to grow food to eat. We’re sorry that we keep inventing creature comforts for ourselves.
The answer from a sorry society, while not giving up our toys, is to just ban the building of the things that make them work. It
all sounds so noble. We pack public meetings to express our outrage over the idea of building a power plant in the community.
We certainly don’t want that smelly thing around here! Did you know that new cell tower would interfere with the view of the
historic battlefield? General Robert E. Lee didn’t see that tower during the battle, so it must be banned. Just get on your cell
phone and call everyone you know to come to the meeting and oppose it. And also, make sure you let them know that we are
all properly indignant about those evil developers trying to build more houses. Tell everyone in your new neighborhood to join
our protest.
Through pressure from environmental organizations, Congress and federal agencies have banned oil activity from more than 300
million acres of federal land onshore and more than 460 million acres offshore in the past 20 years. An estimated 67% of oil
reserves and 40% of natural gas reserves are locked away on federal lands in America’s western states.
Today’s domestic oil production comes from a diminishing number of wells scattered throughout the country. The most
important discovery of new oil reserves has been in Alaska in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR). Yet, Congress has
refused to allow drilling for this urgently needed American resource because of lies told by environmentalists that the drilling will
damage the Alaskan ecosystem. Such Green scare mongering is simply not true.
Instead, Congress plays to the whims of the Greens, NIMBY’s and BANANA’s by ignoring domestic resources and importing oil
from unstable political sources. By doing that, Congress eliminates pressure from highly paid Green lobbyists who want the land
locked away and sidesteps town meetings with angry citizens who don’t want oil wells in their back yards.
However, the nation’s energy problem is much worse than just not being able to drill our American oil. Even if we could drill our
own oil or even had a glut of imported oil, the supply crisis couldn’t be averted to bring oil prices down. That’s because the
United States hasn’t built a new oil refinery since 1976. All remaining American refineries are running at full capacity. There is
barely time for the plants to shut down to perform needed upkeep and repairs, since such activity will cause a bump in the system
and force prices up. The industry can do nothing to keep up with demand. Rules and regulations, both federal and state, are
blocking the industry’s ability to build new refineries.
Even worse: old, worn out refineries are closing, reducing capacity even more. In California, ten refineries representing 20% of the
state’s refining capacity were closed between 1985 and 1995. With California energy policy literally dominated by radical
environmental groups, it is unlikely that any new refineries will ever be built.
To build a new refinery would take a risk of at least $2 billion in a ten-year undertaking. In the end, even if permits are obtained
there is no guarantee that the refinery will ever be built. Nobody wants to invest in new refineries because there is no money to be
made. If there were investors willing to take the risk, where would it be built? What town would welcome it? What land would be
used? Radical environmentalists are well organized to build pressure on any politician who might support such an endeavor.
They know how to energize the NIMBYs and BANANAs. All the Greens have to do is voice concerns about air pollution or the
dangers of large trucks carrying hazardous materials or the potential for leakage into the environment. Just a hint at these things
and poof, the refinery is history. Scientific facts are rarely heard in the din of the argument.
The U.S. Department of Energy predicts domestic oil consumption will increase 43 percent by 2025, but production will grow only
by 23 percent. So, as our nation’s future teeters on the brink, Congress plays a coward’s game by producing an energy policy that
pours more than $23 billion of taxpayer money into alternative energy sources like windmills, solar panels and ethanol, all in the
name of conservation. The truth is, no combination of conservation, technology, or alternative fuels can come close to replacing
the fossil fuels system already in place. It will take years for research, testing, permitting, and construction of production and
distribution systems for replacement alternatives to be realized. Meanwhile, we need oil and gas now!
As Congress ignores its responsibility to the needs of the nation, the United States imports more than 60% of its oil from unstable
nations in the Middle East who uniformly hate us and would gleefully aid our demise. Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter to the
U.S.A., is in grave danger of destabilization. Arab radicals are angry over the Saudi royal family’s aid and support to the U.S.A. in
the war on terrorism. If a coup or a series of assassinations were ever to take place in that country by the radical factions that have
successfully launched several recent terrorist attacks in the Kingdom, the world’s oil supplies would go into a tail spin. The U.S.
economy would be pulverized.
Moreover, Saudi Arabian oil fields are manned in great numbers by foreign workers who live in compounds run by the oil
companies. These are tantalizing targets for the terrorists anxious to hit back at the United States. One has already been kidnapped
and beheaded. The U.S. State Department has issued warnings for the American workers to get out of Saudi Arabia. If those
workers obey that warning, who will run the oil fields and who will supply our oil?
Now is the time (in fact, we are way past the time) to put a longterm plan in place, a plan involving bold policies to keep the nation’s
lights on and transportation and industry moving. It must include opening access to energy-rich areas currently off limits for
exploration. Such areas include offshore site and the Outer Continental Shelf, and the mere 2,000 acres in ANWR.
Typically, as the nation’s urgently needed resources are locked away and the existing oil market grows more unstable by the day
with prices rising to new heights, our politicians are playing the usual blame game. The Democrats want an investigation of the oil
companies to see if they are gouging the consumer, ignoring the fact that the real gougers are federal and state governments which
tax every gallon by as much as 50 cents. This is on top of the increased costs of environmental regulations imposed on the oil
industry.
Predictably, the environmentalists are revving up their campaigns against SUV’s as they propose more and more draconian
conservation programs that are designed to get Americans out of their cars. Meanwhile, the Bush administration is busy applying
pressure on OPEC to produce more oil that we have no capacity to refine. No one is talking about real solutions.
The United States plays dumb as the Middle East grows ever more dangerous and unstable. We have allowed ourselves no
running room, no bargaining chip, and no alternative, should the region completely implode into terrorist anarchy. Our economy
would quickly resemble the World Trade Center on 9/11 and our national security would face severe threat. Energy has become the
molten lava of an inferno burning just under the surface of the U.S. economy, which is primed for meltdown.
So, oil prices continue to rise, as demand increases and supply gets locked away in a national park, or bottlenecked in an
ever-shrinking number of American refineries. Our elected representatives play silly games. Environmentalists relentlessly push
their anti-civilization agenda. And the indignant NIMBY’s and BANANA’s continue to sleep, satisfied that their world is well
controlled.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Tom DeWeese is the Publisher and Editor of The DeWeese Report and President of the American Policy Center, a grassroots
activist think tank. Headquartered in Warrenton, Virginia, the Center maintains an Internet site at
www.americanpolicy.org. Mailing Address: American Policy Center, 50-A South Third St.
(#1), Warrenton, VA 20186. Telephone: (540) 341-8911.
Copyright 2004 Tom DeWeese
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume VI, 2004
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
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
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy