THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 69, May 3, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WHY PUNISH OIL COMPANIES
JUST WHEN WE NEED MORE ENERGY?
By Dennis T. Avery
AMERICA'S ENERGY NEEDS, POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM, & U.S. ENERGY POLICY: HOW TAX & REGULATORY
POLICIES, INFLUENCED & SHAPED BY ENVIRONMENTALISTS AND THEIR POLITICAL ALLIES, HAVE AFFECTED ENERGY
SUPPLIES & PRICES IN THE U.S.A. -- WHAT MUST BE DONE TO OBTAIN THE INCREASING ENERGY INVESTMENTS WE NEED
FULL STORY:
Gasoline at $3 per gallon tells us vehicle fuel is scarce in America right now. Some U.S. politicians propose to “fix” the high
prices with an “excess profits tax” on the oil companies.
If you want less of something, tax it. If you want less fuel at higher prices, just raise the taxes on the energy companies.
If you want more of something, raise its price. Willing suppliers then find ways to provide it. Over time, competition and
investment bring down prices.
The excess profits tax is a political diversion to help you forget that it’s America’s own voters and politicians who have
created our current pain at the gas pump: Many of the “excess profits taxers” have voted consistently against more energy.
Bill Clinton vetoed drilling for the oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, which could boost U.S. domestic reserves by
50 percent. The oil drilling would impact about 20 acres of the 1.5 million in the wildlife preserve.
The Feds have banned drilling for America’s rich offshore oil deposits, except in the western Gulf of Mexico. Even Hurricane
Katrina failed to cause any leakage from the big oil wells there.
America’s oil refining capacity is strained to the limit, and governments won’t license more because people don’t want oil
refineries in their communities.
The EPA now mandates that our gasoline be blended with scarce and expensive ethanol, even though cars built since 1988
don’t need an “oxygenate.” Supplying 10 percent of our auto fuel as ethanol would force us to clear 100 million acres of
forests for fuel crops.
The Greens shut down safe, economic nuclear power plants with endless lawsuits. The rest of us let them.
Even the Greens are now backing away from costly, ugly wind farms, and solar is going nowhere.
There’s no shortage of petroleum. Canada alone has 2500 billion barrels of oil in the massive Athabasca tar sands, 400 miles
north of Montana. That’s 83 years worth of current world oil consumption. Steam injection can deliver the oil for $10-13 per
barrel, but it will take several years and big bucks to expand tar sands output importantly.
The First World is highly nervous about fossil fuels, even though there’s no evidence that burning them has significantly
increased the Earth’s temperatures.
Who told us that humans were more powerful than the sun? In the past 25 years, we’ve found massive global evidence that
the Earth has a natural, moderate 1500-year climate cycle linked to the sun. Deep ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica
say the Medieval Warming in the 12th century and the Roman Warming in the 1st century were both warmer than today. So
do seabed sediments, cave stalagmites, glaciers, and tree rings from around the world. The cycle is at least a million years old.
Six years ago, Green guilt gave California its rolling blackouts. California found that current technology really offers only two
alternatives for powering the modern world: fossil and nuclear. California opted for more fossil power plants.
Since then, millions of auto sales in China and India have underscored the world’s rising demand for energy. China and India
have decided to build both fossil and nuclear power plants, lots of them.
America today faces the same choice that was forced on California and China. We need more fossil fuel, more nuclear plants,
or both. Punishing oil companies will only discourage the increasing energy investments we need.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and is the Director of the Institute's Center for
Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org). Formerly he was a senior analyst for the United States
Department of State. Readers may write him at Post Office Box 202, Churchville, VA 24421. Email: cgfi@rica.net
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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