It's Time To Drill

The Weekly Standard: Democrats Are Losing The Fight Over Gas Prices, And They Know It

(Weekly Standard)  This column was written by Matthew Continetti.

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Gas is still at $4 a gallon, but the good news is there's an emerging consensus on a measure that would help: Drill for more oil here at home. President Bush dropped the executive ban on offshore oil and natural gas exploration last week, and House GOP leader John Boehner plans to lead a congressional delegation to Colorado and Alaska to highlight America's abundant energy resources this week. Polls show more than two-thirds of the public support increased domestic energy exploration and production. Guess who stands in the way.

Congress has its own ban on offshore energy exploration, and the Democrats who run Congress have shown no sign that they are willing to follow Bush's example. They have preferred to make excuses--about why the price of oil is rising, who is to blame for its rise, and why increasing domestic supply won't do anything to ameliorate the problem.

It isn't working. Democrats are losing the fight over gas prices, and they know it, too.

They have slowly changed positions as the absurdity of their arguments has become clear. First they ignored the problem altogether. Earlier this summer, Senate Democrats wasted time debating a carbon cap-and-trade scheme that would have raised energy prices dramatically at a time when those prices were already at record highs. Cap and trade crashed and burned.

For a long while, Democrats simply blamed the oil companies for the spike in gasoline prices. They proposed new windfall profits taxes on "Big Oil," which would of course be passed on to the consumer, making gasoline even more expensive. They even threatened to sue OPEC. Nonstarters all. The price of oil didn't drop.|

Then the Democrats--and, to their discredit, plenty of Republicans--decided to scapegoat "speculators." The thinking here is that commodities traders have a financial interest in watching prices go up. Well, some do. Others--those betting prices will fall--do not. The fact that there are traders of oil futures has nothing to do with why those prices increase. The "speculators" just make bets on where the price of a commodity will be by a certain date. This year, the bets on higher oil prices have been good because the falling dollar, rising global demand, and political instability in the Middle East and Africa are driving the price of this particular commodity upward.

When ignorance and finger-pointing didn't work, Democrats dusted off the law of supply and demand. But they refused to acknowledge that one of the best ways to increase supply is to expand America's production capacity by opening new territory to exploration. Rather, they demanded that Bush release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, forgetting that the reserve is called "strategic" for a reason. It's meant to be used in a national emergency. Bush has stopped new shipments to the reserve, increasing supply on the (microscopic) margins.

Meanwhile, New York senator Charles Schumer demanded that other oil-producing nations increase production in order to lower U.S. gas prices. If only the Saudis "produced half a million barrels more oil a day," Schumer said, "the price would come down a very significant amount." Maybe so. But why rely on the Saudis? Why not take steps to increase our own supply? Are we dependents?

The Democrats' next tack was to suggest that the oil companies are sitting on millions of acres of oil and not doing anything about it. Last week House Democrats tried to pass a "use it or lose it" law that would have denied federal land leases to oil companies if the companies couldn't demonstrate that they were producing energy on existing plots. The bill was rejected, and for good reasons. For one, there is already a "use it or lose it" provision in federal law. For another, the bill was premised on the idea that 4.8 million barrels of oil a day could be extracted from these "unused" lands. Boehner has asked Speaker Pelosi where this unsubstantiated statistic comes from. She hasn't said. That is because the number is a joke.

Finally, Democrats are attacking the pro-drilling folks for thinking ahead. Exploring deposits on the continental shelf "wouldn't produce a drop of oil for seven years or longer," wrote Senator Dianne Feinstein. Nobel laureate Al Gore said last week, "It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil ten years from now."

Leave aside, for a moment, the fact that no one is saying drilling is a short-term answer to the long-term energy challenge. Recall, instead, that Feinstein and Gore are simply echoing what critics say every time the drilling issue arises. Whether it is twenty or ten years ago or today, the answer is always, "You won't see anything for ten years." Okay, then. But if we had drilled ten years ago, wouldn't those supplies be on the market today?

No one pretends that drilling will solve all our problems overnight. But it will send a powerful signal to the markets that America is serious about energy and the global economy. It will send a signal that we are taking action, that we are not helpless. The 25-year boom of the 1980s and 1990s coincided with, and to an extent depended on, an era of cheap and plentiful energy. To get there again requires favoring the national interest over the parochial interests of environmentalists. No excuses. It's time to drill.

[dashortround]

1) Drill like crazy on US soil

2) Sell all of that oil to China

3) Pay oil company stockholders around the globe big dividends

4) Repeat as needed until all US reserves are drained dry

It''s simply "The Republican Way". Business as usual.

[chatmandu002]

Drill, Drill, Drill, Pump, Pump, Pump. We need to be energy independent. Let''s use our own oil and gases until the market can get us new sources of energy.

[veteran188]

jerriemc23, right on!

Solar,wind,conservation,

anyone that thinks drilling anywhere in the US is going
to make any noticeable difference is stupid,

thats like thinking there will be some big change if the republicons stay in office,

Drilling will make a lot of the wealthy , richer, and of course, that is just what the republicons want

SOLAR

[hbevis]

If congress had the g.u.t.e.s. they could pass some price controls in this Country like they did during WW-II. It was called a Ceiling price and it was on just about on anything that you could buy. They also had rationing of certain things. Gas, Flour, Coffee, and on and on. A farmer could not kill but so much live stock because the meat was needed for our fighting men and women overseas.

This may sound crazy to a lot of you younger people, but it worked then and very well.

Something like this might not work now days but it is worth talking about.

We are sure headed for a deep abyss if something is not done. People are losing work
they are losing their homes, and going down hill in general.

[hbevis]

If congress had the g.u.t.e.s. they could pass some price controls in this Country like they did during WW-II. It was called a Ceiling price and it was on just about on anything that you could buy. They also had rationing of certain things. Gas, Flour, Coffee, and on and on. A farmer could not kill but so much live stock because the meat was needed for our fighting men and women overseas.

This may sound crazy to a lot of you younger people, but it worked then and very well.

Something like this might not work now days but it is worth talking about.

We are sure headed for a deep abyss if something is not done. People are losing work
they are losing their homes, and going down hill in general.

solar

[dashortround]

Americans know that new drilling will only result in the last American oil reserves being sold on the open market to the highest bidder: communist China.

Why deplete our last native oil reserves just so the Chinese can have cheaper, more plentiful gas?

[dsproull]

Poor George Bush and *** Cheney! Vote McCain and he will pardon the intire previous administration for there little mistakes they made!!! VOTE McCAIN........

[sheila1346]

This article makes it seem as if congress is the bad guys that don''t want to "fix" the price at the gas pump. That is outrageous! The price at the pump has absolutely nothing to do with anything but the billions and billions of dollars being paid to the big oil executives! Off shore drilling will kill off more coral reefs and damage more of our fragile coast lines! The greedy pigs who want to keep on stuffing billions into their own bank accounts don''t care that our oceans and coral reefs are in serious trouble already and that the drilling was stopped for a reason the first time around! The oceans already have a huge dead zones where no life exists and one of the biggest is where drilling is going on in the gulf of Mexico! When the oceans can''t support life we die! No if ands or buts about it!

[noloyalisti]

Why won''t the GOP run corporations produce oil from the leases they already have where they have found oil? There are a huge number of these but the Republicans and oil corporations want to withhold the oil from Americans so they can control the price. Time to wise up and figure out who are really the enemies of the people.

[thgdriver]

I don''t, like most of you seem to, have the answer to our dependence on oil. If I did, I would not be posting here, that''s for sure. It does seem reasonable to conclude though, until the genie in the bottle grants us oil freedom we have few alternatives but to use whats on hand in our own country.

It''s important to remember that oil is used for plastics, asphalt, tires, the list seems endless. A lot of folks will be out of work without the golden black liquid. It''s not as easy as some here would make it seem.

[noloyalisti]

Drilling is absolutely the most stupid thing we can do. What about all this talk about conservation and the problems with rapid climate change. Did we suddenly forget about that?

The Grand Oil Party set this up 8 years ago when they invited the oil corporations to write the energy policy. Oh they also gave tax breaks to the brainless morons to buy Hummers (for their right wing buddies at GM).

Now you want to drill and cook the planet. How stupid is that?

Jimmy Carter is a anti-semtic moron that threw this country into the worst energy crisis ever, and was by far the worst president in history You lib idiots won''t be happy until America becomes a third-world country and we all share in the poverty of your utopian daydreams.

[terrapin78]

T. Boone Pickens, a life long oil man, says "This is one problem we cannot drill our way out of".

Yet, all of the neoCONS are trying to make drilling an issue.

Hundreds of thousands of US acres are leased for oil yet they sit idle. Drill on them first, then when all of those leases are drilled, then we can talk about off-shore drilling.

I believe T. Boone Pickens before I believe any Repug!

[Razzl]

It''s funny to watch these neocon clowns try to play their propaganda games against a moving target. No sooner do they decide to stir up the pot over gas prices when gas prices take a tumble as soon as their article comes out. If you''re going to swim in a perfect storm you may need a life jacket...

[ramos937]

Congress has its own ban on offshore energy exploration, and the Democrats who run Congress have shown no sign that they are willing to follow Bush''s example. They have preferred to make excuses--about why the price of oil is rising, who is to blame for its rise, and why increasing domestic supply won''t do anything to ameliorate the problem.
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Matthew C. either does not know, or choses to ignore, that there is no law that mandates that the oil from offshore drilling will go to the American consumer.
For example, the oil from the Alaska Pipeline is largely destined for Asian markets. Another reason for not opening the leases for drilling is that the USA refining capability is full up. We have not built a new refinery since the 1970s. Unless we cure these two problems, new drilling will not help us at all.

[veteran188]

if we had stayed with Jimmy Carter we would be energy independent right now,

what americans really hate is standing in line for 5 dollars a gallon gas,

because of the greed driven conservatives

[Syndicate]

The 70 million acres the oil companies have access to may or may not have oil on them. We can waste our time trying to find it or we can drill were we know the oil is. The Democrats Know there is very little oil on those federal leased lands. Thats why they are leased for almost nothing. The leases over a know oil field will be very valuable and will be expensive. I am tired of the political games. The Democrats have had a few good ideas and the republicans have had a few good ideas, including off shore drilling. Congress needs to stop playing these games and solve the problem. If they don''t get something done by November I say we vote them all out.

[pasquale56-2009]

High oil and gasoline problems should have being addressed 7.5 years ago. Instead the republican party decided to take in all the profits. Why do profit breaking oil companies need tax breaks for a problem that was known 7 years ago. Oil companies needed to forefill the commitments on exiting leases instead of sitting on them. Republican''s and oil companies help each other manufacture excuses to shift the problem elsewhere. This Bush Administration has constantly lyed and created an unfavorable economy for the American citizens. Just look and what is happening, high gasoline and oil prices, housing industry, all good paying jobs have been sent overseas, high food prices. Republicans, big corprations and rich oil companies have taken from the taxpayers for their personal gain. Hyprocrisy is the Republican platform.
thanks,
peter