Posted by
Dan Abbett on Sunday, July 06, 2008 8:53:51 PM
We are either sitting on or are surrounded by enough oil to meet domestic demand for the foreseeable future. When you add the potential of shale oil to the mix, we become the world's largest oil cartel.
As the per barrel price of oil increases on a daily basis and as we completely rearrange our lives as the price of gas destroys our budgets, our congress tells us, "we can't drill our way out of the problem."
Saudi Arabia says it doesn't see any need to increase supply, our supply from Mexico is endangered because of outdated equipment and drug wars, and Hugo Chavez, a complete hostile to the United States, just nationalized his oil reserves.
Islamic fundamentalists are sabotaging the Nigerian supply, Israel is gearing up to take out Iran's nuclear program and Iran has threatened to choke off the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic should they try.
And what does our congress propose to meet this very real threat to our economy and national security? Lower the speed limit to 55. by doing so, we save some 180,000 barrels of oil per day they claim. When you compare that to a 23 million per day usage you get less than one percent relief and that is if you trust their numbers.
As for ANWR, the area designated for exploration is 2000 acres out of 19.6 million acres. Do the math. That is less than one ten thousandth of one percent of the total area. Please present the charts that clearly show that 99.999% of the Polar Bears and Caribou live on that spot. Better yet, please provide the annual tourist data for that location.
The danger to our national security outweighs environmental extremism. The instability of the oil supply by those nations on which we most depend, demands we become self sufficient. We face the very real potential for the collapse of our entire energy and economic infrastructure and all congress can do is come up with slogans and investigate the oil companies.
We need an investigation allright, an investigation into just why in the hell congress is the key impediment to the solution of the problem.