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Posted on 05/16/2004 8:57:25 PM PDT by GailA
High-gas-price blues? Blame the greens
Posted: March 27, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
As gasoline prices continue to climb, finger pointing is becoming a national pastime. Led by Sen. Ted Kennedy, of all people, Senate Democrats say they are "outraged that the administration is not doing everything in its power to alleviate the strain on drivers, consumers and businesses."
This same Ted Kennedy, and Tom Daschle, have led Senate Democrats to block the administration's energy bill. They have done everything in their power to increase the strain on drivers, consumers and businesses by blocking every attempt to increase domestic oil production.
Americans have every right to be angry, as they watch the rising price of gasoline take a bigger bite out of their paychecks. But their anger should be directed toward the real cause of the unnecessary price increases: irresponsible reverence for the environment.
Anger should be focused on the League of Conservation Voters and the senator they have endorsed for president. Anger should be focused on the Sierra club, the National Wildlife Federation, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife and the horde of environmental organizations that go ballistic whenever anyone proposes to drill a new oil well or build a new refinery.
Had these organizations and their well-funded congressional puppets not blocked exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge when it was first proposed, oil from that abundant supply would soon be coming on line to relieve supply pressure that forces prices upward.
But no. In every Congress for a decade, efforts to open ANWR have been met by massive, misleading anti-oil campaigns. The League of Conservation Voters claims that the oil there would last only six months. But the U.S. Energy Information Agency says that ANWR would increase domestic production by 20 percent.
Environmental organizations raise millions of dollars from mail campaigns that claim drilling in ANWR will destroy the last masterpiece of God's creation. The truth is that drilling in ANWR will affect only .1 percent – that's right, one-tenth of one percent – of the 19 million-acre refuge.
ANWR is the symbol for the greens' war on fossil fuel. Any use of fossil fuels is bad, according to the green gospel, and government should force society to turn to "alternative" fuels. This idiotic belief has resulted in regulations that add to the upward pressure on gas prices.
For example, fuel producers now have to formulate as many as 18 different blends to accommodate EPA requirements in different markets.
These same environmental organizations and Senate Democrats bashed the Bush administration unmercifully for withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol. John Kerry, in particular, wants the U.S. to submit to the Protocol, which would give a U.N. agency the power to not only regulate fossil fuel consumption in America, but to impose an arbitrary tax as well.
Anger about high gasoline prices should be directed at these green organizations and toward the congressmen who continue to do their bidding by blocking expansion of domestic oil production. Environmental organizations are quick to point a finger at the "big oil companies" for price gouging, and Senate Democrats take pleasure in blaming the Bush administration.
The Internet is full of schemes to force "big oil" to lower prices by boycotting selected suppliers.
The cause of escalating prices is simple: The demand for oil is outstripping supply. Far too much of our supply comes from foreign sources, over which the United States has little or no control.
The solution is equally simple: Increase domestic oil production. And the best place to start is in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, followed by further exploration and production from federal lands and from domestic offshore reserves.
Increasing domestic oil production will not destroy the environment, as the green organizations contend. Modern technology offers increased production with hardly any adverse environmental impacts. Increased domestic production will not only reduce the price of gasoline, it will provide hundreds of thousands of jobs needed to further stimulate the American economy.
Americans should by now be weary of the environmentalists' claim that we can significantly reduce the demand for energy if we only "conserve." We have conserved by improving the efficiency of fuel use. But, there is a limit on the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Further calls for conservation measures to solve the energy problem are like suggesting fasting as a cure for starvation.
The solution to the energy problem lies in ignoring the environmental organizations and getting a handful of senators to do the same.
There's plenty of oil, prob is we haven't built a refinery in umpteen years... because of the greens.
The benefit would come because we are currently using a great deal of natural gas to make power. This demand drives the price of natural gas upwards. The result is that petrochemical facilities that use gas a feedstock or need it for fuel must pay more and are less profitable. When the profit crunch is bad enough, the parent companies move the chemical plants to China, and Americans lose jobs.
I like clean air as much as anyone does, but if I have to choose between less than perfect air, loss of freedom to drive where and when I want, and loss of my job, I'll choose slightly more polluted air. For most of us, the difference between what is allowed now and what we'd see with slightly relaxed standards is a difference that we'd never notice. Those with breathing difficulties might have some problems, but even they will do better in an America that has good jobs as opposed to an America that doesn't have good jobs.
WFTR
Bill
The solution is equally simple: Increase domestic oil production."
Not so fast. We invest in foreign sources because it is CHEAP. A significant amount of "foreign oil" is pumped by private western countries and they travel the globe to find the cheapest resources. If domestic production was economically beneficial it would be done in a heartbeat.
IMO, bring Iraq online and prohibit its reentry to OPEC.
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Nah, blame the spineless politicians in this country. Someone had better start looking at the security of this country and soon before it is too late (it may already be too late).
We can use coal and have cleaner air. Really we have the capability to install "scrubbers" that clean the air better than what we breathe.
I have NO sympathy for any American who complains about the price of gas. Anyone with a little foretsight could have figured out a few years ago that gas prices weren't going to stay low. Instead, too many of us decided to buy the Excursion, the Suburban, the F-350 Super Duty (to drive to work as a commuter vehicle). I see it every day here in Wyoming. Big fragile ego + zero forethought = going into debt for an absurdly large vehicle. Cry me a river.
Right on target.
I would also add that any article about the rising price of gasoline is woefully deficient if it does not focus on the primary culprit in these high prices -- a U.S. dollar that has lost a substantial amount of purchasing power in the last two years.
...but if we made ethanol out of our millions of tons of agricultural waste, and all that grain we store until it rots, just to keep it off the market..and added a gallon of unleaded per gas tank...we could drive all we want, and our friends in the desert and Venezuela would be out of business.
No ?
Still, look at the change in price for a 3/4 ton 4wd pickup in 1980 vs today and you will see how gasoline prices have gone up less.
Then I assume you bought a boat load of then-depressed petroleum stocks and are now very rich indeed? Or is hindsight 20/20?
I don't invest in stocks. Do you drive a gas sucking beast?
Scrubbers are not as easy to maintain as they may sound. The stuff that they are scrubbing makes a very corrosive solution in the water used to scrub the flue gas. Regular steels cannot last, and the alloys that do last are very expensive. I think they also produce some pretty polluted water, but I haven't looked at the designs in some time. Either way, your point is good. There are several options available.
WFTR
Bill
No, I drive a Toyota RAV4. It gets excellent gas mileage. Is it relevant somehow what I drive?
You were complaining about people's lack of foresight. I simply pointed out that if you had such good foresight about energy prices you should be filthy rich by now. Given that you aren't, I see that you are simply wallowing around in the pit of hindsight all the while wondering why everyone else isn't in there with you.
Executive order; stroke of a pen, law of the land...cool!
Never fear, for John F. Kerry is here, declaring the prospect of lower gasoline prices "outrageous and unacceptable to the American people."
We can start at the front end of the process, by just adding adding pstachio shells or corn cobs you can raise the Btu rating. Pleanty of ideas, there has been so much money spent that we are tripping over thirty year old ideas. Nothing different today:
"Today I am pleased to announce that the United States will sponsor a $1 billion, 10-year demonstration project to create the world's first coal-based, zero-emissions electricity and hydrogen power plant..." President George W. Bush February 27, 2003
Yep.
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