Top 10 Energy Questions for the US Senate

As Congress last week headed into the Memorial Day recess, the Senate held yet another hearing to “get to the bottom of high energy prices.” One after another, Judiciary Committee members grilled oil company executives “on their roles” in the rising cost of fuel for their constituents. The Institute for Energy Research (IER) submitted the following ten questions for Judiciary Committee members who participated in the hearing:

1. Do you understand the fundamental economic principle of supply and demand for commodities pricing in the oil market?

2. Oil is a global commodity, bought and sold on the world market. Given that the nine largest private oil companies hold less than 5% of the entire world’s proven oil reserves, isn’t it more likely that the law of supply and demand is “manipulating” current prices than the five corporations represented at your witness table?

3. As a U.S. senator, you have control over oil production on U.S. federal government lands. Taxpayers own these lands and the energy that lies beneath them, but 97% of the federal OCS and 94% of onshore government lands are not being used. Are you willing to help increase the world’s supply of oil -- and thus reduce the price of oil and gasoline -- by allowing more U.S. energy to be produced from these lands?

4. The corporations represented at the hearing today produce roughly two million barrels of oil per day in America, for American consumers, with an American workforce. How many barrels of American oil, based on Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates, have each of you voted to produce?

5. How often have each of you voted against supplying American consumers with 10.4 billion barrels of oil from ANWR, 85 billion barrels of oil from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and 2 trillion barrels of oil shale in the West?

6. For those of you who have voted to restrict American energy supplies, especially during periods of increased demand, how are your actions any different than those that you have frequently ascribed to OPEC?

7. The sum of the American resources noted in question five is 2.095 trillion barrels of oil. The total proven oil reserves in the entire world is 1.3 trillion barrels. Which number is bigger?

8. As the gap between supply and demand expands, oil prices increase, and oil company profits rise. What’s the best way for oil company executives to send the entire U.S. Congress a “thank you” note for keeping energy supplies down and corporate profits up?

9. At today’s prices, the United States is sending $1.5 billion overseas -- per day -- to import oil from foreign countries. Do you think it would be a good idea to spend at least a fraction of that sum producing oil here in the United States?

I just did send this to my Congressman and two worthless liberal senators, along with this.

Dear Congressman,

I have but a few questions to ask you regarding the recent climb in fuel prices.

THE QUESTIONS (I am omitting them).

Perhaps once you answer these questions, you will begin to realize the strain that the American people have been put under in the last 5 months. Additionally, next week, the Senate will begin debating the bill authored by Warner, Lieberman, and Feinstein that will essentially amount to a “carbon tax” on consumers.

Don’t you think we are taxed enough with approximately 10%~15% of the cost of each gallon of gas going to either the state or federal government? Do you really think that corporations that fall under the carbon cap and trade system will really reduce their profit margins in order to pay the tax, or will they just pass the cost on to consumers through higher prices? Not to mention that this will ultimately ship more jobs over seas and discourage investment into our country (according to the Congressional Accounting office some one trillion dollars and nearly two million jobs in just a decade, Wall Street Journal May 27th, 2008, page A20). Why is it that approximately 40% of my pay check goes to a government agency in taxes, and then my “post tax” income has to fund state sales taxes and federal and state fuel taxes?

I am not asking you to vote no on Warner, Lieberman, Feinstein, I’m telling you to vote no! I am also telling you to give the American people some fuel pump relief with allowing the oil companies to drill and explore. There is no reason that we should not be exploring the same waters off of our coast that the Cubans and Chinese are exploring and drilling, especially when their environmental track records are very poor. While this is happening, we should be scraping regulation in order to create a free market environment that will allow investors to pour capital into good alternative energies. Government isn’t the solution to this problem, but it can certainly get out of the way of those that can fix the problem.

Finally, this is not rocket science. It need not be difficult to offer a short-term solution to get more supply on the market for our current infrastructure, while the intelligent people of the United States invest and create jobs for the future with alternative energy. By allowing our US companies to explore known energy deposits, we can stop the ridiculous speculation and create transparency and certainty that our citizens will have the energy we need to keep increasing the standards of living in our country and countries around the world.

Thank you for reading, and please consider these items when you seek my vote in the fall.

Sincerely,

FightinBluHen51
Maryland and USA Bred, Born, AND Raised Citizen

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.