Free Republic

Arthur Colby arrives at Quantico Marine Base by way of Groton boarding school and Dickinson College -- exclusive, private institutions that aren't exactly pipelines to the military. Officer Candidates School, he knows, will be unlike anything he's faced in his young life. At 20, Colby has a résumé crammed with hallmarks of the young and ambitious -- president of Dickinson's freshman class, internships with the Bush and McCain campaigns, a stint with a high-powered Washington consulting firm. He'd be well on his way to a bright future without the Marines. Instead, he's expecting six hellish weeks. Predawn hikes, obstacle courses,...

There is no yelling. No invective. No spittle-laced derision. Instead, there is a soft, warm welcome for the dozens of young men and women reporting to Officer Candidates School at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. Arriving in polos and khakis, they check in at their leisure, anytime between 8 a.m. and 11:59 p.m., filing off buses or dropped off by well-wishing parents at what could just as well be the first day of college. This is no Parris Island, the legendary boot camp in South Carolina where the drill instructors' ferocity explodes almost the instant recruits arrive. But for the...

Leadership: As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything? One of the interesting sidelights of the NY-23 race was an exchange on energy independence between Vice President Joe Biden and the former governor of energy-rich Alaska, Sarah Palin. Biden, who came in to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens, was reminded of the issue of energy. "The fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was 'Drill, baby,...

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

Energy Policy: Ignoring peak-oil Cassandras, BP has made another giant oil find in the Gulf of Mexico. We're not running out of oil. Our government just doesn't want us to look for it.The world is running out of oil and good riddance. That's the environmentalists' mantra. But since the first well was drilled near Titusville, Pa., 150 years ago, the prophecy has gone unfulfilled. Trouble is, those darn greedy oil companies keep finding the stuff. Oil has been produced in the Gulf of Mexico since the first well was drilled by Kerr-McGee Corp. in 1947. Some of the wells are...

Cap-And-Trade: The administration likes to defend bad policies with analogies to the post office. New studies from a business group and the administration itself confirm that cap-and-trade belongs in the dead-letter bin.Along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Rep. Ed Markey likens the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap-and trade bill to "about a postage stamp a day," based on estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office and the EPA. But as we and others have shown, they arrive at this magical number in part by ignoring the hit on gross domestic product and employment that will occur. As Garret Vaughan, economist...

Stimulus: Brazil, a leader in the use of biofuels such as ethanol and in the face of falling oil prices, still plans to spend huge sums to expand its offshore oil resources. Drilling rigs are infrastructure too.With oil prices scraping the bottom of the barrel, pun intended, there wouldn't appear to be much incentive to pursue the development of new oil resources. And in tough economic times worldwide, the necessary investment required would appear to be prohibitive. As the U.S. seeks to get its economy going by building roads, bridges and bicycle paths, Brazil has decided to create jobs and...

Energy: As Russian attack submarines patrol our eastern seaboard, Moscow signs a deal to help Castro's Cuba drill for oil off the Florida coast. In Moscow and Havana, the cry is "Drill, Comrade, Drill!"Two Russian nuclear attack submarines have taken up positions along our East Coast in recent days, another sign of renewed assertiveness by the former communist giant. The move comes as Moscow inks a deal with the communist relic of Cuba to drill for oil we refuse to go after. The submarines are of the Akula class, a counterpart to the Los Angeles class attack subs of the...

Energy Policy: The chief economist of the International Energy Agency says the world is running out of oil. We've been told that for the last 150 years. The only thing we're running out of is the will to drill.Ever since the first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pa., in 1859, experts have been predicting we would soon run out of oil. The latest is Dr. Fatih Birol, chief economist for the International Energy Agency in Paris, whose job it is to assess future energy supplies by OECD countries. In an interview with the Independent, Dr. Birol says that based...

Energy: With Ahab-like determination, environmentalists have once again blocked oil exploration in the American Arctic. They may just have succeeded in putting the American economy on ice.On Friday, a three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals Court panel in Washington, D.C., struck down the Bush administration's five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing off Alaska's northern coast. The plan was vacated, the panel ruled, because of allegedly insufficient environmental review because its "environmental sensitivity rankings are irrational." What is irrational is that despite a more than three-decade long record of environmental sensitivity at Prudhoe Bay and elsewhere, and despite booming polar...

A top expert tells Congress that oil will be around for a long time and high inventories and low prices are no excuse not to find more. Oil shock? How about a no-oil shock? Be careful what you wish for, goes the old proverb. Well, as we all had hoped, energy prices have fallen — but only as part of the global decline in economic activity. This has been used as an excuse to further discourage exploration for and development of domestic oil resources. But if the economy does recover, that policy could provoke another recession.

The last of the four public meetings Interior Sec. Salazar convened to receive input about the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas leasing program was held Thursday in San Francisco. Big opponent, Barbara Boxer’s emotional commentary was based on the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. Sen. Boxer failed to realize that in four decades American ingenuity has developed technologies that would prevent such a spill today.

US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday that long-awaited regulations to govern alternative-energy development off the country's coasts will likely be ready in the next "couple of months." The rules have been stalled for several months, since President Barack Obama took office in January and put off their finalization. The Department of the Interior, which oversees offshore oil, gas and alternative energy development, said in January that the final regulations were ready to be released, but were simply awaiting approval from the White House Office of Budget and Management. The rules would govern electricity generation from offshore wind, wave, tidal,...

Salazar schedules four regional public meetings on OCS during April Four regional public meetings will be held during April to discuss US Outer Continental Shelf energy resources and their potential development impacts, US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced on March 11. The meetings are scheduled for April 6 in Atlantic City, NJ; April 8 in New Orleans; April 14 in Anchorage, and April 16 in San Francisco. Salazar originally announced on Feb. 10 that they would be held as part of his strategy to develop a more comprehensive five-year OCS plan which would include renewable and alternative resources and more...

Republicans introduced in both the House and the Senate yesterday a bill entitled the No Cost Stimulus Act of 2009. This breathtakingly simple energy stimulus bill introduced by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) would accelerate offshore on the Outer Continental Shelf and in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and force the government to streamline the environmental and regulatory burdens that could otherwise block energy development for years. At a press conference yesterday, Vitter and Bishop explained that this bill would be a literal “threefer”: it creates tens of thousands of jobs, helps reduce dependency on foreign...

Sens. Hutchison, Murkowski, Bond Urge White House to Expedite Offshore Oil and Gas Development Domestic Sources will Relieve Stress on Americans, Reduce Dependence on Foreign Oil March 2, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Texas’ senior Senator, along with Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Kit Bond (R-MO) today led a Republican effort, urging the White House to tap new domestic energy sources and expeditiously complete the Administration’s five-year plan for offshore oil and gas development. Sens. Hutchison, Murkowski, and Bond were joined on the letter by 32 of their Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate.            “American...

Never underestimate a politician's ability to wriggle out of a clear choice. So it is with the so-called "Gang of 10" energy plan that is becoming the political escape hatch for Members of Congress, especially those "green Democrats" who suddenly want to appear to favor more oil and gas drilling. The Gang of 10 compromise was released before the August recess by five Senate Republicans and five Democrats. The plan would at least allow drilling offshore of four states -- Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas -- and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It would also allow modern seismic surveillance,...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - As the House GOP began the eighth day of its offshore drilling protest on Tuesday, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) led a petition asking the Senate leadership let the ban on drilling expire on Oct. 1.Republicans want to lift the legislative ban on coastal exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). President George W. Bush already lifted a 1990 executive order last month prohibiting drilling.The legislative moratorium expires on the first day of October, a day DeMint calls "American Energy Freedom Day.""We strongly encourage you to allow the expiration of...

We are the nation of Velcro, the light-bulb, the microwave, the Ford Model-T, and the Wright Brothers. We fought and defeated tyranny and fascism. We’ve walked on the moon. Where others see impossibility, our nation sees a challenge. Pessimism and hopelessness are not American characteristics. As the price of gas climbs higher and higher, doomsday scenarios are playing out in the media. Americans aren’t buying it, they’re demanding a solution. But our can-do nation is suffering at the hands of “can’t-do” congressional leadership. After months of prohibiting a vote on increased domestic oil production, House Democrats have gone on summer...