THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 95, June 6, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
MEDIOCRITY REIGNS SUPREME: CONGRESSIONAL HOT AIR
SUBSTITUTES FOR U.S. ENERGY POLICY
By Paul K. Driessen
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM, UNITED STATES ENERGY POLICY, & HIGH ENERGY PRICES IN THE U.S.A.: THE
CONNECTION BETWEEN ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES -- HOW A LITANY OF ACTIONS BY CONGRESS, UNDER THE
INFLUENCE & CONTROL OF POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS, IS A PRIMARY CAUSE OF THE HIGH ENERGY PRICES
BUFFETING AMERICAN ENERGY CONSUMERS TODAY
FULL STORY:
In 1774, Irish statesman Edmund Burke told voters:
“Your representative owes you, not his industry only. but
his good judgment. And he betrays instead of serves you,
if he sacrifices his judgment to your opinion.”
Two hundred years later, U.S. Senator Roman Hruska argued:
“There are a lot of mediocre people. They’re entitled to a
little representation, aren’t they?”
Fortunately, Congress rejected Hruska’s appeal for mediocrity on the U.S. Supreme Court. Unfortunately, ongoing “debates”
on energy policy suggest that mediocre people are over-represented in today’s U.S. Senate and U.S. House of
Representatives, and good judgment has been supplanted by opinion and demagoguery.
U.S. crude oil output has declined 43% since 1985, as demand increased by 31% – and imports have skyrocketed to 60% of the
oil we use (compared to 28% just prior to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo). Meanwhile, China and India’s booming economies have
intensified global demand for oil.
As if that weren’t enough to send prices into the stratosphere, political unrest and muscle-flexing in Iran, Iraq, Chad, Nigeria,
Bolivia, Venezuela, and Russia have generated jitters and further price hikes. Additional upward pressure on gasoline prices
results from air pollution laws that mandate 18 expensive specialized gasoline blends for individual markets, highly subsidized
and hard-to-transport ethanol for broader markets, and a 54-cent tariff on imported ethanol.
Not surprisingly, crude oil is now over $70 a barrel, and gasoline hit a national average of $2.90 per gallon in April, 2006.
Congressional actions have likewise helped make clean-burning natural gas the fuel of choice for numerous applications. U.S.
utilities use 41% more of it than just a decade ago, and 87% of all generating plants coming online in the next 5 years will burn
gas – including plants that provide essential backup electricity for unreliable wind turbines that Congress and state legislatures
promote, subsidize or even mandate. Natural gas is also used to make fertilizer to grow corn and other crops, and burned to
convert various crops into ethanol and bio-diesel.
So demand is up, while production has stagnated, and natural gas prices have soared from $2 in the 1990s to nearly $9 per
thousand cubic feet today.
Winter heating bills soared 25% during the relatively warm Winter of 2005-2006, and fertilizer prices rose nearly 50% in a year’s
time. Facing sharply higher costs for heating, lighting and transportation, businesses and public schools are desperately trying
to control other costs, without laying off more workers. The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that more than
3.1 million high-wage manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2000; many have moved overseas, where natural gas is plentiful
and costs less.
But why are U.S. supplies so tight and prices so high? It’s not because we are running out of oil and natural gas. In fact, using
U.S. Minerals Management Service projections, the Consumer Alliance for Energy Security calculates that our offshore Outer
Continental Shelf contains enough natural gas to heat 100 million homes for 60 years, and enough oil to power 50 million cars
for 60 years.
MMS also says Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could hold another 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil. That's 30
years’ of imports from Saudi Arabia. Turned into gasoline, it would power California’s vehicle fleet for 50 years. At $70 a barrel,
ANWR oil could replace $1.1 trillion worth of foreign crude, create 500,000 American jobs, and generate hundreds of billions in
royalties and taxes.
But President Bill Clinton vetoed the 1995 legislation that would have opened ANWR to drilling, arguing that the oil and gas
would not be available for a decade – which is right now, just in time to meet the current supply and price crunch. What do we
hear from Congress? No drilling, because the energy won’t be available for a decade.
Even after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita – which impacted a fourth of our production and refining capacity – and in the midst of
the current price shocks, Congress cited flimsy environmental arguments and voted to keep U.S. oil and gas locked up: off our
Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico coasts, and in Alaska (including ANWR), the Rockies and Great Lakes.
Even California senators and congressmen, representing by far the biggest energy consuming state in the U.S.A., steadfastly
oppose petroleum development in any of these areas. And even Florida, our third biggest energy consumer, refuses to allow
one rig off its coast, to help slake its ravenous demand for oil and gas to power the cars, boats, trucks, planes, houses, hotels,
casinos, businesses, and air conditioners that make the Sunshine State’s good life possible.
Canada is drilling in the Great Lakes. China and Cuba are planning to drill 45 miles off the Florida coast. In 60 years of drilling
off our shores, there has only been one accident where significant oil reached shore (1969 off Santa Barbara). We clearly need
the oil and gas.
And yet Congress won’t budge. Congress won't budge on drilling, or on easing permits for refineries, pipelines, liquefied
natural gas ports, or nuclear power plants. About the only things Congress does promote are tax-subsidized ethanol,
biodiesel, wind and solar projects, which together supply less than 0.5% of our energy needs.
However, in a raucous showing of bipartisan, bicameral blather, neo-Hruskas did find time to denounce purported corporate
greed, price fixing, and obscene profits – and vote to outlaw “price gouging.” (On a gallon of gasoline, oil companies earn
about 10 cents profit, most of which they spend on new exploration and development work, while the federal government gets
18 cents in taxes, and states add another 28 to 60 cents in taxes.) Congress didn't how to define “price gouging,” but
are certain they’d know it when they see it (unless it's taxes doing the gouging).
In a few weeks, the same legislators will consider global warming legislation that could push energy prices up another 20% –
for no perceptible environmental benefits.
As Will Rogers famously observed,
“Every time Congress makes a joke, it’s a law. And every time
it makes a law, it’s a joke.”
If we could simply harness congressional hot air, America’s energy problems would be history.
Until then, however, Burke’s wisdom will be but a dim memory. Hruska’s paean to mediocrity will reign supreme. America will
be held hostage to foreign “oiligarchs” and domestic environmental extremists. And consumers will have to dig deeper into
their pocketbooks – or try to live more like the average family in China or India.
© 2006 Paul K. Driessen
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
American Government & the U.S. Congress
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Paul K. Driessen is Senior Policy Advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality, the Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, and the
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. Driessen is author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death, which can be
obtained at