THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 145, August 3, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
EXPLOITING OIL FOR VOTES
By Alan Caruba
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM, PARTISAN POLITICS, & U.S. ENERGY NEEDS: POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS, FOR
THE SAKE OF THEIR RADICAL IDEOLOGY, & DEMOCRATIC PARTY POLITICIANS, FOR THE SAKE OF POLITICAL GAIN IN
FUTURE ELECTIONS, SEEK TO BLOCK ALL ATTEMPTS TO INCREASE AMERICA'S DOMESTIC OIL PRODUCTION, WHILE
IGNORING THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL ECONOMICS OF OUR DEPENDENCE ON PETROLEUM AS A SOURCE OF ENERGY -- A
VOTE TO PUT DEMOCRATS IN CONTROL OF THE U.S. CONGRESS WOULD BE A VOTE TO INCREASE THE PRICE OF GASOLINE &
NATURAL GAS
FULL STORY:
Despite the U.S. Senate’s August, 2006, vote to end the quarter century ban on offshore oil drilling, the Democrats could not
resist recklessly exploiting the current price at the pumps and oil company profits for political gain, while ignoring the most
fundamental economics of our national dependence on this energy source.
The bill now goes back to the U.S. House of Representatives, which had already passed the bill. In the House of
Representatives, a committee will work out an agreement on the separate House and Senate versions of the bill.
On June 29, 2006, House Democratic Floor Leader, Nancy Pelosi, attacked the bill to permit offshore drilling.
“This bill is bad for the environment of coastal states.
By revoking the ban on drilling for oil and natural gas,
it will subject many sensitive coastal areas to harm.”
As proof, Representative Pelosi cited an oil spill that had occurred decades ago in California off of Santa Barbara. There is no
evidence of any longterm damage. The same holds true for the famed accident in Alaska. In the real world, accidents happen.
In the real world, Nature makes the necessary corrections.
Representative Pelosi said:
“Democrats have a New Direction for America. We will
energize America with farmers fueling our energy
independence.”
This is so stupid as to defy belief. This suggests that, somehow, American farmers can grow enough corn — without using a
lot of oil and natural gas in the process — to reduce our use of gasoline.
“The populist rant that this [oil prices] is the fault of ‘rapacious’ oil companies is a glib and false response,” wrote Mortimer B.
Zuckerman, the Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report, in the August 7, 2006, edition. Zuckerman went on to
say:
“... and it’s especially unattractive when it comes from
Democrats, who have systematically blocked attempts
to increase domestic oil production. Oil prices, in fact,
are determined by a complex, and increasingly
competitive, global market.”
“The roots of our predicament,” wrote Zuckerman, “don’t lie in the boardrooms of Big Oil, but at our own back door.” He noted
that, “Two thirds of our petroleum consumption is for transportation.” While 3 out of 4 Americans commute to work via their
automobiles, part of the price factor reflects the following fact:
“Last year, for the first time ever, Asia consumed more
oil than North America. China is already the second
largest importer of oil.”
Part of the answer to gas prices is the simple equation of supply and demand, and America has the potential to increase
domestic production by more than two million barrels a day, but only if we permit oil companies to drill for it and to expand and
build new refineries.
Democrats, however, continue to demagogue the issue of oil. After ExxonMobil Corporation announced its profits in late July,
the Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, called the company’s profits “shocking” and part of the Republican Party’s “backhand
to the American people.”
Senator Reid, like his colleague, Representative Pelosi, is pushing the Democrats' plan, the “Clean Edge Act,” which is filled
with notions of alternative sources of energy and the reduction of U.S. consumption of oil to six million barrels a day by 2020.
I call it the “Corn Edge Act.” It is bunk. It is worse than bunk. It is a refusal to deal with the every day realities of oil
consumption by Americans and, increasingly, by nations coming out of their Third World status to join the rest of the world in
the consumption of oil.
The environmentalists have been blathering about global warming for decades now for the sole purpose of forcing America
and other industrialized nations to reduce energy consumption in anticipation of a climate change that is not happening. I do
not care how many phony computer models they produce, there is solid science that demonstrates global warming is not
occurring.
Yet Representative Pelosi has joined with some thirty House Democrats to sponsor the “Safe Climate Act of 2006,” charging:
“For decades, Big Oil and other polluting industries have
undermined and obstructed the voices of scientists on
global warming…. The Bush administration and the
Republican leadership in Congress are willing partners in
this dance of lies, muzzling government scientists, or
attacking their credibility when they refuse to remain
silent.”
In short, this is legislation that throws out the First Amendment protection of free speech in order to insure there is no real
scientific debate over the validity of the contention that global warming occurs.
The notion of “polluting industries” is a lie, and it's the worst kind of political bombast. The Earth itself is a polluter, emitting
tons of gases every minute, and not just from its hundreds of active volcanoes. Ever since the passage of the Clean Air Act,
America has had decades of increasingly clean air, but the Democrats are not interested in science or facts.
Every time you hear the words “alternative energy,” you should keep in mind that use of alternative energy sources come
with a price too. One of those prices is their failure to produce a sufficient amount of energy to be viable without government
subsidies. Remove those subsidies from ethanol, and it would cease to be manufactured. Ethanol produces less energy per
gallon than gasoline. While Democrats cry out against Republicans for their support of Big Oil, ethanol is a big, political gift
to the farm states where corn is grown. I like corn, but I don’t want to waste it to fill my gas tank and pay extra for the privilege.
The only alternative energy I like is nuclear energy, and it does not emit any pollutants! America is decades behind other
industrialized nations in authorizing the building of nuclear plants to produce the increasing amount of electricity we need. Or
would you prefer acres and acres of “wind farms” which are highly dependent on whether the wind is blowing. While
environmentalists decry offshore drilling rigs no one will ever see, they love the notion of filling up these same shores with
these monstrous wind mills.
We have national elections coming in November, 2006. If you vote to put Democrats in control of the House and Senate, you
are voting to increase the price of gasoline and natural gas. It’s just that simple.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
American Politics & Political Competition
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
© Alan Caruba 2006
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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