This incompetent, irresponsible and thoroughly politicized
Democratic Congress is endangering our national security
and economic well-being by locking up our own energy
resources. It must not be allowed to blame the companies
that spend billions supplying our energy needs for its own
idiotic policies.
=o0o=
Congress Cannot Deflect The Blame
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:20 PM PT
First, Democrats dishonestly blamed oil companies for
overcharging. Now they falsely accuse them of keeping
their high-priced oil off the market. With public sup****t
for drilling growing, Congress is panicked.
In this presidential election year, the Democrats really do
seem to think they can fool most of the people all of the
time. Gasoline prices have reached well over $4 in much
of the country, but instead of fulfilling the duties given to
them by the voters in 2006 and allowing access to more
domestic sources of oil and gas, Democrats have thrown a
new headline-grabbing smear at Big Oil.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi complains that energy firms
are "sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they've
already leased," but with which they are not producing oil
and gas.
That same Democratic Party talking point was served up
by Sen. Russ Feingold. He asked oil executives at a
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month "to
explain why their companies are only developing 12
(million) of the 42 million acres of federal lands that they
are leasing" and "only developing 8 (million) of the 38
million acres of offshore leased areas."
According to Feingold, "the executives could not come up
with a good explanation."
In fact, they did ‹ it's the fault of Feingold, Pelosi, wannabe
president Barak Obama and every other member of
Congress whose environmental extremism has prevented the
oil industry from finding and extracting America's own
supplies.
When oil companies spend big money leasing land, they are
buying access to a great deal of territory, much of which has
no oil and gas underfoot. They have to spend still more big
money pinpointing the parts of that land where those energy
resources are.
All the while, they have to weave their way through a
labyrinth of environmental rules that Congress has imposed
on them, plus defend themselves against bogus legal attacks
from green extremists. Then, even when oil is found, it can
take years to prepare to drill.
So when Pelosi and other congressional Democrats claim
the oilmen are "sitting" on all that land, under which lies
an ocean of crude they are gleefully keeping from
consumers, those senators and representatives are lying
through their well-sharpened political teeth.
In fact, these companies are spending fortunes surveying,
building facilities on, and even drilling on much of this
land, though it may officially be classified as nonproducing.
The fact of the matter is that 94% of federal onshore lands
remain unleased, while 97% of offshore areas are similarly
off-limits to oil exploration.
Meanwhile the Communist regimes of China and Cuba
collude to exploit the oil and gas resources off our own
Gulf Coast. The blame here rests squarely on Congress,
which could repeal its quarter-century-old offshore
drilling moratorium tomorrow if it so chose.
Since Congress' enviro-driven 1982 moratorium, lease
purchases have dwindled to a fraction of their previous
level
(see chart).
www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=298681932620367
Who, after all, wants permission to drill in a dry hole?
This incompetent, irresponsible and thoroughly politicized
Democratic Congress is endangering our national security
and economic well-being by locking up our own energy
resources. It must not be allowed to blame the companies
that spend billions supplying our energy needs for its own
idiotic policies.
--- ---
Political correctness is destroying Europe.
America will be the next down the PC tube
greased by academic idiots like Scott Erb,
Noam Chumpsky, and Ward Churchill, and
Slick Willy & Hilly, Algore & Pelosi, and now
Barak Hussein Muhammad Obama, too.
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