Yes, we CAN drill our way out of this

You must have seen or heard it. It’s been repeated ad nauseum by Democrats on floors of both houses of Congress, before TV cameras and radio microphones and at recent campaign events. “We can’t drill our way out of this.” The donkey party’s latest mantra has been hammered home by the usual suspects from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to Barack Obama. Like most Democrat talking points, it’s a falsehood.

Yes we CAN drill our way out of this. Just the announcement of our intention to drill in any one of the Big Three Forbidden Zones (off the Continental Shelf, in the Baaken or in ANWR) would have a considerable impact on the speculators who have been driving the price of oil ever skyward for the past several months. Hugh Hewitt makes the point:

No one wants to get caught holding the contract for high priced oil when new reserves are discovered.

In fact, the speculation which has driven up the price of oil is only made possible because we have tied our hands to prevent ourselves from exploiting our own considerable domestic supplies:

In the current oil market unreasonable speculation is simply a symptom of the problem. That problem being the lack of a stable supply of crude oil.
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Current oil production levels are virtually identical to demand with very little excess capacity available in the event of an interruption. Political instability, weather hazards, refinery breakdowns, terror attacks, kidnapping/attacks on oil platforms and hostage taking, and other interruptions in production increase the risk that oil supply will not be able to meet the demand in the future.
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That is where the market comes in. If you are a large consumer of oil you purchase futures contracts, offering to buy oil in the future, at a set price that the seller has to deliver at that price — no matter what interruptions occur between now and then. In order to make a profit traders have to build in a premium in the cost of oil to offset that ever increasing risk.
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Increasing domestic production — Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less — would greatly reduce much of the speculation by mitigating many of the uncertainties. From the list above, if you developed domestic supply in various regions of the US (Both coasts, Rocky Mountains, Alaska, Plains) you would mitigate the major effects of weather, political instability, terror attacks, attacks on platforms, and many other interruptions because there would be additional supplies from the remaining stable US regions. Increasing refining capacity would help mitigate the effects of refinery breakdowns.
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This fundamental misunderstanding of the oil markets and the refusal of the Democrats to allow increased energy production has empowered the speculators in ways not seen since the markets began trading, resulting in a direct increase in the price of gasoline. The Democrat’s tactic of deflecting blame to the oil companies only serves to increase the speculation as additional restrictions and increased taxes on domestic oil producers historically leads to reduced domestic production.

But no one that I know of is claiming that all we should do is drill for oil to try to make ourselves more energy independent. Most advocates for increased domestic drilling see it as just one tactic in a compresehsive strategic energy policy which also encourages building more nuclear reactors, synthesizing liquid fuels from coal and waste celluloic stock, continuing the refinement of hybrid electric vehicles and developing hydrogen as a motor fuel, just for starters. We think that it’s really cool that used cooking oil can be easily made into something that diesel engines can burn. We see clean burning natural gas and propane as the logical alternative fuels for buses and fleet vehicles.

Nor are we only talking about the supply side here. Many of us have little or no problem with increasing the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, our homes and our workplaces. As conservatives, we have long argued that higher prices will help to drive down demand, and we are seeing that happen in the real world right here and right now.

The truth is that Democrats are so beholden to the environmental special interests that they’ve painted themselves into a corner on energy matters. The donkeys are trying to swim against an increasing tide:

Most voters favor the resumption of offshore drilling in the United States and expect it to lower prices at the pump, even as John McCain has announced his support for states that want to explore for oil and gas off their coasts.
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A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey—conducted before McCain announced his intentions on the issue–finds that 67% of voters believe that drilling should be allowed off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. Only 18% disagree and 15% are undecided. Conservative and moderate voters strongly support this approach, while liberals are more evenly divided (46% of liberals favor drilling, 37% oppose).
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Sixty-four percent (64%) of voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that gas prices will go down if offshore oil drilling is allowed, although 27% don’t believe it. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of conservatives say offshore drilling is at least somewhat likely to drive prices down. That view is shared by 57% of moderates and 50% of liberal voters.
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Nearly all voters are worried about rising gas and energy prices, with 79% very concerned and 16% somewhat concerned.

Yes, it’s still “the economy, stupid” and especially pump prices for gasoline and diesel, not to mention the high costs the airlines are incurring for jet fuel. The GOP seems to be waking up to what conservatives already knew. Make energy your number one issue and offer doable solutions to the problems of energy security and high prices.

The Democrats, meanwhile, have sentenced themselves to doing hard time in Al Gore’s lockbox, and they’ve entrusted the key to the Sierra Club. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of people, one which has consistently put its own selfish political interests ahead of America’s security and her citizens’ bank accounts.

- JP

Hold the environuts accountable

They have made a mockery of our judicial system; they have created much of our current energy mess so why not turn their tactics back on them? They have done nothing positive for this country in 35 years. The trial lawyers have made billions from suing tobacco producers because their product “kills”. I say it’s high time they start filing lawsuits against “big environmental”. These groups have made it their mission to create the circumstances we have today, where we can’t drill for oil, we can’t build new refineries, and we can’t build new pipelines.

Make no mistake these groups are killing people. They are forcing people to choose between gas and medicine, between gas and food. It is their mission to weaken our economy, they should be imprisoned, and these groups are the biggest threat to free people everywhere. It is time for people to rise up and deal with this threat to our democracy. These people need to be held accountable for the damage they have caused to this country and the world.

The time has come for AMERIPEC

The two major political parties are offering very different approaches to dealing with the high cost of energy. The Republicans are advocating measures aimed at increasing the supply of oil, while the Democrats want to punish the major oil companies. The Dems’ latest attempts to stick it to big oil failed yesterday in the Senate.

According to the donkey party, high gasoline prices are entirely the fault of the oil companies, and if only we slapped a stiff tax on their “windfall” profits, gas prices would fall faster than the Democrat Congress’ approval ratings. Oh yeah, that worked so well the last time it was tried, why not dig up its casket and give it another shot?

But the voters disagree with the Democrats:

Recent polling data from Gallup show the percentage of voters blaming oil companies for skyrocketing gasoline prices has dropped from 34 percent to 20 percent over the past year. At the same time, support for more drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas has increased to 57 percent from 41 percent.

Quick, someone get these numbers to the McCain campaign. Energy is the hottest button of all the hot button issues right now, and the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee needs to get fully on board with the program as proposed by Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions organization:

Drill here. Drill now. Pay less.

While McCain is okay with most offshore drilling proposals and is a nuclear energy booster, he still opposes drilling in ANWR. McCain has a golden opportunity here, as Larry Kudlow points out:

Sen. McCain has a great pro-growth plan to slash corporate tax rates, a move that would be a strong tonic for jobs and wages. But he must bolster that plan with a new emphasis on deregulated energy markets that can produce a total portfolio of conventional and non-conventional energy, including major new drilling. He should couple that with a strong-dollar message to curb both energy and non-energy inflation, which is shrinking consumer paychecks and damaging corporate profits.

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More oil, more jobs, better wages, and low inflation. That’s a winning GOP message this fall. But what if Sen. Obama gets there first? It’s unlikely, but not out of the question. Either way, voters will move to the candidate who connects with their worries. Right now those worries are up for grabs

In fact, if the United States would exploit all of its considerable energy resources - conventional and shale oil, coal and oil from coal, natural gas, diesel and gasoline from cellulosic feedstock, wind, solar, etc. - in a comprehensive energy plan, it could achieve energy independence by satisfying domestic demand. But it also has the potential to go well beyond that crucial benchmark and return to its rightful position as a major energy exporter.

And this has the potential to get even better. It would be in the self-interests of an energy-exporting U.S. and its major NAFTA trading partners Canada and Mexico, both already major oil exporters, to form an oil cartel of their own to take on OPEC. After all, there is nothing better for free markets than a lttle healthy competition, right?

Yes, this would all take years to accomplish. Not only do we need to get going with oil production, we need to put infrastructure in place, including new refineries, piplelines, CNG refuelling stations and the like. But had we started just ten years ago, we would now be on the cusp of realizing our domestic energy potential. So let’s get started. AMERIPEC, anyone?

- JP

The Real Obama

I think this 13min video should be required viewing for anyone voting in this years election….

http://www.eyeblast.tv/Public/Video.aspx?RsrcID=2036&offset=2

It’s the Oil Stupid!

Senate Democrats, unquestionably the least intelligent being walking the Earth today, have decided that American’s aren’t paying enough for gas.  With the price over $4 per gallon these mental midgets in the Senate want to institute a windfall profits tax on oil companies where congress will set what it thinks is an acceptable profit and then tax anything over that by 25%.  We’ve been down this road before and it failed miserably but Democrats, never willing to admit socialism a failure, won’t let that get in the way.

None of these Democrats have ever run a successful business so they are the last people on the planet who should determine what is acceptable profit for any business.  Aside from that they want to throw all the money from this boondoggle away more alternative energy failures like wind and solar.  I know many believe that wind and solar are great but the reality is that we have thrown away billions of dollars in the last thirty years trying to make this technology viable and it’s not.  The bottom line is that we need to increase supply and we need to increase refining capacity.

This plan, probably not even constitutional, will do nothing but increase the price at the pump because this is a cost of doing business and those costs will be passed on.  Why is it that Democrats refuse to learn from their failures, most people make mistakes, learn from them and move on.  Not so for congressional Democrats, they’re just not that intelligent.

Fix energy and you fix the economy

The one thing that everyone likes to do is gripe and moan when the unemployment numbers go up, or when energy costs go up but no one makes the link between the two.  The fact is that as the cost of energy goes up our cost of goods and services will as well.  Businesses in order to stay competitive have to cut back.  Many try to reduce costs, but it will usually mean that many have to layoff workers.

The media loves to talk about gas prices at $4.00 per gallon, but what they neglect to tell us is that in many parts of the country diesel is approaching $5.00 per gallon.  Most people don’t view this as a big deal unless you drive a diesel pickup but what most people forget is that everything you need to survive is transported by truck, train, and/or ship all of which rely on diesel to get products to market.

Now there are signs of hope, voters this week in one S. Dakota county approved a measure to allow a new refinery to be built there that will refine mostly diesel and jet fuel from supplies coming from Canada.  This was just a step in the process but a very important one.  While we haven’t built a refinery in 32 years our refining abilities for diesel have been reduced even further, diesel and jet fuel are easier and normally less costly to refine than gasoline but in the last few years the environmental nazis have forced more additives and garbage into diesel that makes it more costly to refine.

The reality is that we have to do a better job of extracting oil within our borders, and directly off our shores.  We have to work harder at buying from our direct neighbors, Canada and Mexico.  We must do a better job at building refineries.  We need to focus our technology investments to things we know that work.  Make sure we can extract every bit of power from oil and coal, focus on hydrogen for tomorrow as it seems to be the only fuel that seems viable.  Solar, electric cars all sound nice but the reality is we’ve been chasing dreams of solar for over 30 years and we still don’t have a technology that is cost effective for broad use.

Low energy costs are what drives the world economy as we go so goes the rest of the world with us.  It’s time to expel the idiot environmentalists that got us into this mess and get on with the business of increasing our energy supplies today and our options for the future.

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