Excerpt:
Dear Rep. Brown-Waite,
Early last month, I wrote your office regarding my concern with rising gasoline prices. I received your response in an email letter today and I have a few comments.
I strongly disagree that increasing domestic off shore production of oil and natural gas, eliminating the tariff on ethanol and building more refineries are viable solutions to reducing gasoline prices. I will not vote for any representative that advocates that. I believe the solution is to reduce consumption and demand, not increase production. In other words, the real solution is a long-term strategy, not quick short-term fixes like the ones that you advocate in your response.
Firstly, according to the figures that you cite in your letter, of the estimated 88 billion barrels located off shore, 74 billion are already available to oil companies for exploration and production, leaving 14 billion that would be available by opening the ANWR and the rest of the Gulf of Mexico. At the current rate of U.S. consumption, an additional 14 billion barrels of oil amounts to a supply that would last about 667 days – less than 2 years.
Secondly, an analysis performed by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the independent statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy, found in a report published in 2007 that opening up the outer continental shelf in the Pacific, Atlantic and eastern Gulf regions would result in production no sooner than 2017, and would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil production before 2030. In other words, more off shore drilling is not even a viable short-term solution.
Thirdly, the price of oil and gasoline is determined by the international market. Increasing domestic production does not mean that oil tapped domestically by multi-national corporations will go directly into American gasoline production, even with increased refining capacity. It will be traded as a commodity on the world market, and like with any other commodity, the price will be manipulated by speculators in such a way as to maximize profit for investors.
Fourthly, of the 74 billion barrels that your letter claims are already available for exploration and drilling, the oil companies have elected to not pursue production of the vast majority of that oil. That is because it is not economically viable (aka. profitable) to do so, even at today’s high prices. Nationally, only about a quarter of federal leased lands are being tapped for crude or natural gas.
Recovering oil from domestic shale deposits is also a costly process, and is not profitable unless oil prices remain high. In other words, actually tapping all of that oil is more likely to keep prices high than to reduce them. Increasing refining capacity will not have any effect unless the oil companies increase production, and corporations will not do so if it is not profitable to do so.
Fifthly, reducing the tariff on ethanol, and ethanol production in general is not a viable solution to high gasoline prices. Increased use of ethanol fuel will drive up the price of corn and other foods used to produce ethanol on the global market. Higher priced corn and sugar means not only higher food prices, but also higher priced ethanol. That would more than compensate for elimination of the tariff on ethanol. The only way that ethanol can reduce the price of gasoline when blended is if it costs less than gasoline. Even if ethanol would reduce the price of gasoline (and that is debatable at best), lower gasoline prices will not benefit Americans if we have to pay higher prices for food.
Lastly, the risks involved in off shore drilling have been clearly demonstrated by the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Read more, see the text of Brown-Waite’s letter, and get links here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m5d12-Open-letter-to-Rep-Ginny-BrownWaite-and-any-other-advocate-of-more-off-shore-drilling
And one more thing, get a Mike Malloy podcast here: http://www.mikemalloy.com/ (I already have one).
That photo of Stephanie Miller on the main page today was taken by me on the same day I met Malloy for the first time. He said Bart’s a “true patriot” and so is Malloy. Please do what you can and support both of them, or all you’ll have left on the air is Rush, Beck and Hannity.