I was watching Glenn last night when he had Rudy Giuliani on talking about the current oil crisis. Yes, I said "crisis" because that is what we are in. When the price of a barrel of oil has gone up so dramatically in the space of a year and a half, I'd say we are in a crisis.
Mayor Giuliani has the right ideas about what to do. Drill, drill, drill. There is no other solution. Right now, the Democrat controlled Congress seems to want to do nothing but wait and watch gas prices go higher, our economy sink lower and then sit back, enjoy their perks and privilidges while pointing the finger of blame in the wrong direction.
Glenn Beck has a few words to say about that. In fact, it is clear that drilling at home and producing domestically is the only rational solution. The alternative is to wreck our economy and turn the U.S. to chaos. But what about the standard stock arguments from the greens? What do those arguments really mean and are they even valid? From CNN:
| "It's not going to help for another 10 years!" Here's the thing. America is a long-term plan for me. I don't know where these people plan to be in 10 years, but I plan to be here. This is, of course, the same argument heard around President Clinton's veto of ANWR drilling in 1995. Among other things, if we had started drilling ANWR then, oil would be already flowing. At its peak, ANWR could supply 1.45 million barrels per day, enough to tell Hugo Chavez and all his Venezuelan oil to shove it (with a little change left over). Of course, Clinton didn't have Chavez to deal with back then. If only he were thinking 10 years into the future. |
And this:
| "We can't drill ourselves out of this problem!" Maybe not solely, or forever, but it sure can help. With new technology, who knows what we can do over time? The government estimates that the outer continental shelf alone has 76 billion barrels of oil that are recoverable, and that's just with today's technology. To put that number into perspective, it's equal to every barrel of oil that we'd import from everywhere outside of North America for 31 years at our current pace. But instead of developing these resources, we throw up endless roadblocks. If you don't think that pumping more of our own oil would affect prices, ask yourself what would happen if we did the opposite. What if we announced today that we were turning all of our existing pumps off? |
More:
| "What about the environment?" This may surprise those who think I'm the pre-eminent murderer of the Earth, but the only real argument against owning our own oil destiny is an environmental one. Under this theory: High gas prices equal less gas usage, which equals a saved planet. Thomas Friedman, in a recent column, laid it out in an honest fashion: "Now that [gas] is $4 a gallon, the government should at least keep it there, since it is really having the right effect." He went on to describe Chrysler's promotion that guarantees cheaper gas as "the moral equivalent of tobacco companies offering discounted cigarettes to teenagers." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, apparently agrees, saying that coal and oil are making us sick along with "ruining our country" and "ruining our world." If you believe such nonsense, then it's perfectly rational to ignore our ample energy resources. (It's not rational to combine that with complaints about high gas prices, sorry Harry Reid.) For the rest of us, while visions of the Exxon Valdez may dance through your head, the National Academy of Sciences found that the offshore industry is among the safest industrial activities in the United States. And please, next time you hear someone complaining about environmental risks of drilling at home, remember this from a 2003 speech from the director of the US Minerals Management Services: "Imports present an environmental risk of spills about 13 times greater than domestic production" and "natural seeps account for 150-175 times more oil in the ocean than outer continental shelf oil and gas operations." NATURAL SEEPS? Now we know who the real polluter is -- that evil wench -- Mother Nature. |
Some very profound words of wisdon in their. Domestic production is the way to go until the day comes when we do build cars, freight trains and ships that run on pixie dust and unicorn whiskers. But those technologies are years into the future, if they are even possible at all. Solar power, wind power and ethanol could only supply us a fraction of what we need. Right now, domestic production would supply us all that we need.
You can access the complete column on-line here:
Commentary: Your Gas Money For A Flat Screen?
Glenn Beck
CNN.com
July 3, 2008
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