Republicans threaten to shut down the federal government in order to force a vote on lifting the ban on offshore drilling. They are using the plight of struggling American families to get this ban lifted. They are convinced that by allowing more offshore drilling would force prices at the gas pumps to go down. This of course is a fallacy by our own government's admission and is an abominable interpretation of supply and demand in America today.
Recent statistics show that by decreasing the number of miles that American's drive decreases the price at the pump. This is the effect of supply and demand in actual practice. Another side of economic politics is that by simply threatening to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling OPEC lowered their price for crude.
Opening up new drilling will take several years before we extract the first drop of oil, and given that the life expectancy of the oil fields is around 20 or 30 years we are looking at an average of 700 million barrels per year. It is expected that we will consume 7.45 billion barrels of oil this year, so 700 million is only about 9%. Not much chance of that amount affecting gas pump prices.
Opening up offshore drilling serves American oil companies by increasing their lucrative subsidies. The more oil they produce = the more subsidy they receive. Oil industry subsidies further our dangerous dependence on foreign oil supplies and burden taxpayers with unacceptable costs to human health, the environment, and the economy. This energy policy also discourages private investments in new, cleaner technologies such as electric vehicles. Furthermore, hidden subsidies waste taxpayer dollars by undermining government programs to promote fuel efficiency, alternative fuels, and environmental protection.
So, republicans want to throw a tantrum in order to grant more money for their oil buddies and are willing to hold the federal government as hostage in order to do so.
President Bush and his crew purposefully lifted the 26-year-old offshore drilling ban at a time when it was common knowledge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is refusing to vote on it, the House of Representatives would break for an August recess, and certain spending bills are coming up for vote by the end of the fiscal year which ends in September. This is political maneuvering at its most selfish level.
Now, republicans have called on Newt Gingrich to dust off his old tactics of political chicken, that he made famous in the late 1990's, to threaten a shutdown of the federal government if House republicans don't get their way.
They claim that lifting the ban leads to an environmentally sound domestic production of oil and natural gas, will improve energy efficiency and encourage the development of alternative energy technologies. This of course is all bogus as well. Oil and gas companies have seen alternative energy sources as a threat to their profits. See here and here. But some are slowly coming around to realize they can be a part of it, that is of course as long as there is profit to be made.
Lifting this ban is only a band-aid fix at best and cannot possibly meet all of the high expectations that backers claim. If they truly want to encourage the development of alternative energy technologies then vote to fund these technologies. Don't throw even more money at big oil to build more oil wells that hold no real promise of easing American families financial woes.
If you truly want to improve energy efficiency, then push legislation that will force American automakers to build more fuel efficient vehicles (under much stronger measures than the baby steps you recently took), enforce stricter vehicle and industrial emissions standards (you may have to replace EPA Chief Johnson to get this done), develop better mass transit systems, design an energy infrastructure based on alternative fuel use, and force American oil companies to spend their windfall subsidies and obscenely huge profits on alternative energy research. They don't have to lose their standings as providers of energy for America, it just should not be in pollution-generating fossil-fuel use.
We need leaders who will do something more than just talk about the need to improve our energy situation and pass band-aid legislation that provides little temporary relief at best.
If you truly cared about the financial situation of the American taxpayer, then you would stop buying oversized mansions (sometimes more than one) while many Americans live in humble homes or are losing them due to your lack of regulatory attention, you would stop flying around in energy inefficient private jets while Americans are herded and stuffed like cattle onto increasingly more expensive commercial airliners, you would stop buying gas guzzling houseboats and yachts while expecting us to conserve, and most important of all you would return all of that money from special interest groups that amounts to nothing more than blatant attempts to buy your favor for their pet projects that benefit themselves and do nothing about easing the plight of the struggling American family.
If I am painting a picture of you politicians growing out of touch with the American citizen then I have made my point.
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