Energy Policy Conference Call
June 19th, 2008 at 10:16pm Leo Pusateri
I, along with Gary Gross, Ed Morrisey, Noel Sheppard, and other bloggers. were asked to participate in a conference call (broadcast live on the Ed Morrisey Show) with U.S. Republican Representatives Michele Bachmann, Dr. Phil Gingry, Tom Price, Eric Cantor, Marsha Blackburn, and Adam Putnam.
Unlike the democrat majority, who are uttering the unbelievable Sierra Club meme that “We can’t drill our way into energy independence,” the Republican contingent in the U.S. House has a comprehensive plan that is designed to drill and otherwise make our way back into $2.00 per gallon gas.
According to our Republican representatives, we have the ability to extract 1.3 trillion barrels of oil from shale reserves; not to mention the millions of barrels of oil that we can extract from ANWR and the Continental Shelf.
They responded to criticisms leveled from the democrat side that if Nancy Pelosi was to bring a bill by July 4th, it still wouldn’t be a fix , since it would take ten years to retrieve the supply.
But they explained there is a significant upward pressure in the prices due to the current market and conditions, with the knowledge that the U.S. won’t pursue its own supplies. An opening of those resources will send a signal that we are going to join oil producing nations, and will send a message to speculators that will result in an immediate decrease on the upward pressure on prices.
(As an aside, by using that same logic, we would have today been enjoying the fruits of ANWR oil, had Bill Clinton not vetoed that legislation back in the mid 1990s.)
We’ve got the technology and the ability to explore in the deep waters off the coast and to do it in an environmentally safe way.
When the point was brought out to the Representatives of the fact that the majority party in congress is beholden to the interests of the extreme environmental lobby, they were nontheless optimistic that the democrats would eventually see the light and serve their larger constituencies.
Gary Gross has more on the call here.
During the conference call, the contingent of U.S. Representatives stated that they were honored to be communicating their policy to bloggers, and stated that bloggers were a driving force in the energy conversation; and that emails and letters come to their office from constituents who had read about the issues on blogs. Michele Bachmann stated that she is grateful to the blogosphere for the continual end-around that they perform around the agenda media in getting the facts out. Congressman Bachmann stated that she hoped to have similar events slated in the near future.
Truth be told, the democrats and the extreme environmentalist lobby are the only things standing in the way of our ability to move past economic stagflation and on toward the promise of true prosperity. The current condition of our economy and our current energy woes are inextricably linked, and blame for our sorry state of affairs can be placed directly at their feet.
We are in the midst of an increasing clamor in our nation over the undue pain caused by high fuel prices, and the extreme environmental lobby and their willing democrat (and RINO) accomplices will need to answer to an increasingly frustrated constituency; either now, or at the ballot box in November.
Entry Filed under: Congress, Economy
24 Comments
1. Rich | June 19th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
If rumors can drive the price of oil upwards, why the hell can’t legislation aimed to bring the prices down work?
2. neocon | June 19th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Great point Rich. I think I heard today that the enviromental lobby is the third largest contributor to the DNC.
That alliance and allegiance will hurt them in November.
3. Retired Spook | June 19th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
That alliance and allegiance will hurt them in November
Not nearly as much as the video of Obama saying he likes what’s happened to the price of gasoline — he would just have preferred that it hadn’t gone up quite so fast. If he wants to run on $4-5/gal. gasoline being a good thing, all I can say is get out of the way. Personally, I think that’s a non-starter.
The Dems like to put time limits on things, whether it’s a timetable for surrender in Iraq or the amount of time we have left before we reach the point of no return on global warming; but their rhetoric on the lag time on getting oil out of the ground is really coming back to bite them big time. Congressional discussions on drilling in ANWR began in the late 80’s, and we’d already wasted 6 or 7 years by the time Slick vetoed it. Now we’ve wasted TWO DECADES. With nuclear power plants we’ve wasted THREE DECADES. As dumb as the majority of Americans are, I think they are finally starting to get it. Spending $60.00 + to fill up the family sedan has gotten their attention. The straw that breaks the camels back will be the first heating bill this winter for those who heat with natural gas, propane or heating oil.
4. js | June 19th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Let em ponder on that during this summer vacation…in thier back yards, eh?
5. Retired Spook | June 19th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
js, what kind of ripple effect do you think that’s going to have if, say, even 10% of the people who were going to travel for vacation this summer, spend it in their back yard instead. How will the restaurant, hotel, airline, car rental, travel agency, marina, vacation resort, etc., etc. industries handle a 10% drop in business? Think they’ll be expanding or hiring any new people or giving any current employees raises?
6. Kahn | June 20th, 2008 at 12:33 am
The eco-crazy socialist agenda is turning into a train wreck. Hard to believe it.
I hope that the “liberals” continue to be so honest about their views in public.
7. ViralNexus | June 20th, 2008 at 1:45 am
I would use the word dense for the lot of you but that would be to polite. Her’s the problem numb nuts- if you look at world wide consumption of oil you will notice one thing. We are slowly going down while the rest of the world is hastily going up. No matter how much oil we supply ourselves we will never be completely dependent of foreign oil as long as we use it the way we do. Even in a best case scenario we will see the fruits of these drilling efforts in 5 years time to supply us enough oil to last us 8 years if we are lucky and then what happens. Probably the same thing that happened last time we ran out of oil.
Here’s a better scenario- the rest of the world will eventually run out of easily obtainable oil and oil that is harder to get to will sky rocket the price even higher. When that happens all of the countries that are dependent on oil will literally collapse overnight. The countires that aren’t will go unscathed and will amass riches never before dreamed of because the rest of the world will rely on them to get them back on their feet. If the US is one such oil free country it stands to gain more than it ever had while using fosil fuels.
The driving force behind technology is the consumer and if consumer demands that something other than oil lead the market than it will happen expeditiously. If we really wanted to we could invest massive amounts of money in technologies that are already advancing quickly on their own. There isn’t any reason at all that we couldn’t get most of our energy needs from renewable electricity. You can’t power an entire grid off of renewable power but if you decentralize and use even the solar panels and wind turbines that we have to day we could easily power most homes individually. There are also a handful of companies (most notably Nissan) that are coming out with extended range elctrical vehicles. With a consorted effort we could easily repalce a large percentage of petrol vehicles with electric in the 13 years it will take us to exploit and run out of the small oil reserves we have left. Batteries while still an issue can be fixed by a wide network of leased battery systems that could be exchanged at exisiting petrol stations.
Many of you always tauting the creative inginuity of Americans and our open market system. The solutions that you propose which will only prolong the problem if help at all are unintelligent and lack the creativity and the inginuity that America is known for. This isn’t even about the environment, it’s about moving forward not backward. Automotive technology has been the one industry where for more than a hundred years the technology has only improved slightly versus all other sectors. It is time to retire the IC engines that we use now and look to the future for Christ’s sake. Let’s solve this problem and be done with it.
8. kjstrouble | June 20th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Here is a thought on the effects of gas prices on vacations. The College World Series of Baseball is in Omaha this week. While the games are still selling out (locals love the games), hotel rooms were still available at the start of the series. Normally there are no rooms available until mid-week when several teams have been eliminated. Not as many out of town supporters came it seems. What will happen if this ripples across other areas?
9. Brian (Boston) | June 20th, 2008 at 3:02 am
“Truth be told, the democrats and the extreme environmentalist lobby are the only things standing in the way of our ability to move past economic stagflation and on toward the promise of true prosperity. The current condition of our economy and our current energy woes are inextricably linked, and blame for our sorry state of affairs can be placed directly at their feet.”
Maybe you should look at the statistics of the economy and see when this problem started. It did not start with the Democrats. And what was the energy policy of this Administration? Does it even have one today?
Let’s first close the Enron loophole and see where barrel of petrol is afterwards. This is the same crap that Enron did in California and they drove up energy prices.
And if we are going to wait 10 years for the first drop of petrol from some place not yet drilled, why not invest in renewable energies instead, which would produce faster results? That is real change we can believe in.
10. kjstrouble | June 20th, 2008 at 3:32 am
And if Slick Willy had not vetoed the earlier legislation, we would be getting the increase in supply by now. Wonder what that would have done for our economy?
11. Cavalor Epthith, Esquire, D.S.V.J. | June 20th, 2008 at 5:00 am
Leo,
I have not even listened yet but from the panel I know there will be much fodder offered for an article at my own site and for that I graciously thank you.
12. OpChaosUK | June 20th, 2008 at 7:01 am
I would use the word dense for the lot of you but that would be to polite. Her’s the problem numb nuts-
One who is “dense” would be one who doesn’t proofread his/her own writing after questioning the intelligence of others.
Numnuts…
13. js | June 20th, 2008 at 7:44 am
contraire mon ami
the mind fails to achieve brilliance while its mired in stagnant details like spelling…of course the ability to get the point accross far exceeds the petty nature of your arguement, no?
14. js | June 20th, 2008 at 7:57 am
anyone who thinks this energy problem started in the last 8 years is on drugs…or worse…our government acknowledged this was eventrually going to happen again back in the 70s…..congress is fully to blame for not enacting legislation and for not enforcing the little the did….
they enacted legislation that required typical consumer vehicles to achieve specific mileage levels…..so what happened? …..detroit and the oil companies lobbied for our representatives to ignore how they got around compliance….they made the family car/station wagon into an off road vehicle or van, both of which were provided exclusions to the legislation….we were cheated and our government representatives did nothing about it…now….we have millions of family vehicles spitting out much, much higher emissions than they should be…sucking up fuel at three times the rate they should….
and face it….Hussein is paying lip service to just about everything….but he did not lift a finger to change it either….they are all guilty of breaching our confidence…its not an issue of demoncrat or republican….its an issue of why we continue to allow business to lobby in washington….
did we elect senators and congressment to represent business interests or to represent our interests? we need to send a message and tell them its about the People of the United States that they work for, not Chevron and Chevrolet!!
15. Magnum Serpentine | June 20th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
The best way to get gas down below 1.50 is to begin price gouging investigations and trials against big oil and to arrest the speculators.
Also force the big wig oil companies to drill on the land they already have.
16. Danish Artist | June 20th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
MS (Multiple Stupidity),
“The best way to get gas down below 1.50 is to begin price gouging investigations and trials against big oil and to arrest the speculators.
Also force the big wig oil companies to drill on the land they already have.”
You keep regurgitating these falsehoods without providing one shred of proof to your ASSertions. Provide REAL proof or STFU!
Show trials and false arrests….uh, progressing into socialist/fascist doctrine?
Are you naturally this stupid or do you have to practice the art daily?
17. Jay Gaultieri | June 20th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I have a drinking buddy (a good guy so long as we don’t talk politics) who rails against the “enviros who are F*cking everything up” by preventing drilling in Anwar. At other times he rails against “socialized medicine” and insists on how good the economy really is due to his bang-up business as an independent contractor installing cable boxes.
Now I just happen to also be friends with this man’s landlord. The landlord complains about how my drinking buddy and his live-in girlfriend are forever behind on the rent for the third floor walk-up (over a bar) that they share, rent which is less than what I pay on my mortgage. He has no other vehicle besides the small truck he drives with the cable company name on the side that I know of. And if it weren’t for S-CHIP (we have it in my state) he probably wouldn’t be able to pay for health insurance for the two kids he shares custody of with his ex-wife.
President Bush’s most steadfast and vocal defenders are those whose core belief is that being fat, arrogant, ignorant, and living beyond your means is some kind of God-given American right. Being ecologically conscious is unmanly in their eyes, and the kind of rant you see on this blog about how all we need to do is drill more is an expression of that core belief. These Bushies who contemptuously deride hybrids and railroads and mass transit are also feeling economic pain. much moreso than they let on.
Truth is, Anwar could be drilled tomorrow, we wouldn’t get the first drop for ten years, and it would never provide more than 5% of our oil needs. A 2 mpg increase in efficiency per car would provide the same results. And the price of gas ISN’T going to come down.
At the same time, economic forces are making the unthinkable happen. More food will be locally grown, more goods are being shipped by rail, more people are taking mass transit, more hybrids are being sold, less SUVs are being sold, and people are driving less. No amount of Bushies insulting “the libruls” will change that. The end.
18. Dollardays | June 20th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Why don’t the oil companies drill on the millions of acres they already have available to them?
If the Iraq war wasn’t bad enough the cons are at it agin with the an oil scam.
19. Dollardays | June 20th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
10. kjstrouble | June 20th, 2008 at 3:32 am
And if Slick Willy had not vetoed the earlier legislation
We had to wait until 10 before the blame Clinton came out.
20. SEW | June 20th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
The libs think drilling dry holes “on the land they already have” will help. Awesome.
21. SEW | June 20th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
“Why don’t the oil companies drill on the millions of acres they already have available to them?
If the Iraq war wasn’t bad enough the cons are at it agin with the an oil scam.”
No mention here of the Iraq war on exploration for oil and gas.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121391719487790187.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
22. js | June 20th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
sorry jay hubnut
nobody really knows how much oil in in ANWR
and its not limited to ANWR like you try to act like…the pacific coast and all around the Gulf of Mexico also holds huge reserves….all in all..sufficient to replace a sizeable chunk of our oil imports….
and….
More than 2 TRILLION barrels. Untapped.
“That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today,” reports The Denver Post.
When asked about America’s least-publicized oil supply, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch said:
“The amounts of oil are staggering. Who would have guessed that in just Colorado and Utah, there is more recoverable oil than in the Middle East?”
Here’s the kicker…
The U.S. government already owns the land. It’s been right there under our noses the whole time.
Geologists call what lies in this region, oil shale.
And we have started to work on getting it tapped and into the market already…… thats why oil prices are spiking…we are being milked dry because they know that in just a few more years….we will not need them!!
23. Jay Gaultieri | June 21st, 2008 at 12:25 am
Okay mr insert childish insult here,
I remember the fascination with shale oil back in the late 70s when I was little kid. Interest in it booms every 20-30 years during a price spike and then it falls off again. A quick search on Yahoo! revealed a mixed bag of results, but almost all of them suggest technology is still emerging to make all of this cost effective and any application to bring it all online is some indefinite time in the future. If oil drops to, say $90 a barrel, then Royal Dutch Shell (A British-Dutch company I might add, if you don’t mind a foreign company being given that kind of control over US govt land) may just up and walk away again like Exxon did back in 1982. Out in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming the saying goes “Shale is the future, and always will be.”
By “they” you must mean foreign oil-producing countries, but “they” are charging what they charge because “they” can. “They” can sell to India and China as well. We ain’t the only game in town anymore. And if ANWAR and offshore drilling are so imminent, we wouldn’t need to keep such heavy military presence in the Middle East (That was supposed to bring cheap gas and didn’t).
What you’re trying to postulate is that you should be able to continue driving alone your Hummer with the A/C on full blast and the windows open for the rest of your life, and all the American people need to do is to allow a foreign company to be given control of thousands of square miles of American land forever. Which goes back to what I said before about how you view being fat, arrogant, ignorant, and living beyond your means as your God-given American right. Well it’s not.
I’d tell you to go buy some Union Pacific or CSX, but I guess you spend the bulk of your paycheck on gas for your SUV.
24. Mickey | June 21st, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman.
She is no conservative.
See her unconstitutional votes at my old blog:
mickeywhite.blogspot.com
See current info at:
bluecollarrepublican.com
Mickey
Rossville TN