The Gas Prices We Deserve
George F. Will:
Rising in the Senate on May 13, Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, explained: “I rise to discuss rising energy prices.” The president was heading to Saudi Arabia to seek an increase in its oil production, and Schumer’s gorge was rising.
Saudi Arabia, he said, “holds the key to reducing gasoline prices at home in the short term.” Therefore arms sales to that kingdom should be blocked unless it “increases its oil production by one million barrels per day,” which would cause the price of gasoline to fall “50 cents a gallon almost immediately.”
Can a senator, with so many things on his mind, know so precisely how the price of gasoline would respond to that increase in the oil supply? Schumer does know that if you increase the supply of something, the price of it probably will fall. That is why he and 96 other senators recently voted to increase the supply of oil on the market by stopping the flow of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which protects against major physical interruptions. Seventy-one of the 97 senators who voted to stop filling the reserve also oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 President Bill Clinton had not vetoed legislation to permit drilling there. One million barrels produce 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. Seventy-two of today’s senators — including Schumer, of course, and 38 other Democrats, including Barack Obama, and 33 Republicans, including John McCain — have voted to keep ANWR’s estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil off the market.
So Schumer, according to Schumer, is complicit in taking $10 away from every American who buys 20 gallons of gasoline. “Democracy,” said H.L. Mencken, “is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” The common people of New York want Schumer to be their senator, so they should pipe down about gasoline prices, which are a predictable consequence of their political choice.
Also disqualified from complaining are all voters who sent to Washington senators and representatives who have voted to keep ANWR’s oil in the ground and who voted to put 85 percent of America’s offshore territory off-limits to drilling. The U.S. Minerals Management Service says that restricted area contains perhaps 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — 10 times as much oil and 20 times as much natural gas as Americans use in a year.
Drilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.
ANWR is larger than the combined areas of five states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware), and drilling along its coastal plain would be confined to a space one-sixth the size of Washington’s Dulles airport. Offshore? Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed or damaged hundreds of drilling rigs without causing a large spill. There has not been a significant spill from an offshore U.S. well since 1969. Of the more than 7 billion barrels of oil pumped offshore in the past 25 years, 0.001 percent — that is one-thousandth of 1 percent — has been spilled. Louisiana has more than 3,200 rigs offshore — and a thriving commercial fishing industry.
In his book “Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of ‘Energy Independence,’ ” Robert Bryce says Brazil’s energy success has little to do with its much-discussed ethanol production and much to do with its increased oil production, the vast majority of which comes from off Brazil’s shore. Investor’s Business Daily reports that Brazil, “which recently made a major oil discovery almost in sight of Rio’s beaches,” has leased most of the world’s deep-sea drilling rigs.
In September 2006, two U.S. companies announced that their Jack No. 2 well, in the Gulf 270 miles southwest of New Orleans, had tapped a field with perhaps 15 billion barrels of oil, which would increase America’s proven reserves by 50 percent. Just probing four miles below the Gulf’s floor costs $100 million. Congress’s response to such expenditures is to propose increasing the oil companies’ tax burdens.
America says to foreign producers: We prefer not to pump our oil, so please pump more of yours, thereby lowering its value, for our benefit. Let it not be said that America has no energy policy.
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Schumer is a ignorant Pimp
June 6th, 2008 at 8:42 amUnfortunately he is right, we have the bums we have now because we haven’t held them to account, we need to vote in those whom will push and deliver energy independence.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:43 amSchumer is a ignorant Pimp
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You give him way too much credit. He’s not a smart enough businessman to be a pimp …
June 6th, 2008 at 8:44 amWe need to get that oil while we still have cars that need fossil fuel… Wouldn’t that be a kick in the ass if we start drilling once we don’t have a big issue…
Or, let’s just use the rest of the worlds oil untill they run out and then we’ll be the only ones to have it. Then the Middle East will return to being the poor tribal-run desert piece of crap that it should be…
June 6th, 2008 at 8:57 amDouble digit gas prices is what we deserve!!!
June 6th, 2008 at 8:59 amI agree with Will and we are in deep shit as a nation if we can’t get rid of the idiots in our own Congress. This is definitely an election year that we are running defense but that includes Republicans that have no spine as well.
He quotes Mencken who also observed 50 - 70 years ago that “Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.”
June 6th, 2008 at 9:06 amSchumer and the rest of the ‘libs’ prove that to be true daily and it’s time for the grown-ups to stand up and take control of this country again.
America is falling far behind in the energy race, and it is a race, as compared to other countries. We have oil, we have coal, we can build nuke plants and zero emission coal plants. Also, the government usually has a 5-20 year technology jump on what is known by the public. Let’s get going with all this alternative fuel technology and stop all the nonsense. I couldn’t care less about global warming, as I believe it is a farse to say man has anything to do with affecting the climate, but I do care about the ability to tell the oil producing countries to kiss my Red, White and Blue ass. They are trying to use oil to do to us what we did to the Soviet Union with SDI which is to crush our economy. The jihadis stated that as an objective, to hurt our economy and they are now doing it. We need to remove those countries from the equation of our economy.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:14 amTAKE CONTROL OF RISING GAS PRICES: DON’T LET YOUR MONEY EVAPORATE
Here are some gas saving maintenance and driving tips that really work:
Vehicle gas caps - About 17 percent of the vehicles on the roads have gas caps that are either damaged, loose or are missing altogether, causing 147 million gallons of gas to vaporize every year
Under-inflated tires - When tires aren’t inflated properly it’s like driving with the parking brake on and can cost a mile or two per gallon.
Worn spark plugs - A vehicle can have either four, six or eight spark plugs, which fire as many as 3 million times every 1,000 miles, resulting in a lot of heat and electrical and chemical erosion. A dirty spark plug causes misfiring, which wastes fuel. Spark plugs need to be replaced regularly.
Dirty air filters - An air filter that is clogged with dirt, dust and bugs chokes off the air and creates a “rich” mixture - too much gas being burned for the amount of air, which wastes gas and causes the engine to lose power. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve gas mileage by as much as 10 percent, saving about 15 cents a gallon.
Fuel-saving driving tips include:
Don’t be an aggressive driver - Aggressive driving can lower gas mileage by as much as 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent on city streets, which results in 7 to 49 cents per gallon.
Avoid excessive idling - Sitting idle gets zero miles per gallon. Letting the vehicle warm up for one to two minutes is sufficient.
Observe the speed limit Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. Each mph driven over 60 will result in an additional 10 cents per gallon. To maintain a constant speed on the highway, cruise control is recommended.
Combining errands into one trip saves gas and time. Several short trips taken from a cold start can use twice as much fuel as a longer multi-purpose trip covering the same distance.
Avoid carrying unneeded heavy items in the truck. An extra 100 pounds can cut fuel efficiency by a percent or two.
For additional information on how you can cut down on the increasing cost of fuel visit http://fuellegacy.com/Tasuvus
June 7th, 2008 at 12:08 pm