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3/23/2008
Not just disingenuous - flat wrong
An informed and helpful friend forwarded a great little piece from the Heritage Foundation last month in response to recent congressional grumblings about gas prices. Feeling the pain? Yeah, me too. Nothing a politician likes to do better than respond to my pain. The Heritage folks addressed the introduction of legislation that would "lower the cost of petroleum by temporarily suspending the acquisition of petroleum for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve."
The SPR is the nation’s emergency oil stockpile, and it currently stands at nearly 700 million barrels, close to capacity. Nonetheless, the Bush administration is still adding to it, at a rate of around 100,000 barrels per day. Dorgan claims that doing so “drives gas prices higher by removing oil from the market.” That’s arguable, and in fact an Energy Information Administration study found that the impact on prices of filling the SPR is trivial. But what is particularly striking is that every sponsor of this bill is also an opponent of expanding access to domestic oil reserves, which contain far more oil than the amount at issue here. For example, a small portion of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is believed by the U.S. Geological Survey to contain 10 billion barrels of oil…. …. So another 100,000 barrels a day not going into the SPR can provide relief at the pump, but a million new barrels from ANWR and millions more elsewhere are an inconsequential drop in the bucket. Only in Washington (emphases mine).
So from Rep. Kagen's office comes a press release yesterday, whining about gas prices (didn't the new Dem congress promise to lower those prices?) and calling on President Bush to divert fuel from the SPR.
People are understandably angry about the escalating price at the pump. It is putting a strain on all of us. Diverting fuel from Strategic Petroleum Reserve will provide some assistance and we need to do what we can to help people now.
Give me a break. Here's how our Representative in Congress proposes addressing this nation's huge energy problem:
We must become an energy independent nation by establishing four essential goals, as we begin to confront climate change: (1) emit less carbon dioxide and other pollutants; (2) invest in renewable energy resources; (3) enable existing utilities to become renewable energy sources; and (4) begin to decrease the effects of human activities upon our environment.... In Congress, I helped to lead the way by sponsoring legislation to help consumers by empowering the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on price gouging refineries and oil companies.
Crack down on those evil oil companies and confront climate change. I could scream. Representative Kagen, when will you agree to support expanding access to domestic oil reserves? NOW. We need to start NOW. Again, The Heritage...
Granted, ANWR oil would take years to bring online. But debate over opening it stretches back to a 1995 Clinton veto of a measure to do so. And ANWR was part of President Bush's energy agenda since 2001, but has been effectively blocked by these and other senators.
Yes, those high prices hurt. And yes, it's definitely time.
Cross-posted from Who the Hell is Dr. Kagen?
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