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The Obama Nation
Democrats Refuse to Help Lower Gas Prices
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President Bush took a step to deal with soaring gas prices Monday when he lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that his stood since his father was president.
Since then, the price of a barrel of oil has continually dropped. This is seen by many as a market response for the over-inflated oil.
Quite simply, if we don’t rely as much on foreign oil, they have less leverage in driving up prices.
Anyhow, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stands firmly against offshore drilling, and unfortunately, the move by Bush will do nothing unless Congress acts as well.
Pelosi and other Democrats are refusing to budge on the grounds that offshore drilling is environmentally unsafe.
However, the Oil in the Water report from the National Academy of Sciences contradicts the environmental argument against drilling offshore.
According to the report, the following factors result in oil seepage into the oceans:
- 1% off shore platforms
- 32% consumers (boats, jet skis, etc.)
- 4% transportation (oil tankers)
- 63% natural seepage – cracks in the earth
Therefore, 99% of seepage is “natural” or essentially unavoidable, and the off shore platforms are not the problem.
Additionally, the U.S. Coast Guard reports the following volumes of U.S. Offshore Oil Spills in the past 38 years:
- 3.6 million barrels from 1970-1980
- 440,000 barrels from 1990-2000
- 1,000 barrels from 2000-2004
What can we infer from this? I’d say it’s safer to drill offshore and pipe it on shore versus having tankers sail all over the world.
By the way, for anybody who is keeping score, Pelosi stated back in April 2006:
“Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices by cracking down on price gouging, rolling back the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and royalty relief given to big oil and gas companies, and increasing production of alternative fuels.”
More than two years later, this “commonsense plan” hasn’t been shared.
Meanwhile, gas prices continue to rise. When the Democrats took control of congress in January 2007, the average price per gallon of gas was $2.33.
Now the average is more than $4.00 per gallon.
Is there any wonder that the Congressional approval ratings are at an historic low of 14%?
