THE HILL BLOG:
Inhofe: “Time to End Democratic Party's Obstruction”
By Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
July 24, 2008
Link to Blog
America is not running out of oil and gas, or running out of places to look for oil and gas. America is running out of places where the Democratic Congress will allow us to look for oil and gas.
Producing America's own resources should not be a partisan issue. The Democrats’ refusal to increase our supply of energy keeps prices on the rise.
Recent polling data from Rasmussen shows that 67 % of Americans support offshore drilling, and only 18 % oppose. The same poll also found that 64 % believe that if offshore drilling is allowed, gas prices will go down. Another poll from The Polling Company Inc. found that 81 % of Americans support greater use of domestic energy resources.
Even though the American public strongly supports expanded use of American resources, new oil and gas exploration and production is currently prohibited on 85 % of America’s offshore waters. The Pacific and Atlantic regions of the Outer Continental Shelf, which hold an estimated 14 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of gas, are off-limits. Fourteen billion barrels of oil is equivalent to more than 25 years’ worth of imports from Saudi Arabia. Other countries around the world aggressively explore and embrace the discovery of new oil fields. Canada allows offshore drilling in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Great Lakes.
No other country on earth has exploration technology as advanced and environmentally sound as the U.S. Still, Democrats oppose offshore production based on highly misleading environmental arguments. Major spills from drilling and production platforms are nearly non-existent. Both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which were massive Category 5's, plowed through the heart of Gulf oil production just four weeks apart, yet no major spills occurred.
Looking to Alaska, ANWR is estimated to contain 10 billion barrels of oil – about 15 years worth of imports from Saudi Arabia. If President Clinton hadn’t vetoed legislation allowing environmentally sensitive exploration on the Coastal Plain of ANWR ten years ago, currently we would have one million additional barrels of oil a day coming from ANWR.
Turning to oil shale, the potential energy development from these resources is massive. Once again, Democrats are blocking development. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 established a one-year moratorium on the necessary funding to complete the final regulations for commercial leasing of oil shale.
In an effort to hide their true record of blocking access to America’s own resources, the Democrats are engaged in a campaign of shifting blame claiming that there are 68 million acres in America where oil and gas companies have bought the right to drill and they are sitting on them. Very simply, not all leases contain oil. Sometimes at the end of the day there is no oil or gas found on a lease. For example, between 2002 and 2007, 52 % of all the exploration wells and 8 % of all development wells were dry.
I continue to call on the Democrats to act to expand refinery capacity and to open the nation's access to the Outer Continental Shelf, ANWR, and the Rocky Mountain oil shales, as well as preserve access to Canadian oil sands.
Today's American oil producer operates with the most sophisticated environmental technologies and policies on the planet. Sixty-seven percent of the American people recognize the need for development and support action. It’s time to end the Democratic Party’s obstruction. The American public must demand that the Democrats in Congress allow us to utilize our own resources.
For more information on Senator Inhofe’s Comprehensive Energy plan See: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=4cd3c4c2-802a-23ad-43e5-e13174960667
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