Townhall.com, Where Your Opinion Counts
Talk Radio:   Bill Bennett   Mike Gallagher   Dennis Prager   Michael Medved   Hugh Hewitt   
TOP NEWS   LeftArrow - Townhall.com   RightArrow - Townhall.com  
Columns, funnies & more in your inbox!
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Michael Reagan :: Townhall.com Columnist
Put the Blame Where it Belongs
by Michael Reagan
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
[+] Text [-]
 
Poll
Who should John McCain pick as his running mate?














In case you haven't noticed, gas prices are soaring, hiking the cost of food and just about everything else. If you believe Hillary Clinton, the blame for all this lies on the shoulders of those greedy oil companies and their bloated profit margins, a notion that like just about every other snake-oil remedy she tries to peddle is simply not the case.

We're in the mess in which we find ourselves because of a small handful of people with the money and the power to inflict grievous harm on their fellow humans, whom they just happen to despise.

It's about time for you and your fellow Americans to know just who they are and what they are doing to all of us in the name of saving the planet that for millions of years has shown to be perfectly capable of saving itself without their help.

If you are really sick and tired of $4.00 gasoline, really sick of being dependent on foreign oil, and equally as sick of seeing your food bills go up, the conventional wisdom would lead you to blame the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. But that's a waste of time, as is blaming George Bush or the oil companies.

None of them make environmental policy. That policy is set by three individuals two who are located in New York City. If you want to drill in Alaska or the Gulf of Mexico or in the continental U.S. -- where billions of gallons of petroleum are just waiting to be tapped -- or build refineries, these three people stand in your way.

They are John Flicker of the National Audubon Society, Frances Beinecke of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Trip Van Noppen of the organization Earthjustice.

Flicker and Beinecke both live and work in New York City where they probably don't own cars, and they are happy that you have to spend more and more of your budget on food and fuel. You are being punished for being Americans.

Van Noppen runs Earthjustice from Oakland, California. None of these three is in touch with America. They hate America, they hate you. And they want your gas to cost $8.00 a gallon.

Earlier this year they filed a lawsuit to prevent drilling for oil and natural gas in Alaska. This is just a leading tactic in their arsenal. All of you need to call these three and demand that they get out of the way and stop impeding our rights to find and drill for petroleum here in North America. After all, if the Chinese are drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, shouldn't we be allowed to do so too?

They must be made to feel pressure -- the pressure you feel every day when you juggle your budget to cope with rising prices. These three people set energy policy in this country. They order Reid and Pelosi to do their bidding, and thanks to them and their allies in the radical environmental movement we are getting economically weaker. Continued...

1 2
| Full Article & Comments | Next >
Share:
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
 
About The Author
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of Ronald Reagan, is heard daily by over 5 million listeners via his nationally syndicated talk radio program, “The Michael Reagan Show.”
Subject: Hi
Something got to be done now about the gas prices.You can;t afford to go to work or anywhere anymore.Washington can stop it if they wanted to.But we all know where the big money is.

Start Drilling (Article Quoted)(3/3)
Members of Congress complain loudly about high oil profits ($40.6 billion for ExxonMobil last year) which equates to about a 9.75 percent return ,but frustrate those companies from using those profits to explore and produce in the United States. Getting access to oil elsewhere is increasingly difficult. Governments own three-quarters or more of proven reserves. Higher prices perversely discourage other countries from approving new projects. Flush with oil revenues, countries have less need to expand production. Undersupply and high prices then feed on each other.
But it's hard for the United States to complain that other countries limit access to their reserves when we're doing the same. If higher U.S. production reduced world prices, other countries might expand production. What they couldn't get from prices they'd try to get from greater sales.
On environmental grounds, the alternatives to more drilling are usually worse. Subsidies to ethanol made from corn have increased food prices and used scarce water, with few benefits. If oil is imported, it's vulnerable to tanker spills. By contrast, local production is probably safer. There were 4,000 platforms operating in the Gulf of Mexico when hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit. Despite extensive damage, there were no major spills, says Robbie Diamond of Securing America's Future Energy, an advocacy group.
Perhaps oil prices will drop when some long-delayed projects begin production or if demand slackens. But the basic problem will remain. Though dependent on foreign oil, we might conceivably curb the power of foreign producers. But this is not a task of a month or a year. It is a task of decades; new production projects take that long. If we don't start now, our future dependence and its dangers will grow. Count on it.
Sign Up to Post Your CommentsSign Up to Post Your Comments
If you are already registered, click here to login. Otherwise, please take a few seconds to register with Townhall.com. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to post your comments immediately, use the action center, get podcasts, and more!
Note: Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.
Salutation:
First Name:
*
Last Name:
*
Email:
*
Nickname:
*
Note: Nick name will be shown when you post comments.
Address 1:
*
Address 2:
City:
*
State:
*
Zip:
*
Phone:
      
Your daily dose of conservative columns, editorial cartoons, talk radio, news, and more!