I have been watching the news and the reports on how high the gas
prices are. All the networks followed the same pattern in their coverage. The report shows prices at $6.00 a gallon and higher, they interview people who say that they can’t handle the prices that it is now a choice of gas in their car or food on the table.
They cut to various government and Wall Street experts who opine on how high the prices might go and then attempt to explain why. It’s China and India’s economic expansion, or it’s some madman in one of a hundred countries who threatened to cut off oil to get even with
us or some slight.
Then they go to a Democratic congressperson and the finger gets pointed to the administration for not having an “Energy
Plan”! The networks all put the focus on how we should be conserving more, using less oil and energy and finding alternate ways of making energy. Only one of the networks, PBS, even bothered to ask a Republican what his response was.
He said the word I was waiting for—Drilling.
That’s right, gas is at six dollars a gallon and the media doesn’t even consider asking why we are not drilling for more oil. We know there are billions of barrels of crude oil under the ground in Alaska, The Gulf of Mexico and in areas like the Dakotas. Not one person interviewed mentioned that we should just drill for our own oil. I don’t know if that’s because the producers of the news report cut the people who said drilling out of the report, or if we have gone so far to the green end that it isn’t even an option in peoples minds. This is not the 1970’s when we were told (wrongly) that we were running out of oil; it’s just that we don’t have the capacity in our refineries to supply the demand.
In the 80’s we had over 30 refineries running in the United States, and there was just 3 types of gas blends. Now with over 26 blends, a different blend in each part of the country, we have
Fewer than 25 refineries. Still the Democrats will say it is conservation that’s the answer. The Democrats will not say what their plan is to bring prices down, they don’t have one; their plan is just to stop prices from going up too high too fast.
Does the media point that out? No! More troubling to meis the fact that the Republicans are not bringing it up either! Where are
the Republicans out in front of the gas pumps demanding the right to
drill for more oil? Why is the GOP congressional leadership so quiet on this issue? Why aren’t they demanding the bills to allow drilling to be brought to the floor of the congress? Why don’t they force a vote to show who is against the United States freeing itself from the burden of foreign oil? Why haven’t the GOP leadership, the President included, ask congress to make it easier for more refineries to be built so that we can handle the demand? At the very least,
instead of releasing the oil from the strategic reserve as the
Democrats want let’s just go back to 3 blends until the prices go back to normal?
It’s up to us, the American driver and business owner to demand action. I am not for more government but it’s the government that has put us into this position with it’s regulations and it’s favoritism of insects, rodents, and animals over people. Not allowing American oil companies to do their jobs and find and provide us with more oil is a result of a concerted effort to kill the oil industry in America.
The environmentalists have for years demanded that we use less oil and drive less and stop our industries from expanding, the Democratic party has been representing this point of view since the 70’s. We are now living in the world the Greens have wanted and it is hurting working people just as the Republicans said it would.
Imagine what would happen to the price of a barrel of oil if President Bush came out tomorrow and said, because of the war on terror and the crisis the country is going through I am signing an executive order to first go back to three blends of gas next open the oil fields in Alaska and start giving tax breaks for companies to explore for and bring more oil fields on line and finally build more 4 more refineries buy the end of next year and start the construction on 5 others. The price of a barrel of oil would drop over night back to the $50 dollar level and drop like a rock after. We as a party have to tell the American people they have a choice between $6.00 gas and the
world ending.
We are in the middle of a Presidential election and
Deciding what direction this country is going in. Time is running out before we go so far it can’t be reversed. Mr. President stand up for the working people in America get these prices lower before you leave office. Show the voters it is the GOP that has their interest in mind and let voters hold Democrats responsible for their actions.
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Jim Leahy. a veteran grassroots organizer and is executive director of the Republican Assembly of Illinois, and a regular contributor to The Chicago Daily Observer.
Dan Kelley says:
There's actually some oil to be found in Southern Illinois, but the hard core greens do not want it to be drilled for. The leftist fantasy is that by destroying the economy of the USA and the auto industry that their socialist revolution will succeed. Do not drink the Kool-Aid.
David White says:
Here's the deal. Once elected, congressional members, senate and house, don't care if gasoline is $45.00 or $50.00 a gallon. Why? Because they don't pay for it. Next why. They are all mostly millionaires who keep their oil investments secret through trusts and family members. All nations are the same. Once you get into power you do everything you can to keep it, politically and financially. It's not environmentalists, democrats, or republicans. It is greed, plain and simple. We shall never overcome it. We just just replace the players from generation to generation. They don't care. Why should they, they have the money. All us fools of the masses can just suck it up.