The article on this page is owned
and copyrighted by the named author
Link
to original
article:
Alan Caruba
September 8, 2008
Lost amidst the many speeches delivered at the Democrat Convention was
one by Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. He is the Senate Majority Leader and,
as such, controls the legislative agenda in that upper house of
Congress. Harry Reid hates oil, but then, so does the Democrat Party.
The reason this nation is held hostage to otheroil-producing nations is
that the Democrats, going back to President Jimmy Carter, have waged
war on the American oil industry. This is especially important insofar
as nations ruled by monarchies, corrupt, and communist governments,
control 75% of the world’s oil.
Seldon B. Graham, Jr., the author of Why Your Gasoline Prices Are High,
a petroleum engineer and attorney, recently noted that “It is no
secret that Democrats are for renewable energy and are against U.S. oil
and drilling for U.S. oil. But, Democrats conceal the fact that they
have held this position for three decades. Democrats are not about to
change their thirty-year-old energy agenda.”
“Thirty years ago, Democrats selected ethanol as their renewable
energy of choice. Their ethanol agenda has proven to be a total
disaster. But, it is a well hidden disaster. Democrats continue to push
ethanol as the renewable biofuel which will eliminate our dependence on
foreign oil and our necessity to drill for US oil. It is surprising
that Democrats have been able to fool so many Americans about ethanol
for so long.”
Not only has the Democrat Party left us vulnerable to other oil
producing nations, but its ethanol agenda has created vast imbalances
in the world’s food supplies as corn is diverted from domestic
use and as a factor in our agricultural exports.
If you had heard Sen. Reid, a man who has said, “Oil makes us
sick. Coal makes us sick. Global warming makes us sick,” you
would have heard him attack oil as the reason for all the woes of the
world. “President Carter warned us about it in the 1970s when he
proposed real solutions – conservation, fuel efficiency, and
alternative fuels – to what he correctly named the ‘moral
equivalent of war.’” President Carter, whose weak response
to the taking of U.S. diplomats hostage by the Iranian Revolution led
to the election of Ronald Reagan, was wrong then and he is wrong now.
So-called “clean energy,” wind and solar, provides barely
one percent of the nation’s need for electrical power. It does so
only because of the massive subsidies, like those for ethanol, the
federal government provides, but Harry Reid could not resist
characterizing the Bush administration as rife with “oil industry
cronies.”
He made no reference, however, to the Democrat’s agriculture
cronies. As Graham points out, “Democrats gave ethanol a 40¢
per gallon government subsidy in 1978. In 1980, Democrats gave insured
loans to build ethanol plants.”
“Currently, the government subsidy is 51¢ per gallon through
2010. Last year, the government subsidy payout for ethanol was $3.3
Billion. The government subsidy will increase to $18.4 Billion in
2022. Ethanol is causing severe economic harm to the American economy,
not even considering the increase in the cost of all food products made
from corn.”
This is occurring as Americans struggle to find the money to fill their
gas tanks and many worry about the price of oil to heat their homes
this winter.
Sen. Reid praised the Democrat candidate for President, Barack Obama,
saying, “He articulates a vision of energy independence that is
comprehensive and based on sound science and sound
policies…” This is a lie. No nation on Earth can be or is
energy independent. Even Iran has to import gasoline because it lacks
the refining capacity to provide it despite its own vast oil reserves.
America, too, needs more refineries, but the threat of “windfall
profits” taxes has kept our oil industry from making the vast,
billion-dollar investments necessary to build them and a matrix of
environmental regulations has made it even more costly and difficult.
The Democrats and their choice for the next President have resisted
permitting our own oil companies to drill for millions of barrels of
known oil reserves in Alaska’s ANWR and have resisted lifting
restrictions on exploration and extraction of oil on 85% of our
nation’s continental shelf.
Instead Sen. Reid called for more wind power, geothermal, and solar
power generation. He called for “smarter vehicles, more efficient
and accessible mass transit, energy-efficient building
codes…” These are the illusions the Democrats offer in
contrast to realistic, pragmatic and vitally needed responses to our
need for increased oil and natural gas production.
The Democrats offer the lie that such production would not impact the
current price of oil or our needs for “ten years.” The mere
mention of off-shore production caused the price of oil to drop when
offered by Sen. McCain. The end of the ethanol debacle would lower the
price of gas at the pump. Drill now. Drill here. That’s the
answer.
