Top executives from the five largest oil companies spent Wednesday testifying before the U.S. Senate in a hearing regarding sky-high gasoline/oil prices that continue to hit Americans hard. Hearings like this have resolved nothing in the past and they won't resolve anything now nor in the future and I'm going to explain why.
The ridiculous prices we have been paying at the pump are not due to lack of supply, but rather increased demand, particularly from large, populous nations like China and India who have been undergoing their own "industrial revolution" of sorts. Such nations are consuming more oil than ever before as they become more technological and industrial. So worldwide demand is way up. And as with any product, as demand rises, so does cost.
Wednesday's hearing was nothing more than a dog & pony show for many reasons. First, let me get right to the meat and potatoes of this article... this is an election year and we all know that NOTHING gets accomplished during election years. To make matters worse, the Democrat party controls the Congress and hopes like hell to win back the White House. So a crisis like painfully high gas prices plays right into their hands. They have yet another "cause" to demagogue. We've all heard the tough talk from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and many more. But the fact is that our politicians, particularly the left wing, are the undeniable cause of today's gas prices.
The United States is blessed with massive oil reserves in the Gulf Coast of Florida, the Rocky Mountains and the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Yet we have done absolutely nothing to tap into these vast resources. And why you ask? Because of the enviro-nazis and their liberal politician puppets who have put a choke hold on American industry. Oil companies are currently forbidden to explore and drill for oil in these regions. Some argue that drilling oil in ANWR would do irreparable harm to the fragile ecological balance in that region of Alaska. The truth is, ANWR is a massive, frozen wasteland that is practically uninhabitable by any of God's creatures. Yet, the liberals on the left would have us believe it's something of a picturesque paradise like you might find in Yellowstone National Park. ANWR is a frozen, bitter- cold, hell on Earth that produces nothing, yet holds hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in its womb. And we do nothing.
The Chinese, the French and other countries have begun building oil platforms right in our backyard, off the coast of Florida. Another fine example of millions of barrels of oil, ripe for the taking, that we do nothing about while our competition reaps the rewards of our national resources. In this case, just like with ANWR, the bleeding-hearts of this nation feel drilling for oil in the Gulf Coast would inevitably result in ecological disaster. So, the United States will sit idly by while the Chinese of all people, who can't even make toys safe for children, freely and without regulation drill America's oil!
A lot of folks are wondering why OPEC doesn't just increase production to meet the high demand of today's market. President Bush even recently visited oil-rich countries in the Middle East in a vain attempt to convince an increase in oil output. But to me that's laughable. In the eyes of OPEC, why should they bow down to our wishes for increased production when America won't do her part to increase production and meet demand? It's laughable for us to expect OPEC to ease the crunch we're feeling in our wallets when we flat out refuse to help ourselves! Get the picture?
So Senators Obama, Clinton, Boxer, Leahy and the like waste American tax dollars with their smoke and mirrors "hearing." They ask questions of the oil execs like, "How much did your company make last quarter?" "What is your annual salary?" "What was your end of year bonus last year?" I say, "Who gives a damn!" What our elected officials should be asking the experts of the oil business is "What can we do to help YOU increase productivity in the United States of America?" Rather than faithfully try to find a solution to the problem, the above mentioned Senators waste valuable time and money trying to outsmart people who know a hell of a lot more than they do about the oil business.
We have no one to blame for our high gas prices but ourselves, folks. I hate to put it so bluntly, but it's true. We have tied our own hands and we are all paying for it. We have tied our hands by not building any new oil refineries in over 30 years, by not building a nuclear power plant in decades and by ignoring the VAST, natural resources within our own borders. When we sit by and allow PETA and the Sierra Club to block a new oil refinery to protect the migration route of a fruit fly, we have only ourselves to blame. Only action, not Senate hearings, will increase supply to meet today's oil demands. If we force our elected officials to untie the hands of American oil companies and let them use their resources to do what they do best, then we will see results at the pump. Until then, we remain at the mercy of countries like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico.
-- Skyboss
