Want lower gas prices? Unshackle those exploring for oil

By GEORGE RADANOVICH

last updated: June 10, 2008 04:47:55 AM

Listening to constituents this Memorial Day, the issue most on their minds was the price of gasoline. Americans are frustrated to see gas topping $4 per gallon with no end in sight. I, too, am frustrated by these record prices -- because we could have solved this problem long ago by increasing domestic energy production.

The economics of supply and demand set the price of gas -- the total amount of oil available on the world market and the demand for oil ultimately determine what is paid at the pump. That price is also affected by speculators who weigh overall world demand against potential market supply capacity.

Speculators look at unrest in Nigeria and the Middle East and are betting that oil supply will continue to be a problem. If America commits to increasing its domestic oil production, it can provide immediate, near-term relief at the pump.

In the long term, America's national and economic security depends on a domestic energy portfolio that incorporates the entire spectrum of resources. We can end our dependence on foreign sources of energy and still be good stewards of the environment by producing energy from renewable sources.

I fully support the use and development of renewable resources. However, no matter how much we diversify our energy portfolio, America will be dependent on fossil fuels for at least the next 30 years.

For decades, Americans have displayed ambivalence toward increasing domestic oil production. Our ambivalence has finally caught up to us in the form of record prices, rising costs for food and ailing local economies.

My Republican colleagues and I have introduced a set of clear, sensible policies to reduce the cost of energy through domestic production. The "American-Made Energy" package would increase oil and gas production, give incentives to energy technologies, streamline the building of new oil refineries, protect consumers from energy speculation and repeal the unrealistic ethanol mandate.

The package would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which contains an estimated 10.6 billion barrels of oil. The 2,000 acres needed for drilling, of ANWR's 19 million acres, is the equivalent of a Post-It note on a football field. ANWR's oil could provide a 30-year supplement to imports and create up to 1 million jobs.

Another place to explore for more energy is the outer continental shelf, which contains an estimated 84 billion barrels of oil. Our bill gives states the right to allow energy production up to 100 miles offshore. Florida, for example, has objected to U.S. oil exploration off its coast. But China, thanks to a lease issued by Cuba, is drilling for oil just 50 miles off Florida's coast.

America's offshore drilling policy amounts to a government handout of U.S. natural resources to foreign countries in the name of environmental protection. If we were truly interested in protecting the environment, we would allow American companies -- which have only spilled 0.0001 percent of the 7 billion barrels of oil pumped offshore in the last 25 years -- to drill.

Suffice to say that China doesn't have the same record in protecting the environment.

An estimated 2 trillion barrels of oil exists in American oil shale. Putting that number in perspective, Saudi Arabia has only 800 billion barrels of oil in its reserves. Unfortunately, Congress (under Democrat control), passed a law banning the use of our oil shale. One of our bills repeals that ban.

We are reaching a tipping point, at which the American consumers will no longer allow overzealous environmentalism to block development of our energy security. A recent Gallup poll revealed 57 percent of Americans support energy exploration in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas now off-limits.

Americans should not be held hostage to foreign governments for our oil supply. Working families should be able to buy gas at a reasonable price, and more of it should come from America. It's time to take advantage of the abundance of American energy and start using it to benefit its rightful owners -- the American people.

Radanovich represents the 19th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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