Yesterday John McCain gave credit to President Bush for the recent drop in the oil futures price. He reminded us all that as soon as the president lifted the offshore drilling moratorium, the price of crude began to drop. Today, that price is about $10 less than it was the day of the announcement. It is a small, but critical, change in the variables that affect the price everyone pays for gasoline.

Some critics of McCain’s statement have suggested that the futures price and the end of the moratorium are not actually related. They point to a drop in demand, which finally impacted the price. They could have a point. Airplanes have been parked. People have curtailed personal travel. There has been a change in demand. However, that change has been evolving over several months while prices continued to skyrocket. That change may have had a part in the reduction of crude oil prices we see today, but it is worth noting that the reduction coincided very neatly with the president’s announcement.

I join in John McCain’s question: if this small price reduction occurred when the president simply removed the moratorium on offshore drilling, what might we see if someone actually drilled a well out there?

Our famous Congress led by Queen Nancy and Prince Harry has ignored and scorned the impact of the president’s decision. Further, they have risen up and proclaimed that they will refuse to bow to Big Oil. They say they will only support research and development in alternative fuels.

This madness must stop. The only thing that will stop it is citizen outrage. We citizens must remind Congress of two facts:

First – No alternative fuel solution exists now for citizens who need to use the cars they own to get to work, to school, to vacation.

Second – We all vote in the fall for all the representatives and one-third of the Senators.

The electorate owns gasoline-powered cars and trucks. Even if there were enough hybrids and all-electric cars to go around, most people could not afford to scrap the cars they own and buy new ones. Congress is acting with typical disdain of the real needs of real people.

Congress also acts as if the American oil companies are the problem, not the solution, in the current crisis. It wants to increase taxes on those companies and demand that they drill on land that has not proved to be productive. Congress screams at those companies calling their profits obscene. Considering the fact that 70% of the oil we buy and pay for comes from sources outside America, one wonders what Congress thinks of the profits the foreign companies are making. Where exactly does Congress think anyone got the money to build a rotating skyscraper in Dubai? Why does Congress think it is better to buy our oil from foreigners and let them make whatever profit they make? Why shouldn’t we buy from our American companies drilling in American land? And by the way, who classified the profits of American oil companies as “obscene?” Profits in a corporation belong to the stockholders. Who do they think the stockholders are? Martians, perhaps? The stockholders who profit when an American oil company is successful are mostly American citizens.

Congress has tried to ignore common sense and the electorate before. The electorate has had to remind them that they are elected to serve the people, not to serve themselves. When they were ready to sell our country out to illegal immigrants, we had to crash their e-mail system and their phone system in order to set them straight. We may have to do it again. Congress in its high-handed determination to focus on alternative fuels is doing nothing that will produce more oil and bring a long-term reduction in the price of gasoline that we need now. There is no substitute today for the gasoline people need to operate the cars they own now. It is certainly wise to be discovering and developing alternatives, but people cannot simply put their current vehicles up on blocks and walk wherever they need to go.

We voters must do two things immediately.

First – We must call and write and completely pester and wear down our Representatives and Senators telling them to open up drilling offshore, drilling in ANWR and shale production. These acts will assure that we have fuel for cars, airplanes, trucks, trains, and power plants into the future. We need this fuel now, and we need it until alternative solutions mature and proliferate at a level that actually meets our needs. We should not reduce, diminish and slow down our productivity, our lives, and our dreams because someday there will be alternatives to oil.

Second – On Election Day, we must vote for the candidate who actually knows what people need. John McCain recognizes that people need oil right now. The research and development of alternatives to oil must proceed, but it is not ready to meet the needs of a productive and prosperous nation yet. We must support the candidate who will support us. We don’t need a candidate who tells us to do without and stop growing while we wait for the alternative solutions. The USA is a beacon to the whole world, a living laboratory for productivity and prosperity. Someday that beacon will run on alternative fuels, but right now it runs on oil.

We must join with John McCain and demand that Congress do what it takes to provide the oil our country needs. Offshore. ANWR. Oil shale. We need all these sources opened up for our use. There are proven reserves in all these locations that will provide for us while alternatives come of age.

Then we must get out and vote for John McCain on election day. Make sure our president and our Congress know that the American people need domestic sources of petroleum, and we need them now.

DRILL HERE! DRILL NOW! VOTE MCCAIN FOR PRESIDENT!

As oil prices spike beyond anyone’s wildest imagination a year ago, there is an outcry for increased production. The president of the United States asked Saudi Arabia to pump more, but he was rebuffed. The current G8 countries are asking the oil producers to pump more. Increased demand needs to be met by increased supply, or the prices will continue to rise.

The impact of skyrocketing crude oil prices is hitting American consumers at the gas pump. A year ago, nobody envisioned that today gasoline would cost $4 per gallon. And rising. Our Congress has suggested that we sue OPEC, a proposition that would be laughable except for the fact that it so dramatically points out the ignorance of our elected representatives. Congress has also slapped the oil companies around, accusing them of price gouging and demanding that they come up with alternatives to oil by tomorrow morning. This exercise is also ridiculous and another example of ignorance.

What will help? What could possibly help reduce the price of gasoline for US consumers? One part of a good solution would guarantee an increase in supply for at least sixty years, and the increase in supply would reduce prices, unless Congress in the meantime institutes price controls. That solution is to drill in the proven reserves that the United States possesses. Drill in ANWR. Drill offshore of Florida. Start work to recover shale oil. Do all these things right here right now.

The other part of the solution is to build more refineries and increase the capacity of existing ones. The oil companies have been trying to do that for a long time, but the process for approval of a request to build a refinery is usually derailed by some environmental concern. I completely believe that humans must live in harmony with nature. However, I do not believe that humans must always give way to snails and fish. There is a middle ground, and we must use our common sense.

Will this solution permanently solve our petroleum problems? Absolutely not. Even though we can confidently predict good supply for many years, the supply is finite. We will still need to develop alternative energy solutions for automobiles, homes and businesses. Furthermore, drilling in US reserves starting today, won’t put gas in anybody’s car for several years. It takes years to build new gasoline refineries, too. Politicians who choose to reject both of these options say that it will take ten years to see the results, even if we move immediately. I say, that it will take ten years to see the results, which means we must move immediately. No matter how long we delay drilling and the construction of refineries, it will still take years between decision and result.

Our nation has a wealth of oil easily in reach, and another treasure of oil which new technology can extract. Advancements in both oil well technology and refinery technology make it possible to do both kinds of activities with minimal environmental impact to wildlife and human beings. If the Kennedy Space Center can be a wildlife refuge, I don’t know any reason that a productive oil field or a new refinery shouldn’t also exist in harmony with living things.

The USA has been the most free and the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. Today, our freedom to develop our own resources is highly restricted, and the consequence is that our prosperity is at risk. We can be free of dependence on foreign oil by drilling in our own reserves. We can reduce high gasoline prices by increasing the availability of domestic crude oil and by building new refineries to increase gasoline production. If we fail to take care of ourselves, we can be sure that no country in OPEC is going to care what happens to us. Our freedom and our prosperity are ours to lose. That is what will happen if we fail to address this threat.

Drill here. Drill now.

Preserve and protect the freedom and prosperity of the USA.

 DRILL HERE!   DRILL NOW!