President Bush yesterday announced that the presidential directive that has impeded oil exploration and development offshore and in ANWR is no more. He has taken action that clears the way for Congress to do the same. I am very grateful, and I know that many readers are equally grateful.

In response to this move, Nancy Pelosi has predictably stated that it means nothing. She complains that it will not do anything to lower gas prices today. What she failed to announce in her great wisdom is anything that actually will lower gas prices today. Why did she not declare the real solution that will reduce the price of gasoline in an instant? Because nothing any of us can do will have that effect.

President Bush’s announcement appeared to have a temporary, but noticeable, effect on the futures price of crude oil, which dropped about $8 at the time of his announcement. That fact suggests that if Congress acts to remove the remaining barriers to domestic exploration and production, crude oil futures prices might drop a bit more. Think what those prices might do if more domestic oil actually hits the market.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Obama and a lot of other socialists preach continually that increased domestic production is a long way off, and they preach loudly that this action will not reduce gasoline prices right away. When asked what will have a better impact, they inevitably say that the solution is the development of alternative energy sources. When they make these pronouncements, they imply the “development of alternative energy sources” equals “lower gasoline prices at the pump.” This is real poppycock, or maybe even a more aromatic substance than that.

Research in alternative energy sources is likely ten years from achieving any of the goals for which it is hyped. Even T. Boone Pickens who has all the money anybody could want says that his program of research and development of alternative energy sources will take about ten years. Moreover, there is no guarantee that all the research and development anybody, including T. Boone, has in mind will produce anything that even remotely provides the efficiency of energy production from petroleum. Maybe it will, and maybe it won’t. We can hope, but nobody can promise. Hmm. It will also take about ten years to bring domestic production from new fields online. When domestic crude enters the pipelines, we will have a source of energy that actually works. It is efficient. It is reliable. We don’t have to devise new technology along with the new sources. Therefore, if we start all the options at the same time, it is highly probable that ten years from now, the USA could be energy independent using petroleum. In addition, a great deal more will be known about alternative sources, which will put us far along the road to energy independence when the petroleum reserves are depleted.

We must push Congress to remove the remaining barriers to oil exploration and production offshore, in ANWR, in the shale reserves – everywhere. The USA must not be held hostage to environmental paranoia. Oil production today is vastly different from oil production during the West Texas Black Gold rush days. A new well is not permitted to “gush” these days. And a productive well has a footprint that doesn’t bother either caribou or dolphins. There is no reason the choke American productivity and limit the freedom of American life over the false notion that producing oil is bad for the world.

Congress has some really strange ideas. Or maybe they have changed since yesterday. Last I knew, they were all traveling back and forth in airplanes between Washington, DC and their home states. They are all driving cars, or riding in cars driven by others. They have heat and light and air conditioning in their homes. To my knowledge, none of them is riding a bike to work and using window ventilation coupled with funeral parlor fans for personal cooling during the DC summers. Members of Congress happily use all the oil products they think they need. It is time for them to get real and get out of the way of domestic oil production.

Our Congress looks more and more like a socialist government. In the world of socialism, the “people” are all treated alike. They all get food, healthcare and gasoline at the expense of the government, if they get it at all. Each one of the “people” gets in line for his “fair share” of whatever there is – bread, medicine, gasoline. However, outside the class of all “people” is the class of “government leaders.” That class is special. It gets in line for nothing and has all the possessions and privileges that are simply not available to the “people” because there isn’t enough to go around. It is time for us to tell the class of “government leaders” (read that “Members of Congress) to back away from the trough.

Members of Congress need and use the energy output of petroleum products. The rest of the country wants the same privilege. Tell your congressman to remove the barriers to domestic oil exploration and production now.