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!

John McCain has announced his support for offshore drilling to tap petroleum sources which have been known for years. In 1981 the federal government prohibited states from allowing petroleum extraction offshore due to environmental concerns. In light of today’s technology which can reassure us that the environment is safe, even with oil wells in the sea, this moratorium looks silly. In light of the need for the US to be free of dependence on foreign sources of oil, this moratorium looks completely ridiculous.

Predictably, Obama has made fun of the whole idea. He continues to chant the mantra that development of additional resources only enriches evil oil companies. Obama would like to see all free enterprise ended, so any enterprise, be it oil or sliced bread, is anathema to him. He has no idea that additional oil in the marketplace would benefit all Americans for three big reasons: 1) developing the offshore oil resources available to the US would reduce our need to buy oil from other countries, always recognized as a good thing; 2) additional oil in the marketplace will work within the economic law of supply and demand to reduce the price of crude oil and ultimately the price of a gallon of gasoline, a beneficial outcome for every US citizen; and 3) any new profit for oil companies will enrich the retirement funds of millions of US citizens who are stockholders in oil companies, a very beneficial outcome. Obama also doesn’t care if this action would work with the law of supply and demand, or if stockholders would make money to support themselves in retirement. Obama is a socialist, so he has no regard for free enterprise or the freedom of citizens.

Support for offshore drilling is only halfway to a fully sane energy policy. McCain still needs to support drilling in ANWR as well. And while he is at it, he needs to support exploration and development in the Arctic, because if we don’t take action in that area soon, we will find ourselves forever shut out of mineral rights there. Many other countries, such as Russia, have already started looking for any minerals which might be found in that remote, frozen seafloor. It is completely short-sighted and stupid for the US to miss out on the benefits of exploration there.

And, oh, by the way. If we don’t drill offshore, that does not mean that there will not be offshore drilling. In collaboration with Cuba, the Chinese are preparing to drill off Florida’s coast right now. If the US wants the petroleum in the reserves under the sea off our coasts, the US needs to drill and recover it. It will not be allowed to sit there until we are good and ready. While we are dithering about the possibility of some environmental disaster if US companies drill, countries who could not care less about an environmental disaster off the coast of the US are going to drill and extract that oil. We can either get busy and get in on the action, or we can let other people do it, which means that we will need to buy that oil from other countries instead of buying it from our own domestic companies. Does this make sense? No. Absolutely not. It is a complete boondoggle.

Enabling US companies to drill for oil off the coast of the US is only half of the right solution to our oil problems. But hurray for half way. I am happy to see even a hint of progress in the right direction. I intend to let John McCain know how happy I am to see him take this position, and I hope you will do the same.

We citizens need to speak up, speak out, and shout in the ears of everybody in the federal government: Drill here. Drill now. Achieve energy independence for the USA.

Drill Here! Drill Now!

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!