Some Logic On The Oil/Gas "Crisis"

This piece by Texas Republican senator Kay Bailey Hutchison http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SenatorKayBaileyHutchison/2008/06/11/the_energy_crisis_where_we_are_and_where_we_need_to_go?page=1, shows that conservatives have an issue to wrap around the Democrats in this the home stretch of the election season.
As noted by Sen. Hutchison, with blunt honesty, conservatives have been on defense on many an issue, but on energy the conservative Republicans are with the American people.
There are some good nuggets in here that you can share with your friends who are frightened by the prospect of man-made globaloney warming.
Take this about the last time our liberal Democrat friends thought that a "windfall profits" tax was a good idea:

In 1980, Congress passed a "windfall profits tax" and the consequences were devastating. In the six years following that levy, domestic oil production dropped by 1.26 billion barrels and imports of foreign oil rose 13%. The "windfall profits tax" was an unmitigated disaster, which is precisely why it was repealed. We shouldn't make that same mistake again

Clearly, once domestic production dropped, our dependence on the oil from the unsavory regimes of the Middle East increased. Only logic a liberal, left-wing Democrat could love!
Sen. Hutchison also points out the obvious. Obvious to many if not most Americans:

So many people in Washington have grown accustomed to the idea that we must either import oil from the Middle East or make an expensive transition toward homegrown fuels like corn-based ethanol. This is a false choice. One of the best kept secrets in politics today is that our country is one of the richest energy nations in the world, and is extremely capable of achieving energy independence - but only if we have the willpower to do it.

The reason that there is a real food crisis in the developing world is because farmers are growing food, like corn, for fuel instead of feeding people. There is absolutely no balance in that approach. But, once again for a liberal, left-wing Democrat, it makes perfect sense. Slam the oil companies for not being able to drill in the United States thanks to overbearing regulations and now globaloney warming hysteria. And when that is not enough, encourage farmers to produce crops that should be for people instead going into some of our automobiles. Sheesh!
But, this amazing statistic is enough to make an American cry:

Current federal law prevents oil and gas production in the deep waters off the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. These laws, which were first passed in 1981 when the price of oil was $35 per barrel, were a luxury at the time, but today, given America's growing energy needs, they are indefensible. The fact is, these areas, along with another energy-rich section of the Gulf of Mexico, could contain as much as 115 billion barrels of oil - which is greater than Venezuela's current reserves - and 565 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - which is greater than the combined reserves of Iraq, China, Yemen, Oman, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Federal laws also prevent us from exploiting one trillion barrels of shale oil in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah - an amazing amount that is three times what Saudi Arabia has on reserve. Our bill, The American Energy Production Act of 2008, would allow us to tap these resources with environmental safeguards

Can you believe that? We have enough within our reach to not only become energy independent, but possibly an exporter of oil. If this were in place today, do you really think that we would be paying $4 a gallon-now $4.50c and speedily rising here in California? Of course not! Gas could be at the price level in the 1980s. Instead, we are well on our way to becoming like much of Europe, which by the way, is paying close to $10 a gallon. That is because they have to pay for the free lunch that is socialized medicine and the rest of the intricate welfare state that they have developed in much of the continent.
Would you like to know what the Democrat nominee for president, Sen. Messiah Barack, thinks about all of this?
In shorthand, of course he wants to bring back the "windfall profits" tax with a vengeance. And as far as the $4 to $4.50c a gallon gas prices? No problem but that it came about to quickly.
And, it does not help that the Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John "F--- You" McCain buying in so much into the globaloney warming theory that he has hemmed himself in. With his ridiculous comparison to the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, ANWR, to the Grand Canyon, and his overall confusion about what to do about the here and now, it is hard to tell much of a difference between the two on the oil/gas "crisis".
What it means is that the Republican rank-and-file, and conservatives, once again have to educate the Republican presidential candidate. We have to force a vote on the Sen. Hutchison legislation. We have to explain it to John that we have the ability to do both drilling that can be regulated and with responsible safeguards put in place. A win-win.
Call the senate and your senator and tell them that you want a vote on the Sen. Hutchison legislation. You can go to the website http://www.senate.gov or call the senate switchboard at 202-224-3121 and they will connect you with your state senator.
It is time for the majority to call out the alarmists and a real vote for real energy independence will go a long way towards a logical solution to the oil/gas "crisis".