Editorials

As gasoline prices climb ever higher, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is offering some words of wisdom on the right way for the government to react.

“President Reagan said, ‘There are no easy answers, but there are simple ones,’” the Texas Republican says. “This principle applies to America’s energy woes. Since January 2007, the price of a gallon of gasoline has soared from $2.33 per gallon to a record $4.04.”

And it could get worse — much worse, if the nation doesn’t take steps.

“Over the next two decades, global demand for oil is expected to rise by 50 percent,” she points out. “Further, price escalation is inevitable. When confronted by these facts, the energy solution is simple. We need more energy! We should be increasing our production of oil, natural gas, clean coal, and nuclear power — and those resources should come from America, instead of foreign dictatorships.”

America is, after all, one of the most energy-rich nations in the world, Hutchison says.

“Our most valuable untapped resource is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which is estimated to contain 10.4 billion barrels of oil,” she says. “This remote frozen tundra could be drilled with minimal impact on surrounding life. ANWR is the size of South Carolina and the area drilled would be roughly the size of Dallas/Love Field Airport. In 1995, the Republican Congress passed legislation to open ANWR for energy production. But President Clinton vetoed our bill. If he had signed it, America would now be producing one million barrels a day, almost enough oil to replace all of our daily imports from Saudi Arabia.”

And there’s more.

“Beyond ANWR, federal law prevents oil and gas production in the deep waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts,” Hutchison says. “These areas, along with a section of the Gulf of Mexico, could contain as much as 115 billion barrels of oil — greater than Venezuela’s current reserves — and 565 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — 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 in reserve.”

Hutchison has been working in Washington to open these reserves.

“In May, I joined 18 other Senate Republicans to introduce the American Energy Production Act of 2008,” she reports. “Our bill will remove unnecessary government barriers to domestic energy production and allow us to tap our vast resources with environmental safeguards. This should be bolstered with an energy portfolio that includes renewable and alternative sources like solar, wind, and nuclear power.”

But she’s meeting with some resistance.

“My Democratic colleagues have a starkly different approach to the energy crisis — it is one that creates no new energy,” she says. “Their answer is to tax energy production. 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 percent. The disastrous tax was repealed in 1986. Rather than learn from that mistake, some in Congress would impose the same ineffective tax on the oil industry.”

The Democratic plan would also the discourage investments to expand refining capability.

“By increasing taxes and reducing the incentives to refine oil into usable gasoline, we will end up with a smaller supply of domestic energy, which in turn fuels price increases, perpetuates our present crisis and keeps us at the mercy of OPEC,” Hutchison points out.

The dollars we send to foreign oil regimes could be kept at home, she says.

“We need energy for Americans by Americans, and we need it now,” she says. “Instead of searching for scapegoats, we should be searching for additional energy resources to be part of a bold, comprehensive plan for America’s energy security in the 21st century.”

()