Good song with a message that is right on:
Don’t look now, but oil is again trading at over $80 per barrel. Compared to the peak oil price of $145 per barrel reached just last year, $80 may seem like a bargain. However, considering the economic condition in the United States and around the world, $80 per barrel is remarkably high and says volumes about the strength of demand relative to supply. Once the world’s economies heat up Americans will again be faced with daunting energy costs. It doesn’t have to be this way.
The simple truth is, the United States could be energy independent. There is more than enough oil in our ground and off our shores to meet and exceed the 20,000,000 barrels Americans consume each day. The amount of shale oil in the Utah/Wyoming/Colorado region – trillions of barrels – equals some 7 times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of billions of additional barrels remain untapped in ANWR, along the Pacific Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. Bring all those black goldmines on-line and we could kiss foreign oil goodbye.
Besides oil, America has a 250-year supply of coal and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. If radical environmentalists would permit the construction of nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams America could become a net exporter of energy. Imagine American companies employing American workers producing American energy, and paying American taxes. It’s easy if you try.
Not one dime of taxpayer money would be needed to get this giant energy ball rolling. With the right tax incentives, capital would flow to the U.S. from around the world to fund the drilling, refining and building projects necessary to achieve energy independence. An unprecedented and sustainable economic boom would lift America out of its current doldrums. Dare to dream.
The flow of foreign oil is precarious at best. A significant proportion of the more than 10 million barrels of oil we import each day comes from the Middle East. Few Americans need to be reminded of the volatility of that region, but most Americans act as if the flow of OPEC oil is guaranteed. It isn’t. War, terrorist strikes, extremist takeovers of Saudi Arabia or other OPEC member countries would, overnight, create havoc in the United States. Our economic and strategic well-beings are unnecessarily at risk because we refuse to harvest domestic energy. It’s a grave liability we should and can avoid.
Harnessing our abundant energy resources would enhance the development of cleaner power. Solar, wind and geothermal energy technologies remain immature. Relying on more traditional power sources now will allow “green” technology to evolve carefully and correctly, free from government influence.
The recession of 2008-???? has given us a reprieve from crushing energy costs. Now is the time to prepare for the coming economic recovery – and potentially debilitating oil prices – by plugging into every available source of American energy. It’s the only energy policy that makes sense.
