Our Rep. Paul Ryan jumped on this as another opportunity to bash Congress again in the third person!
Bonus Video: Watch A U.S. Congressman Shill For Big Oil
According to Ryan, drilling in ANWR alone will generate $200 billion in tax revenue and royalties. Big Oil profits? Off the charts!! But how is that supposed to bring our prices down? American oil will be sold to the highest bidder, and if it’s Americans doing the buying, we will be buying our own resources from OURSELVES, creating a revenue pie to be sliced up by Big Oil, taxes and royalties - royalties the GOP would like not to return to American consumers, but to private companies for research and development. And THIS is IF we’re lucky. Instead oil from ANWR will not fill American gas tanks, but will more likely be sold to foreign interests. You can bet the profit sharing will remain the same. Where are the lower gasoline prices? Well, they're not in Ryan’s plan.
But if this energy crisis is a matter of national urgency as Rep. Ryan seems to insist, he should have been first in line to sponsor legislation to nationalize our energy resources and demand his PAC interests to expand energy production on the 68 million acres they have. He should also pressure Bush to open the Strategic Oil Reserve if he really believes his own rhetoric. Anything less is political posturing.
This Youtube video along with his Roadmap are nothing more than diversions to keep voters and his challengers off-course, occupying their time debating a novel instead of his past history in Congress. Ryan is slick.
But all of this brings me back to our current White House administration and their energy plans for America. Remember.........
Wikipedia Excerpt:It turns out, America HAS an energy policy. To this day, the details of the Energy Task Force are "secret," unfortunately the results are not. Just because the policy is a complete failure, doesn't mean there wasn't one.
In his second week in office George W. Bush created the task force, officially known as the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) with Dick Cheney as chairman. This group was supposed to “develop a national energy policy designed to help the private sector, and, as necessary and appropriate, State and local governments, promote dependable, affordable, and environmentally sound production and distribution of energy for the future."
I recall discussing at the kitchen table back in early 2001 how many of us thought “Oh, we have an oilman for president, he’ll take care of our energy needs,” or recall how the invasion of Iraq will eventually help open new supplies and bring gasoline prices DOWN - just like ANWR.
Jokes on us.
3 comments:
Both political parties took their eye off the energy ball. Bush should have fought for American production and jobs during his first term instead of signing a bunch of spending bills from the Republican Congress. Where was he for seven years on this issue? Democrats won control of Congress promising, among other things, to lower gas prices. Instead prices have doubled and they are clueless. Why doesn't Congress support the insourcing of oil production and all the American jobs and revenue it would bring in? McCain commercials at least recognize the problem but he also is a late comer. Obama commercials promise to lower foreign dependency by increasing regulation and taxation. So long even more American jobs. Everything is needed - production, conservation, and alternatives. Get out of the way and let the market work. You can't ignore part of the solution just to avoid hurting someone's feelings and pet cause. Nationalization does nothing but add bureaucracy when the product is imported.
I don't recall many democrats promising to lower gasoline prices. Nearly everything they're promoting revolves around less consumption of fossil fuels as the way out of the energy crisis and global warming.
It's the Republicans who continue to drive the wedge for political reasons. Bush lifts the drilling moratorium and says its now in the hands of Congress. Ryan also points his finger at Congress as if he's not a member.
I'm actually not for nationalization as the solution but if politicians promise lower gasoline prices, it is the only way to their bluff. The GOP, Bush and Ryan need to come clean. Are lower prices really their goal? More drilling activity, more supply, more consumption = higher prices.
Gasoline sells at cost for the producing country under nationalization. Ryan says we have more oil than Saudi Arabia. Only the overage would then be exported for profit.
Sorry to disagree but I distinctly do remember the Democratic campaign in 2006 promising to lower gas prices. And yes, Paul Ryan is a member of congress and therefore shares some responsibilty. However, I respect him and view him as following in the fiscal footsteps of Democratic Senators Paul Tsongas and Bob Kerrey from Nebraska. They were role models for their courage in putting the greater need ahead of their political party. Unlike the leadership of both parties they would recognize that mounting budget and trade defecits lower the value of the dollar and add to the price at the pump. We also need to remember that government takes a bigger part of the gasoline dollar in taxes than oil company profits - though they sure don't need me to protect them. But, I hope you don't believe that that the price of gasoline refinement and distribution(not including the price of crude) of gasoline would be lower under government control.
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