Drilling and Blissful Ingorance - Charles Krauthammer

Charles Krauthammer, one of the most eloquent writers and straightest shooters out there on the conservative side, writes this article about Speaker Nancy Pelosi and here stand on off shore drilling and ANWR. Charles is so on the money with this piece and points out the idiocy of Pelosi and the Democrats view on oil; CharlesKrauthammer/2008/08/01/drilling_and_blissful_ignorance


Here are some highlights;



"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposes lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on the Outer Continental Shelf. She won't even allow it to come to a vote." "Why? Because as she explained to Politico: "I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet."" Lord help us if it's up to her to save the planet, just shoot me now!


"Consider: 25 years ago, nearly 60 percent of U.S. petroleum was produced domestically. Today it's 25 percent. From its peak in 1970, U.S." Now this is a crime! "The world consumes 86 million barrels a day; the United States, roughly 20 million." Let's see here, 75% imported oil, that's 15 million barrels a day, at $120 per barrel, that's $1.8 billion at day going to Canada, Mexico and OPEC. I don't mind trading with Canada and Mexico, but we could easily replace OPEC's oil.

"Does Pelosi imagine that with so much of America declared off-limits, the planet is less injured as drilling shifts to Kazakhstan and Venezuela and Equatorial Guinea? That Russia will be more environmentally scrupulous than we in drilling in its Arctic?"... "Outsourcing U.S. oil production does nothing to lessen worldwide environmental despoliation." I'm sure she's thinking that there must not be any pristine areas in Kazakhstan or Venezuela or Guinea, we haven't seen any of those pictures in the drive-by media, only rolling mountains, elks eating grass, polar bear having a Coke! Those areas can't be as nice as ours.




"The other panacea, yesterday's rage, is biofuels: We can't drill our way out of the crisis, it seems, but we can greenly grow our way out."..."Here in the U.S., one out of every three ears of corn is stuffed into a gas tank (by way of ethanol), causing not just food shortages abroad and high prices at home, but intensive increases in farming with all of the attendant environmental problems (soil erosion, insecticide pollution, water consumption, etc.)."

"This to prevent drilling on an area in the Arctic one-sixth the size of Dulles Airport that leaves untouched a refuge one-third the size of Britain." Okay, blood is now shooting our of my eyes! If only someone would make a well publicized trip to ANWR and show the American public the true nature of, well the nature of ANWR, then we could see how little of the area we would affect and how insane this idea of "drill-there-not-here policy" is, maybe there might be a few dems in Congress, badgered by their constituents, that could stand up and make some real difference. But she won't even let this come to a vote! We're so screwed!