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Do you like to pay the extra costs for your gas that include shipping oil across vast oceans and putting up with security premiums due to hostile regimes or crazy religious fanatics? Should our oil companies have to acquire petroleum by bidding against foreign, subsidized state oil companies that control or possess 80-90% of the world's oil? Do you feel safe knowing that some of the money towards your gas goes to profit terrorist regimes and organizations in the Middle East or elsewhere?
Does foreign oil burn any cleaner than domestic oil? Well, there is probably no environmental advantage to using foreign oil in that regard. If the goal is to save the planet, then how does drilling for oil overseas save the whole planet's environment as opposed to drilling at home on our own continent? Are foreign wells necessarily better managed and kept cleaner for the environment? What about wells in war-torn countries or third-world areas? Do corrupt governments or desperate populaces keep better check on the environment about their wells? It wouldn't seem more probable that crooked regimes or communist states are as diligent in caring for the cleanliness of their environment or the health of their people. For instance, have you yet heard the smog and dirty river stories in booming communist China? Maybe you have heard about fanatics blowing-up oil pipelines or desperate poor souls in third-world countries dying in pipeline explosions trying to siphon off a bit of free fuel for themselves. Remember that the old Iraqi regime caused havoc by setting ablaze many wells in the Gulf War. Perhaps if we drilled at home we could avoid such incidents with our relatively "stable" government and our wealthy and environmentally conscious populace keeping check on the environs around our own petroleum-producing facilities. Since we wouldn't be paying to have that oil shipped to us from overseas, we might find that consumers would be happy to have a few cents tagged on to their cheaper, homegrown gas prices which would pay for environmental preservation costs implemented by the private home oil companies. As well our local authorities would be on hand to inspect and oversight our domestic wells as opposed to some of their possibly unstable counterparts looking over foreign wells overseas. Since greater proportion of our oil would no longer have to travel overseas but instead would go by pipelines from domestic land wells causing net less tanker traffic or by having tankers travel shorter distances from new rigs off our coasts to new and closer refineries divvying tanker density, one can conclude that done right we can lessen probability for ocean oil spills via increase in domestic production and refinement. Any increase in land spills by domestic production should they occur would seem to be better contained and controlled than ocean spills. Such increase could be diminished by transporting less by rail and more by pipelines with safeguard shut-off valves. Such scenarios should be looked into further. Notice too that fracking actually takes place well below the water table. And think about this: How would the ejecta of massive nuclear or chemical WMDs funded by our dollars to foreign oil affect the environment? Obviously, there are environmental advantages and safeguards to consider in the drilling of domestic oil. Recently there have been massive oil discoveries found in Wyoming and surrounding states that could supply our oil needs for years to come. There are also finds off the California and Florida coasts. Foreign oil companies tapped off Cuban waters near Florida where our government does not allow American companies to dwell. What's the logic in that when our domestic oil companies are better equipped and less likely to suffer oil spills in the Gulf? Just think, our government is making the cost of your gas more expensive by not allowing us to build more refineries or drill for domestic oil. Scoundrel politicians tax in multiples to what our private oil companies profit off gas! The oil companies worked to bring that product to market and deserve some compensation. What have the leeching politicians who bankrupt everything they touch done to deserve more revenue off the gas than the private oil companies? WE WILL PUT A STOP TO THIS RIDICULOUS NONSENSE BY SERIOUSLY LOWERING GAS TAXES AND ALLOWING FOR DOMESTIC DRILLING! Keep in mind that the money we all save can eventually go towards researching, investing and developing alternative energy sources and cleaner petrol technologies. Now before the masses, media and politicians start complaining about gas prices again and mention windfall profit taxes -- consider the price of milk, designer bottled water, beer and what effort goes into the refining of those products. Gas is still reasonably priced in comparison. Remember too that old price records for gas are expressed in historic, less-depreciated dollars which means today's prices are not really as severe in comparison to 1970s dollars with the accompanied rationing to boot. And ask all of the D.C.-ers to explain how a higher tax on oil companies makes gas cheaper at the pump or makes your finances and standard of living any better? So now you can see how we want to lessen the cost of oil for the consumer and the reliance on foreign sources. Drilling for domestic oil will help prevent the financing of terrorist states overseas and provide incentive for environmental oversight while simultaneously tapping black gold in our own backyard. And with more oil being tapped, the consumer savings windfall makes covering the costs of reinforcing oil infrastructures more affordable helping guard against spillage. |