Excellent visual aid put together by Doug Ross on who is at fault for the rise in gas prices:
So, in summary, House Republicans have voted to increase production of American made gas while the Democrats have voted against increasing that production.
Gateway Pundit puts it well:
Democrats have blocked the development of new sources of petroleum.
Democrats have blocked drilling in ANWR.
Democrats have blocked drilling off the coast of Florida.
Democrats have blocked drilling off of the east coast.
Democrats have blocked drilling off of the west coast.
Democrats have blocked drilling off the Alaskan coast.
Democrats have blocked building oil refineries.
Democrats have blocked clean nuclear energy production.
Democrats have blocked clean coal production.
And people wonder why we pay so much at the pumps. We have so much oil under our own feet on our own soil. Will they now, finally, allow us to go get that oil after the record close of the price of a barrel? Is this what will finally wake up the left that finding alternative fuels is a worthy endeavor but preventing our country from being held hostage by those who CAN get the oil under their feet is THE priority. Will we be allowed to go get this oil?
A study by the Rand Corporation estimates the sedimentary rock in the corner where Utah borders Colorado and Wyoming holds about 800 billion barrels. That’s three times the size of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves.
America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.
In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion
barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.
If the environmentalists and Democrats stay out of the way these new fields may bring us some kind of fuel independence. BUT….how will we refine it any quicker? Since 1976 not one new refinery has been built. One may finally be built 32 years later but it won’t be enough by a long shot.
But whats the rush? As John Hinderaker points out, the blame for the high price of gas is being misplaced:
For several decades, the Democratic Party has pursued policies designed to drive up the cost of petroleum, and therefore gas at the pump. Remarkably, the Democrats don’t seem to have taken much of a political hit from the current spike in gas prices. Probably that’s because most people don’t realize how different the two parties’ energy policies have been.
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