Fuel Prices: A Simple Solution

August 05, 2008 02:56 pm

— Dear Editor:
It’s simple economics. Gas prices are high because world-wide demand for oil has increased while global supply has stayed at a near steady state. Logic will tell you that if you increase the supply, prices will come down. Yet, OPEC, the world oil cartel has been slow to increase the supply of oil.
So, is there anywhere else we can turn to for more oil? That answer is simple too—billions of barrels of oil are right here in American waters and on American soil.
So, why aren’t we using our own oil? Another simple answer—Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Since she became Speaker, gas prices have nearly doubled. She refuses to allow us to debate or even vote on producing our locked-up oil reserves in Alaska and on our own continental shelf.
I have cosponsored the American Energy Act along with 124 colleagues. Why? It’s simple. With almost 60 percent of our oil coming from foreign sources and gas prices breaking records at over $4 per gallon, the American Energy Act frees us from the shackles of foreign oil and brings down the price at the pump for folks in Pikeville, Pineville, Morehead, and Mt. Vernon and everywhere in between. The American Energy Act opens U.S. territory to drilling, encourages new refinery construction, and invests in coal-to-liquids, nuclear, wind, solar, biomass and other energy and fuel alternatives. Simply put, the bill puts us on the road to American energy independence.
We have pushed the Speaker to allow for a vote—yet she does nothing. She’s bowing to radical environmentalists in San Francisco while three out of four Americans agree that drilling for domestic oil is essential to bring down the price of gas. Speaker Pelosi is allowing us to remain hostage to high gas prices and the whims of the Middle East rulers and foreign dictators.
Together, we can bring down gas prices, create jobs, and remove the foreign yoke around our national neck if Speaker Pelosi will simply allow us to use the untapped energy under our feet and on our own shores. Contrary to my objections, she has now adjourned the Congress for six weeks and gone home to California.
Just as the ancient Roman dictator Nero before her, the Speaker is piddling while Rome burns. She sits in her San Francisco tower, while the people of southern and eastern Kentucky suffer.

Harold Rogers
Fifth District U.S. Representative
Washington, D.C.