Democrats Share Blame for the Oil Problem (Letter to Editor)

In response to your July 28 editorial on “The Oil Problem,” there are many things you disregard, placing blame on Republican politics while only hinting to the inept Democratic controlled Congress. While you point out the Republican administrations that enacted offshore drilling bans, you fail to acknowledge a two-term Democratic administration that did nothing about it.

Further, experts disagree on how many years it would take to bring new oil to market. In some cases it could flow within three years. Finally, lifting bans and approving drilling would have an immediate impact on the price of oil due to the market’s speculative nature.

This spouting of 10-year oil has become the centerpiece of the Democratic Party’s “do nothing” energy policy. If Bill Clinton hadn’t vetoed ANWR drilling, we would have an estimated additional 1 million barrels of oil a day on the market now. According to the American Petroleum Institute, federal lands off limits to drilling contain an estimated 116 billion barrels of oil – enough to fuel 65 million cars and provide fuel oil for 3.2 million homes for 60 years. To quote a July 3 editorial in Investor’s Business Daily, “…it is the height of irresponsibility for Congress to leave these lands off the table.”

The Clinton administration is arguably more to blame for increasing foreign oil dependence. The current congressional body is far more responsible for the high price of gasoline than the current administration. Your readers should take the time to read Nancy Pelosi’s own government Web site where in April 2006 she said, “…Speaker Hastert and the Majority Congress continue to give the American people empty rhetoric rather than join Democrats who are working to lower gas prices now.”

Gas prices have nearly doubled since Democrats took the majority. And exactly what has she been doing? How about six months of Major League Baseball investigations? The majority of American people want to drill. But Speaker Pelosi stands in the way hiding her do-nothing record.

The energy dilemma should rise above partisan politics, yet it seems editorials such as yours take pleasure in putting focus on what Republicans did or did not do when there is just as much blame to be shared by Democrats.

Brent Gierke

Bentonville