Congressional Democrats Assume Control over Big Oil Operations

Meanwhile the Democrat controlled Congress is going into the oil business with views like that expressed by Congressman Nelson. Nelson and other elitist Democrats oppose offshore drilling for oil because they want to keep gasoline and heating oil prices high as a means of controlling pollution. They feel that strangling the economy with high petrol prices is a moral imperative, a view consistent with Al Gore’s documentary on global warming. Gore recently endorsed Obama (surprise! Yawn…) who also opposes offshore and onshore drilling in the U.S. Consider that all three of those guys, within the sum total of their energy consumption, consume more oil in a single year than ten common people will consume in their lifetimes.

Exhibiting his vast expertise in the oil business, Nelson said that the oil companies already had leases on federal lands which had not been drilled. Perhaps Nelson will venture out of his offices one day to inform the retarded oil company managers exactly where to pitch their tents and position the drills. It would save a great deal of time, and then we could be drilling at 100 percent of lease capacity, with Congressional assurances that we will find substantial oil profits with every spin of the drill bit.

Other congressional Democrats want to punish the oil companies for their temerity in holding leases by shrinking or cutting back on the leases if the companies don’t drill within a specified period of time. That’s taking the bull by the horns, and I don’t see why Exxon and Mobil even bother to have Operation CEOs at all when such guidance can be had from Congressional Democrats free of charge.

Additional drilling in the U.S. may not have a large impact on supply but it will have a significant impact on commodity speculators. The Saudi oil ministers seem to think so also. The Arabs announced an increase in production of heavy crude by 300,000 barrels a day with precisely that in mind. Popping the speculative futures bubble should be a first priority. Increasing capacity by offshore drilling will help to do that, as we move farther along the path toward alternative sources of energy. Working Americans need help right now in immediately reducing gasoline prices. Congress should drop the price of gas by .20 cents immediately by knocking off the federal tax.