By John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
.
The deep political divide between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats in the United States comes into focus when discussion the issue of drilling for oil.

The United States Senate’s Democrat Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid of Nevada says often, “We cannot drill our way out of the energy problem.”

A rigid environmentalist, Senator Reid says, “Oil makes us sick. Coal makes us sick.”

Above: Senator Harry Reid. He is so
“green” he wore a green tie for his
official Congressional portrait.

Mr. Reid also said on June 18, “The math is simple: America has just 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves, but Americans use a quarter of its oil. And the Energy Information Administration says that even if we do open the coasts to oil drilling, prices wouldn’t drop until 2030.”

Contrast this to the position of former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, the Republican from Georgia.

Mr. Gingrich is so pro-drilling that he has created an on-line petition called “Drill Here, Drill Nor, Pay Less.”

Mr. Gingrich outlines his petition on-line and in countless TV interviews beginning about June 18.

Mr. Gingrich: The language is simple but powerful: “We, therefore, the undersigned citizens of the United States, petition the US Congress to act immediately to lower gasoline (and other fuels derived from oil including diesel) prices by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries.”
.
“If we want less expensive gasoline, diesel and other fuels and to reduce our dependence on foreign dictators, then we have to demand that politicians cut through the red tape and put policies in place that will increase domestic production,” according to Gingrich.

Above: Newt Gingrich

“It isn’t possible to regulate, tax or sue our way to lower fuel prices. While alternative energies are desirable in the long term, Americans need relief now,” Mr. Gingrich says.

The Gingrich petition also states: “America still has the world’s largest supply of fossil fuels. We have more coal than any other country by a huge margin. We have abundant oil and gas reserves. We have the potential for nuclear, wind, solar and biofuels in tremendous quantities. And, critically, America is still technologically the most advanced nation in the world, despite decades of bad policies and politics.”

Paul Driessen is a senior policy adviser for the Congress of Racial Equality and Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, and author of “Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death.” He has written a commentary on why American should drill for oil in the Sunday, July 6, 2008 Washington Times.

In Mr. Driessen’s Times commentary he says, “Drilling is no silver bullet. But it is vital. It won’t generate overnight production. But just announcing that America is finally hunting oil again would send a powerful signal to energy markets … and to speculators, many of whom are betting continued U.S. drilling restrictions will further exacerbate the global demand-supply imbalance and send ‘futures’ prices even higher.”

We at Peace and Freedom tend to agree with the Republican or Gingrich/Dreissen position for two reasons:

1) Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulsen has said that sending billions of U.S. dollars out of the U.S. every day is the single largest problem with the U.S. economy.

2) America established itself as a technology leader staring around the World War II time-frame. I witnessed that technolgy, harnessed and in action, as a young boy watching transfixed on TV as an American first walked on the moon in 1968. After that I witnessed technology and the safely harnessed nuclear atom aboard U.S. Navy nuclear powered aircraft carriers, cruisers and sumbarines. I even crossed under the Atlantic Ocean aboard a nuclear powered submarine.

So I have a confidence formed by fact and reality, in America’s ability to tackle tough challenges and to solve them through hard work, investment, diligent care and technology.

The thought that America is unable to drill, say, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) or off the coast of Florida, without causing environmental harm, is totally contrary to my knowledge and experience of Americans and American technology.

We refuse to drill not because we cannot drill without harming the environment. We refuse to drill because we will not tackle the tough assignment.

See Mr. Paul Dreissen’s commentary on “Why America Should Drill”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/06/time-to-drill/