Frivolous vs. Magnanimous: Energy Policy

 
Frivolous: Democrats claim they want energy independence, but their policies are at odds with their claimed intent.


The accompanying map depicts "The No Zone." This is the region surrounding the United States in which Democrats have forbidden oil exploration. Take, for example, ANWR. The Alaskan wildlife refuge is an immense property. To put it into its proper scale, if ANWR was the size of a football field, the requested oil exploration area is the size of a postage stamp.

Democrats oppose drilling in deepwater, even though Hurricanes Katrina and Rita proved that modern offshore drilling platforms pose little or no pollution risk. As for new refineries, well, the Democrats oppose those, too.

The net impact of Democratic behavior is that America will become ever more dependent on foreign oil.

While alternative energy sources remain an admirable goal, they are decades away from becoming serious alternatives to oil, which is the lifeblood of our economy. Several months ago, Ben Stein described the reliance of our society on oil:

...If we lost all oil and gas products tomorrow, ...the world would simply collapse. There would be an immense depression beyond anything we saw in the 1930s -- the economy would go back to a primitive state. There would simply not be a functioning society. It would be as if there had been nuclear war, minus the casualties from blast and radiation. In a word, we cannot as a modern society or even a modestly industrial society live without oil and gas. That is, [it is not] a luxury or a narcotic. [It is] a basic necessity of life, as basic as almost any commodity there is.

The Democrats simply pretend that this isn't the case by preventing exploration in sensible locations.

In the mean time, Cuba is permitting foreign countries to drain the Gulf of Mexico of its oil. For example, Cuba granted China drilling rights in the Gulf. And, in fact, China will be drilling within 50 miles of Florida.


And while countries such as China will be sucking oil out of the Gulf, Democrats are continuing to stonewall against sensible energy policies.

Many Democrats call themselves "progressives", but when it comes to energy policy, the term "regressive" comes to mind.

Magnanimous: Republicans, if nothing else, are pragmatists. They recognize the landscape of energy dependence and have created realistic gameplans for dealing with the situation.


United States Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) has assembled a powerful set of graphs that illustrate the real problem... and a potential solution.


The bottom line is that in order to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we must open up new avenues of exploration and refinement. To do anything less is to court disaster, but that seems to be standard fare for the modern Democratic party.

Hat tips: Gateway Pundit and Larwyn. Frivolous vs. Magnanimous is a recurring series. Email us with suggestions!