HLRGazette Archives

Relive some of our best stories.

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

Dash of Pepper

E-mail Print PDF
Yes, we can!
By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff
The standard response from Democrats when conservatives urge drilling of our domestic oil resources is "We can't drill our way out of this."
The answer to this, loud and clear, is "Yes, we can!"
Our energy non-policy for the past 35 years has been a travesty. (If it were not so essential, you could call it a joke.) Congress has blocked the use of our nuclear and building any new plants. The truth, modern nuclear power is both safe and clean thanks to today's technology.
Congress has blocked domestic drilling. We are the only industrialized nation in the world that has MADE IT ILLEGAL TO USE OUR OWN RESOURCES. I have been informed by people who study this that the western shale contains a potential trillion barrels! The technique is to break the shale layer, and access the oil underneath. We know HOW to do it. We lack the national WILL to do it.
The Chinese are now drilling 50 miles off the Florida shore. The Florida government, Republican governors, have opposed offshore drilling. It wouldn't look pretty on the horizon. My own experience on visits to the Gulf of Mexico, in areas where drilling does take place, is that you are unaware of it. You can lie on a beach, look out over the water and see little or nothing on the horizon. Again, technology has made these drilling stations safer and more efficient than ever.
As for the ANWAR, as a former Canadian, I went on a misbegotten vacation to the Far North. I guess if you a biologist, the tundra might be attractive. I thought it was an unattractive and uncomfortable place. Flies and mosquitoes were everywhere. There are no trees, just vast expanses of what looked to me like a wasteland. I didn't see any animals, possibly because they can't walk or run on the squishy moss. Again, modern petroleum technology would be unobtrusive here. There is no population, not even native Northerners. But Congress remains cowed by the scare myths put forward by the environmental lobby.
No one wants to harm the environments, but alternative sources will take years to develop. Yes, we should help fund those efforts and applaud the individuals and corporations that are pursuing hybrid vehicles and all-new vehicles fueled by everything from hydrogen to compressed air. But there is no infrastructure to support this yet. When did you last see a hydrogen fill-up station?
Meanwhile, we continue to allow ourselves to be dependent on nations who do not have any interest in our national security and our economic health. Short term, I agree with former Speaker Newt Gingrich: "DRILL HERE. DRILL NOW. PAY LESS."
He is hosting a petition online to be taken to Congress with that message. He has about 700,000 signatures already.
If you are interested, go to Newt.Org. In the upper right-hand corner, you will see the link, "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less." Click on it and you will be taken to the website, American Solutions, where you can add your name to the petition.
In conclusion - just one thing: Senator McCain MUST get on the right side of this issue and invoke domestic drilling and it sure would help if the President would grab the bully pulpits and scare the pants of the commodities speculators. We'd see an overnight drop in prices.
The Democrats are dead wrong on virtually all economic issues and their solutions are a joke. Please someone, find Senator McCain a strong smart person on economics, please. Otherwise, he'll be toast if he lets the Democrats own these issues. Wake up, Senator. Wake up, Mr. President!
Copyright©2008SheilahPepper
Last Updated on Friday, 12 June 2009 14:41  

The only searchable local paper.