The Price of Oil

The Constitution starts out with the words "We the People..." though it seems that the people of this great nation have been given the cold shoulder when it comes to our countries energy policies. How can "we the people" make a difference in affecting the price of oil? I think the most important thing we can do is let the President and Congress know loud and clear how we feel and what we would like to see happen to fix this problem. It was politicians that caused this problem in the first place. It has been a VERY long time since this country has done any R&D for finding more oil, drilled for anymore oil, or even built any new oil refineries. All because of laws and regulations that basically made it illegal to do any of those things. Where has these policies of the past gotten us? Over $4 a gallon for gas, increased prices on consumables goods and an estimated 50% increase in natural gas prices by this fall.

It is interesting to me that this country consumes twenty million barrels of oil a day but only produces 8 million barrels of oil a day. For me, it makes sense to at least produce as much as you consume.

Let's do something about it! Newt Gingrinch has put together an organization called American Solutions that has a petition called "Drill Here! Drill Now! Pay Less! I recommend adding your name to the list of almost 1.1 million people that want Congress to act now so that we can make a difference. Click here to sign the petition.

At the American Family Association's website you can send an email to your local representative and senator asking them "to develop a program which allows the exploration of America's energy sources without materially affecting our environment" before we end up paying $10 a gallon for gasoline. If you wish to be included in the 600,000+ emails that have been sent, click here.

I truly believe that even though it might take 7-10 years to get any oil, the affect this could have on the the price of oil just by threatening we are going to start drilling & refining more oil could be significant. On June 14th, President Bush granted the oil industries legal protection to continue drilling in the arctic. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,367015,00.html) On that same day, Saudi Arabia said they were going to starting pumping 500,000 more barrels of oil per day. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,367017,00.html) After both of these things occurred, the price of gas dropped for three straight days. (http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/20/news/economy/gas/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories) I have a hard time seeing that as just a coincidence. How about you?

We are currently an oil and natural gas based society. As we continue to develop these resources that God has blessed this great nation with our economy and nation will continue to grow and prosper. This is also the time to be more earnest about developing alternative ways to create energy that are cleaner and safer. By doing both of these things, this nation will continue on the course of being the greatest nation on earth.