A disturbing evaluation of where we are as a nation, and one to be heeded no matter which political party you support.
As
gas prices climb back toward $4 a gallon, the Obama administration —
facing a tough reelection campaign and rising Middle East tensions — is
once again considering tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. For
years, administrations have bought and stored oil for emergencies, in
fear of a cutoff of imported oil, as happened during the Arab embargo of
1973–74.
But since 2009, the U.S. government has declared most federal lands off-limits to new oil and gas exploration — despite vast recent finds of energy and radically new means to tap it. President Obama also canceled the most vital sections of the Keystone pipeline, a proposed conduit from the Canadian oil fields into the heart of the oil-consuming U.S., while preventing production on existing oil and gas reserves in northern Alaska and offshore. In the midst of a crop-killing drought, we are diverting about 40 percent of our shrinking corn crop to produce high-cost ethanol fuels.
Apparently, Americans are not willing to produce enough new available oil to meet our always growing gasoline appetites. Yet to keep gas prices manageable in an election year, we will surely tap what our predecessors banked for us.
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