...with gas prices averaging $2.12 a gallon, and the price of oil consistently over $50.00 a barrel, Kentuckians will notice their wallets lighter than years past." Unfortunately, those wallets are even lighter now with gas prices in the Commonwealth approaching $4.00 a gallon, and the price of a barrel of oil hitting a new record each and everyday.
It is frustrating for many Kentuckians and it is frustrating for me to see our country beholden to a Middle Eastern oil cartel in control of the spigot. Kentucky’s working families are making tough decisions on whether to buy food or gas. America must diversify our energy consumption, and we must not hesitate to take risks on new technologies. The days of filling up your car for $2.12 per gallon are over.
To look at how we got into this mess, one should start on the day when then President Bill Clinton vetoed the Balance Budget Act on December 6, 1995. The legislation included a provision to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). President Clinton was on the verge of his 1996 re-election campaign and bowed to the powerful environmental lobby. This shortsighted political maneuver was the beginning of Democrats and some north eastern Republicans kowtowing to the environmentalists.
I have tried time and again to open up ANWR and have failed every time since 1995. Opening up ANWR would not devastate the natural beauty of the North Slope. Only one-tenth of one percent of the total acreage would be used for drilling. Plus with new technologies such as directional drilling the footprint would be small. It is estimated that the amount of oil that is under the North Slope rivals those oil fields in the Middle East. It is just mind-boggling as to why legislators would not want to open ANWR which is part of the United States of America to drilling. I guess they just want to rely on the Middle Eastern oil cartel.
Drilling for more oil is not the only answer to solve our energy crisis. I have been a strong advocate of Coal-To-Liquid fuels in the United States Senate. However, the leftist environmental lobby has been a thorn in my efforts to move the legislation along. CTL will be an environmentally friendly fuel and burns cleaner and more efficiently than gasoline. The United States Air Force has tested CTL in the B-52 bomber and has found that CTL jet fuel is more efficient than conventional fuels.
This technology works. South Africa has been using CTL as its transportation fuel for decades.. As we all know, Kentucky has an abundant supply of coal. Some progress has been made, and hopefully a commercial-scale CTL plant will someday call Kentucky home. America needs these plants so we can wean ourselves off of foreign oil. In the months ahead I will continue to push this important technology in the United States Senate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------