Column
from U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
“Use It or Lose It” Spurs Oil Companies to Address Gas
Prices
August 12, 2008
At the listening sessions
I hold in every county of the state each year Wisconsinites are rightly
demanding action to lower the soaring oil prices that are devastating
consumers at the pump and sending a rippling effect through our entire
economy.
In the long term, we have
to aggressively pursue alternative fuels, renewable energy, and energy
efficiency to solve the energy crisis. But there are also some things
we can do in the short term to help the many Wisconsinites who are struggling
to provide for their day-to-day needs because of high gas prices.
For starters, one of the
quickest ways to increase oil production is by focusing on lands already
under lease by oil companies. Oil companies collectively are not producing
on about three-quarters of the federal lands and waters they have under
lease. That’s 68 million acres of lands and water that could potentially
be producing oil, where leases have already been issued and miles and
miles of pipeline and other infrastructure are already in place.
To help spur oil development
on these lands, I introduced “use it or lose it” legislation
requiring oil companies to show they are either producing oil or gas
on current leases, or making progress on exploring and developing those
leases, before they obtain more federal leases.
Coal companies already comply
with requirements that they diligently develop federally leased lands
– why should oil companies be given special treatment? My bill
would create industry-wide accountability standards, which many of the
oil companies say they are already capable of meeting.
Oil companies continue to
ask for more federal lands when they aren't producing oil on most of
their current leases. The federal government has supported drilling
on these lands in recent years by increasing the number of drilling
permits for public lands by 361 percent from 1999 to 2007. As a result,
oil companies now sit on nearly 10,000 unused permits from the Bureau
of Land Management that they could use immediately to drill.
This failure to produce oil
is even more surprising given that an oil executive told me at a recent
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that they have the manpower and infrastructure
to put all their existing leases of federal lands into oil production.
I support responsible efforts
to increase domestic production. But in the long term, the solution
to our energy crisis is to end what the president has called our addiction
to oil. The president's own Energy Information Administration has found
that, even if we open up all offshore areas currently off-limits, there
would be an insignificant effect on oil prices. We're already the third
biggest producer of oil in the world, but with only two percent of the
world's oil reserves, we simply cannot drill ourselves out of the problem.
We must diversify our energy
portfolio – particularly in the transportation sector where 70
percent of oil is used. We need a real investment in alternative fuels
and renewable energies and an emphasis on conservation and efficiency.
Wisconsin has been a national leader in these areas, and that’s
something that can boost our economy in the long run by providing green
jobs and energy security. I will continue to push on all fronts for
policies that address high gas prices and move us toward renewable energy
sources.
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