Gasoline prices are down from their all-time highs this summer. Just a few months ago, oil peaked at $147 a barrel; now it is less than half that price. These lower prices are good for consumers, but we should remember that today’s prices can be short term as the result of lower demand due to the current economic turmoil. The root causes of the high prices have yet to be addressed.
Now that gas prices have fallen below $3 a gallon, it is tempting to leave our energy problems for another day, perhaps when gas prices once again severely strain families’ budgets like they did this summer. But now – when gas prices are lower – is not the time to forget the need to explore for domestic energy supplies.
One of the main arguments against efforts to increase domestic offshore oil exploration this past summer was that doing so would “do nothing to lower the price of gasoline immediately.” Opponents of domestic exploration argued that “it would take ten years before any new domestic supply would become available in the markets.”
I believe, however, we should begin to take those steps today, even if the direct benefits are not immediately realized. President Clinton vetoed legislation to explore for energy in the Arctic more than 10 years ago, when the average price of gasoline was $1.21 a gallon. If he hadn’t vetoed that legislation, oil would likely be flowing from that area today, thereby increasing our domestic supply and reducing our dependence of foreign energy sources.
For too long, our nation has depended too heavily on foreign sources of oil. As a result, we are subject to the whims and price fluctuations dictated by oil-producing nations abroad – many of whom are not friendly to the interests of the United States. For example, now that gasoline prices have fallen below $3 a gallon, OPEC is scrambling to cut production so that there is less supply – causing the price of oil to go back up.
The world uses about 80 million barrels of oil per day; and the U.S. consumes more than a quarter of that amount. Only eight million barrels per day is produced domestically. The rest we consume – approximately 12-million barrels – is purchased from foreign countries.
Why does the United States produce less than 40 percent of the oil it consumes? For 26 years, Congress had barred the production of oil and natural gas production from federal waters off our own coasts. Exploration had been only permitted off the coasts of Alaska, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Approximately 600 million acres of federal coastal waters have been off-limits to exploration. According to the Interior Department, these waters are believed to hold at least 18 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable oil; and this estimate is likely low because there has been no exploration allowed in those restricted waters for over 30 years.
One good piece of news, as a result of record gas prices this summer, is that Congress finally lifted the ban on off shore drilling – at least temporarily. But there is now talk in Washington that the new Congress next year will re-impose the drilling moratorium. Sinking prices may reduce public pressure to increase domestic energy exploration, which, I believe would be a mistake.
Let’s not forget how we felt when filling our tanks at $4 per gallon. This country’s commitment to energy independence cannot wane with temporary drops in gas prices. And we’ll never wean ourselves from Middle East oil if we don’t begin more U.S. production sometime.
