New Webpage: Get the Facts on Energy & Gas Prices – LINK 

Sampling of articles in past week:  

PEW Research - As Gas Prices Pinch, Support for Energy Exploration Rises – July 01, 2008 

Excerpt: The latest nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted June 18-29 among 2,004 adults, also finds that half of Americans now support drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, up from 42% in February. The public's changing energy priorities are most evident in the growing percentage that views increased energy exploration - including mining and drilling, as well as the construction of new power plants - as a more important priority for energy policy than increased conservation and regulation. Nearly half (47%) now rates energy exploration as the more important priority, up from 35% in February.

Politico – Dems Searching Their Souls on Drilling – July 10, 2008

Excerpt: In the stages of grief, denial gives way to anger and then to bargaining. It may be an apt metaphor this week, as Democrats’ long-held opposition to expanded offshore oil drilling succumbs to the political realities of $4-per-gallon gasoline. [ . . . ] Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said he sensed there were enough votes from his Democratic colleagues to expand offshore drilling into new areas — and that the eastern Gulf of Mexico "should be one of the first places we should look."

Der Spiegel: 'The American Public Is Ready for Nuclear' – July 9, 2008

Excerpt: David Crane is CEO of NRG Energy, Inc, based in New Jersey - Crane: That's what I call the "Gore Approach." It's based on self-denial: Let's all go back to living without air conditioning and to drying our clothes on the clothes line. There's another option, though: the "Schwarzenegger Approach." It's the American Dream, but it's the carbon-free American Dream. SPIEGEL ONLINE: What do you mean by that? Crane: He's like, I want to drive my Hummer and fly my Gulfstream 4, I just don't want them to produce any greenhouse gas. That's a Republican philosophy of a technology-driven approach. I think it's very difficult to get the American people to engage in self-denial. It's just not the American way. The American way is based on consumption. You don't want to change the American way of life, you just want to show them a better way to get there, and nuclear power is a key part of that. The first breakthrough for nuclear power was the connection with global warming. The second breakthrough is happening right now.

Investor’s Business Daily – Taking Us Back To Mud Huts And Loincloths – July 08, 2008

Excerpt: Perhaps the best example of the left's worst excesses is No Impact Man. He describes himself as a "guilty liberal" who has sworn off plastic, gone organic, become a bicycle nut, turned off his power and "composts his poop" while living in New York City. His goal: to try to save the planet from environmental catastrophe — one man at a time, we presume.No Impact Man's project would be fine if he were content to leave alone those who don't share his vision. But the self-described megalomaniac is not.

Politicker.com: Poll: Majority of voters disagree with Reid’s claim that fossil fuels ‘make us sick’ – July 2, 2008

Excerpt: A majority of Americans disagree with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's statement that oil and coal are making this country sick, according to a poll released today by Rasmussen.

After attending the opening of the Ausra solar power manufacturing plant in Las Vegas on Monday, Reid gave an interview on the Fox Business channel about the urgency to move away from fossil fuels and toward sources of renewable energy. While explaining about the "unseen costs" of traditional power generation, Reid said: "Coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick. It's global warming. It's ruining our country. It's ruining our world. We've got to stop using fossil fuels." According to the Rasmussen poll, 52 percent of Americans surveyed disagree with Reid's feelings on coal making people sick, with only 21 percent supporting his statement. Americans feel similarly about oil making people sick, with 50% disagreeing with Reid and 31% agreeing. A majority of Americans disagree with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's statement that oil and coal are making this country sick, according to a poll released today by Rasmussen.

CNSNews.com - Environmental Group Sues to Block Oil Refinery Expansion – July 10, 2008

Excerpt: An environmental group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit intended to stop the expansion of a BP oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana. A shortage of oil refining capacity is often mentioned as one reason for soaring gasoline prices. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is challenging air permits granted to the refinery by the State of Indiana. It’s part of the "ongoing fight against excessive pollution in northwest Indiana and Chicago," the NRDC said in a news release.

The Hill - Democrats signal they could be open to compromise on offshore drilling – July 09, 2008

Excerpt: Public opinion polls have shown a shift towards support of expanded offshore drilling, putting Democrats in the tough spot of jettisoning their longstanding concerns about the damaging environmental effects of the practice.

Wall Street Journal – Your Carbon Ration Card – July 07, 2008

Excerpt:  The prospect of personal CO2 rations should debunk the idea that the cost of curbing carbon emissions would fall on the owners of dirty old factories. That notion was always a green herring: Like corporate taxes, the business costs of carbon reduction will be passed on to consumers. In that sense, we should be grateful to the Brits for showing us where this anticarbon crusade really ends up.

Excerpt: Please remember that the next time a politician vows to hit "Big Oil" with a windfall profits tax or some other idea. The tax won't be paid by the oil company; it will be paid by you, the consumer. In coming weeks, we'll try to look at some of the other myths surrounding America's energy. The problem is, there are so many that dispelling the falsehoods about energy can become a full-time occupation for a newspaper.

Investor’s Business Daily – Congress = OPEC – July 03, 2008

Excerpt: What do the Democratic-led Congress and OPEC have in common? Both sit on vast amounts of oil, and are content to leave it in the ground and let prices soar. Fortunately, Americans are catching on. New polls show that Americans, far from thinking that we can do nothing, want Congress to drill, and drill some more if necessary, to break the energy crisis.

The Guardian UK – Secret Report: Biofuel Caused Food Crisis – July 04, 2008

Excerpt: Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

Wall Street Journal – What happened the last time Congress blamed 'speculators' – The Onion Ringer – July 08, 2008

Excerpt: The fresh onion market is highly seasonal. This leads to natural and sometimes large adjustments in prices as the harvest draws near and existing inventories are updated. Speculators became the fall guys for these market forces. But in reality, the Chicago futures exchange made it possible to mitigate the effects of the harvest surplus and other shifts in supply and demand. To this day, fresh onion prices still cycle through extreme peaks and troughs. According to the USDA, the hundredweight price stood at $10.40 in October 2006 and climbed to $55.20 by April, as bad weather reduced crop yields. Then it crashed due to overproduction, falling to $4.22 by October 2007. In April of this year, it rebounded to $13.30.

Congress Now – In Turnabout, House Democrats Press Alaska Drilling Bill – July 10, 2008

Excerpt: Turning the tables on daily calls by the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans to expand domestic oil and gas production, House Democrats today said they will soon schedule a vote on an energy bill that aims to expedite drilling on millions of acres of public land in Alaska. "Democrats support increasing the domestic production of petroleum and other energy resources," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said this morning in announcing the bill, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said may be brought up under suspension of the rules as early as next week. An aide later said the debate could slip to a later date but would be "soon."

Planet Ark – Germans Slowly Warm to Nuclear Energy, Poll Shows – July 10, 2008

Excerpt: Soaring oil prices combined with fears about energy security and climate change are softening Germans' hostility towards nuclear energy, a new survey showed on Wednesday.

Investor’s Business Daily – G-8, CO2 And The Garden Of Eden – July 09, 2008

Excerpt: A study on the impact of rising CO2 levels finds a future world of thriving agriculture and lush vegetation. Carbon dioxide, the gas some see as a threat, is indeed the key to life on Earth. Even as the G-8 Summit announced plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, researchers at the Johann Heinrich von Theunen Institute in Germany find the rise in carbon dioxide levels may in fact be a boon to plant life on Earth.

Hot Air Blog: Dems retreat on energy, "wait for the wind" – July 08, 2008

Excerpt: Democrats in Congress promised to make energy policy a high priority when they returned after the Independence Day break.  Instead, they have quietly scrubbed the schedule of any votes on their energy bill, afraid Republicans will make them vote on increased domestic oil production and force them to choose between popular sentiment for drilling and their environmentalist allies.  Their strategy?  Well, the Hill chooses a good quote:"Right now, our strategy on gas prices is ‘Drive small cars and wait for the wind,’ " said a Democratic aide.

CQ - Republicans Say Voters Are Ready for their Message on Energy – July 08, 2008

Excerpt: A Pew Research Center study found support for increased energy exploration had risen from 35 percent in February to 47 percent in June. Likewise, those citing increased energy conservation as a priority dropped 10 points, from 55 percent to 45 percent. The same study also shows 50 percent of respondents favor drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), including 36 percent of Democrats and 48 percent of Independents.

CNN.com – Your Gas Money for a Flat Screen – July 03, 2008

Excerpt: Considering the average amount of gas used per household, the rise has cost us approximately $1,690. With the average 42-inch plasma screen going for $975, just the extra cash you've forked over for gas in the last year and a half could have bought you 1.733 plasma TVs. And that number just keeps rising.

Excerpt: The G-8 countries' interventions have distorted global agricultural markets to the paralysis point. Politicians legislate price supports to enrich farm voters. Lobbies extort tariffs to block cheap food imports and subsidies to underwrite food exports at prices that destroy competitors in poor countries. Conservationists have agitated to set aside productive land and pay farmers not to grow. And now green energy advocates push ethanol quotas and tax credits that divert food into fuel.

Investor’s Business Daily – Going Against the Grain – July 08, 2008

Excerpt: According to David Tilman, University of Minnesota ecologist and co-author of a study published earlier this year in the journal Science, converting the grasslands of the U.S. to corn for ethanol releases excess CO2 emissions of 134 metric tons per hectare (equal to 2.47 acres). "Any biofuel that causes land clearing is likely to increase global warming," says ecologist Joseph Fargione of the Nature Conservancy. Tim Searchinger, an agricultural expert at Princeton University, says, "There is a huge imbalance between the carbon (released) by plowing up a hectare of forest or grassland from the benefit you get from biofuels." 

Excerpt: While it may have seemed like a no-brainer to Judge Moore to side with the local Green elites against the out-of-state power company that applied for the permit, she actually wound up siding against the working people and economy of her own state. For no good reason, Judge Moore denied Georgia the many well-paying jobs associated with the $2 billion plant construction and permanent plant operations. There’s also the not-so-small matter of the much-needed energy the plant would have produced.

National Review - Big Oil Chutzpah – July 02, 2008

Excerpt: The no-bid contracts are a stopgap until an oil law passes and more extensive contracts can be bid for Iraq’s undeveloped fields. Iraq’s oil ministry is hardly a model of efficiency. The contracts to which Schumer so objects are still hung up in negotiations. But Iraq is headed in the right direction. One could be forgiven for getting the sense sometimes that it is that progress that bothers Democrats most.

American Thinker: How to Lower Oil Prices Now and in the Future – July 02, 2008

Excerpt: That means that the only option we have to negatively affect the price of gasoline immediately is to open up more of our own oil fields for exploration and drilling. I'm not referring to the Democrats plan' to force oil companies to drill dry holes in presently leased lands that revert back to the government in a few years, but allowing those companies to drill in new areas where there is oil - offshore, in the Midwest, and in ANWR.

National Review – Hail the Shale – July 02, 2008

Excerpt: The Green River formation underlying parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado could hold as many as two trillion barrels of oil, trapped in rocks relatively close to the surface. Production from those deposits could reach ten million barrels of oil per day — virtually tripling our current domestic production — according to a report by the Department of Energy. It takes a geologist to fully understand the potential of oil shale. In simple terms, oil shale is sedimentary rock saturated with a petrochemical substance called kerogen. It’s oil that didn’t quite make it to liquid status.

Wall Street Journal – Global Warming as Mass Neurosis – July 01, 2008

Excerpt: But mother nature has opinions of her own. NASA now begrudgingly confirms that the hottest year on record in the continental 48 was not 1998, as previously believed, but 1934, and that six of the 10 hottest years since 1880 antedate 1954. Data from 3,000 scientific robots in the world's oceans show there has been slight cooling in the past five years, never mind that "80% to 90% of global warming involves heating up ocean waters," according to a report by NPR's Richard Harris.

The Globe and Mail, Toronto - Energy crisis supplants environment as top concern – June 27, 2008

Excerpt: Anger at soaring gas prices has supplanted fear about global warming as the No. 1 issue Canadians say is facing their country. As the cost of filling the tank hits uncharted heights – and is predicted to go even higher – a wide-ranging survey conducted by the Strategic Counsel for The Globe and Mail and CTV suggests energy prices are on par with the sagging economy when it comes to Canadians' worries. The environment, last year's top issue, has been pushed to No. 3, with just 16 per cent of Canadians surveyed saying they now consider it their primary concern.

Human Events – Gas Price Reduction Plan Revealed – June 27, 2008

Excerpt: The Democrats’ tendency to ignore Republican support of renewable resources and reducing carbon footprints hedges with the GPRA, which purports significantly decreasing consumption as equally important as domestic oil production in the battle to lower gas prices in the long run. One component of the Act, according to a press summary, advocates for better batteries, increased R&D for advanced batteries, Direct Loans for advanced battery manufacturing facilities and a Sense of Senate that the Federal Government should increase its purchases of plug-in electric cars and trucks.

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In Case You Missed It...

Link to Jim’s Journal: www.inhofe.senate.gov/jimsjournal

The Journal Record

Inhofe: Natural gas production essential to Oklahoma and the country  

By U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe

July 8, 2008

Link to Op/Ed 

Utilized in all 50 states, natural gas makes up nearly a quarter of our nation’s energy supply. It provides electricity in over 60 million homes, and 40 percent of U.S. industry relies on natural gas for energy or as a necessary feedstock to produce a variety of products from chemicals and fertilizer to glass. To maintain a vibrant and internationally competitive economy, America must produce enough affordable natural gas to meet a growing demand. 

Oklahomans stand ready to help meet this challenge. Presently, Oklahoma produces oil and gas from over 120,000 wells and is one of the top natural gas producing states in the country. In fact, Oklahoma alone annually produces nearly one-tenth of total U.S. natural gas production. The expertise and experience of Oklahoma’s producers lead the world in many exploration and extraction technologies. Additionally, the industry provides billions in tax revenue and employs tens of thousands in some of the highest-paid jobs in the state. 

Today there are exciting new opportunities in the field of natural gas-powered vehicles. The promise of natural gas as a mainstream transportation fuel is achievable today, not 15 or 20 years from now. Most importantly, many state and local governments, businesses, and consumers have been able to cut their fuel bills by more than half when utilizing natural gas as a transportation fuel. From compressed natural gas (CNG) powered cars, to semi-trucks running on liquefied natural gas (LNG), no other commercially viable fuel burns cleaner. The federal transportation bill in 2005, which I authored, included a 50-cent-per-gallon excise tax credit for the sale of CNG or LNG for use as a motor vehicle fuel. In the coming weeks, I plan to introduce new legislation to further reduce regulatory barriers to CNG use and give states the flexibility to develop their own natural gas conversion programs. 

Today’s chief obstacle results from the unbalanced implementation of the nation’s environmental laws. With the advent of horizontal drilling, unconventional sources of deep gas, tight gas, gas-containing shales, and coalbed methane are producing a progressively larger percent of U.S. supply. Yet despite the enormous potential of these unconventional sources, much of the time they are either off-limits to exploration, inaccessible, encumbered by federal policies, or subject to litigation by special interest groups. These interest groups – who only a few years ago praised natural gas as the bridge fuel to a clean environment – now oppose increasing supplies. 

I have successfully worked in my leadership role on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to author several key provisions of our national energy policy to encourage and increase natural gas supply to reduce regulatory burdens and encourage successful exploration methods such as hydraulic fracturing. As those in the industry know, hydraulic fracturing is a widely utilized and understood practice currently regulated by states that significantly improves production by allowing gas to move more freely through rock pores. The National Petroleum Council estimates that 60 to 80 percent of all wells drilled in the next decade will require fracturing, and without it, gas production from most unconventional sources would not be possible. I also included provisions to clarify that uncontaminated storm water was not subject to additional regulation. The U.S. Department of Energy estimated that this EPA-initiated storm water process could have resulted in the loss – from now through 2025 – of between 1.3 and 3.9 billion barrels of domestic oil and between 15 and 45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas through regulations never intended for oil and gas production sites. Finally, I included language promoting the development of all U.S. strategic unconventional fuel resources directing the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Petroleum Reserves to take action to accelerate the commercial development of strategic unconventional fuels both domestically and within North America. 

In the face of an increasingly hostile atmosphere on Capitol Hill to domestic exploration and production, I will continue my efforts to incentivize the expanded use of environmentally responsible and exacting technologies like 3-D seismic exploration and to emphasize the enormous importance of the nation’s oil and natural gas marginal well production. The United States holds promising reserves of natural gas that will yield a promising future for domestic energy security. Congress must encourage the production of this valuable domestic resource.

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