RepRichCebra's Blog

This year, August isn’t shaping up to be quite as much fun as it usually is.

For most of the summer, unleaded gas has cost more than $4 per gallon. And although that’s come down a bit, it’s too late for many potential travelers. They decided to stay closer to home this summer, denying Maine many of the tourists we depend on. We won’t know for several months how bad the economic damage was, but it seems likely some businesses will end up closing their doors.

At least part of the blame for this year’s high gas prices lies with our political leaders in Washington. For decades, politicians have prevented American companies from exploring for oil off our coasts and in remote regions of Alaska. At least 85 percent of our coastal waters are off-limits for drilling, while billions of barrels wait to be tapped in a tiny area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Putting this fuel out of reach may have made sense years ago, when the first President Bush issued an executive order against drilling and Congress backed him up. Gas then was pretty cheap, and with our booming economy we could afford to keep our reserves locked away for a rainy day.

But these days, gas prices are soaring. International supplies are tight, and India and China are swallowing ever-more of the oil we used to buy. As the law of supply and demand says, when supply is limited, prices will go up. Now it’s time to harvest more of our domestic reserves and increase supplies.

Yet even as August began, Congress abruptly adjourned without taking up a bill that would have allowed for greater oil exploration off our nations coasts. In July, President Bush finally lifted the executive order against drilling. That was a step in the right direction, but lawmakers need to do their part, too.

 Opinion polls show 85 percent of Republicans, 76 percent of Democrats, and 83 percent of independents favor tapping more of our domestic energy sources. It would be nearly impossible to get that sort of consensus on any other political issue.

In recent decades, American oil companies – which pioneered deep sea drilling – have perfected their art. Rigs exist throughout the Gulf of Mexico, and no oil spills there. Other countries also tap undersea oil. Great Britain relies on its North Sea fields, and Norway extracts 1.6 billion barrels of oil a year offshore, right next to a nature preserve.

With our strict environmental protection laws and the fear of potential lawsuits hanging over their heads, American oil companies would work carefully and efficiently to produce more domestic oil without damaging our planet.

Finally, generating more oil here at home would make us less reliant on foreign sources.

These days, most of the oil-producing countries are less than friendly to the U.S.

Venezuela comes to mind, with Hugo Chavez raving against supposed American imperialism even as he banks billions of our dollars. The Saudis too, have a history of opposing American interests. Yet our president recently flew to the Arabian peninsula to as much as beg the Saudis to sell us even more oil. This makes no sense when we could be bringing our own domestic reserves into play.

As Maine residents we understand the importance of a healthy ocean. We don’t want oily beaches or polluted waters. But we do need oil, and we need it now.

We can have both: A clean environment and offshore oil rigs if our lawmakers will get out of the way and allow it to happen. But they need to act now before Mainers suffer another lost summer.