Stupidity is not reason enough...

So our Republican "leadership" has caved on drilling in ANWR. Some bunch of idiots calling themselves the Republican Main Street Partnership is claiming responsibility -- though there's certainly nothing responsible in achieving such a moronic goal as to leave our country dependent on oil from foreign producers, some of whom appear to be working actively for our demise. Perhaps they fail to comprehend treason, one of the three crimes enumerated in the U.S. Constitution:

high treason
n : a crime that undermines the offender's government
[syn: treason, lese majesty]

treason
n 1: a crime that undermines the offender's government
[syn: high treason, lese majesty]
2: disloyalty by virtue of subversive behavior
[syn: subversiveness, traitorousness]
3: an act of deliberate betrayal [syn: treachery, betrayal,
perfidy]

It beggars the imagination; what on earth can they be thinking?

But perhaps I give them too much credit, in supposing that thought and reason were involved....

Let's review. More than 25% of the gasoline production in the United States happens on the Gulf Coast, and was recently imperiled by Katrina. No new refinery has been built in the United States in the last 25 years, yet gasoline consumption has increased a reported 30% in that period.

To keep up with America's ever-increasing demand for oil, the United States has steadily increased its dependence on foreign oil since 1985. In 1993, total imports as a share of petroleum products supplied broke the 50% mark for the first time. Today total imports of 11.5 million barrels per day comprise 58.2% of petroleum products supplied (EIA Monthly Energy Review December 2001, Table 1.8). See this reference.

Can anyone contend, in today's world, that this is a rational policy?

Since 1985 imports of refined petroleum products have increased by 34%. Today the total import of oil is 55%. The volatility in the Mideast can lead to disruptions in oil supply and higher prices. Since 1970 US production of crude oil has declined from 9.6 million barrels per day to 5.8 million barrels per day. During this same period consumption has increased from 14.7 million barrels per day to 20 million barrels per day. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has in the past tightened supplies and has caused gasoline and oil prices to spiral. The “War on Terrorism” will cause further instability to the Mideast region and prioritize this
nation’s need to be energy secure.
-- The Need for a Balanced National Energy Policy, National Energy Policy Council (NEPC)

We now have the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to reduce our dependence on foreign resources, both because of the oil available in ANWR, and the huge reserves now known to be found in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming.

U.S. officials, the petroleum industry and environmentalists are studying Alberta's tar sands development for ideas on how to exploit oil sands and oil shale resources that some say could turn Utah, Wyoming and Colorado into the nation's oil production center.

Tapping tar sands on the periphery of the Uinta Basin east of Salt Lake City would yield 12 million to 16 million barrels of low-sulfur oil, said James Bunger, acting energy director for the Utah governor's economic development office.

And oil shale deposits found in a 16,000 square-mile region bounded by Utah's Uinta Basin, Wyoming's Green River Basin and Colorado's Piceance Basin could hold 1 trillion to 2 trillion barrels of oil, depending on the grade of shale being produced, Bunger added.
-- Alberta's tar sands development may offer lessons for western U.S.

The exploitation of oil sands and tar sands is expensive, and makes economic sense only in the face of high-priced foreign oil supplies. OK, we have that condition now, and things won't be improving any time soon, for the following reasons:

1. The Gulf Coast refining facilities continue to be at risk from hurricanes, and weather trends suggest we are in a period of increasing hurricane activity.
2. Environmental protests make it almost impossible to increase conventional drilling activity, anywhere in the United States.
3. The economic growth of China, and other Asian markets, is creating a growing demand for oil where there had been only minimal demand for many years.
   

The environmental activists contend that we must reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and while I don't subscribe to their hysteria, I do believe that we're overdue for a technology change. Having said that, just as I have said with respect to the politicians, the environmental folks are at risk of treason, in failing to provide for our continued economic health and continued security, with any of the "plans" they propose.

Today we can see that Western Europe has failed utterly to deal with its own gasoline problems. They have accepted for decades a scandalous pricing situation, as the governments there have led the way in taxing their populations on such essentials as gasoline. Moreover, Europe has cultivated a close relationship with the Middle Eastern suppliers, accepting a considerable influx of immigrants, many of whom have continued to conduct themselves philosophically as exiles, rather than immigrants, as we see in the riots in France.

We recognize that the War on Terror, if it will be won at all, will be waged for decades. That means, to any rational observer, that the supply of oil from OPEC will continue to be at risk. In Venezuela, another significant supplier, political turmoil there makes continued dependence on that source risky.

In the immediate future, we must recognize that any termination of the continuing flood of illegal aliens from Mexico is likely to jeopardize the free trade treaty with that country, and in turn, the supply of oil from them. And if we fail to terminate that influx, we are at risk of being taken over by a major change in our resident population, as espoused by La Raza.

In consideration of all these factors, the only rational path we can consider is to make ourselves independent of foreign energy supplies, whether they be from fossil sources, or any other. In the near term, it makes good sense to drill in ANWR and to develop the extraction of oil from the oil sands, oil shale, and tar sands in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. This latter action will also have a positive effect on the U.S. economy, and in particular, on the economy of those three states, which will enjoy a real boom as these resources are developed.

Failure to ensure our future, and that of our children and grandchildren, is treasonous. Tell your elected representatives just that.