"Environmentalist" Impact Statement

There's a good Walter Williams column up at Capitalism Magazine on the question of whether we are running out of oil. Among the things I like about it is the fact that Williams does a very good job, at the end, of describing succinctly the strongly adverse effect of the Greens -- their "environmentalist impact" as it were -- on American fuel prices and availability.

A substantial increase in oil production alone cannot ease today's high prices because of weak refining capacity. Not a single refinery has been built in the United States for 30 years. Improvements to existing refineries failed to keep up with growing demand and tougher environmental regulations. We're the world's only industrialized country with a net deficit in refining capacity that comes to 20 percent of domestic demand. That makes us highly vulnerable to disasters like last year's hurricanes. Exacerbating weak refining capacity are regulations whereby gasoline produced for one state may not be sold in another. There are 18 mandated different types of gasoline sold in the United States.

... Recently, the House of Representatives passed "The Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2006," which now awaits a Senate vote. Offshore oil exploration has been banned since 1982, despite Department of the Interior estimates that suggest the presence of 19 billion barrels of oil and 84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The House of Representatives also passed the "Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act of 2006." Should these measures become law, our energy capacity will be enhanced significantly.

America stands alone in the world as the only nation that has placed a substantial amount of its domestic oil and natural gas potential off-limits. That reflects the awesome control that radical environmentalists have over Congress. With high fuel prices, Americans might be ready to put an end to that control. [my bold]

I was unaware that Congress may finally have found the political will to loosen the death grip that environmentalists have one our petroleum supply. Let's just hope that the "crunchy conservatives" don't get a hold of Bush and convince him to exercise another stupid veto!

-- CAV