To the American citizens who still take the time to listen to President Bush spin his talking points, he must sound like a broken record after all these years. Today the President took the time to recognize the mess that our economy is in after seven years under his “leadership” (he still says we’re not in a recession) and once again his only real solution to our energy problems is drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Seven years after being given the job, and he’s saying the same thing he said when he first walked through the White House doors.

As the Associated Press smartly pointed out today (as reported in the Boston Globe), Bush’s rhetoric was slim on facts, and big on bull. For those who haven’t learned these facts by heart after so many years of this tired battle over the Arctic NWR, here it is again:

THE SPIN:

Bush has long called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil development, and on Tuesday he chastised Congress for repeatedly blocking the proposal.

“If Congress is interested, they can send the right signal by saying we are going to explore for oil and gas in U.S. territories, starting with ANWR,” said Bush, adding that opening the Alaska refuge to oil companies “likely will mean lower gas prices.”

FACT:

Strongly opposed by environmentalists, most Democrats and a few moderate Republicans, drilling in the Arctic refuge indeed has been blocked, as the president complained.

Energy experts believe ANWR’s likely 11 billion barrels of oil — pumped at just under 1 million barrels a day — would send a signal of increased U.S. interest in domestic energy production. However, in the long run, it likely would not significantly impact oil or gasoline prices. And it likely would have little impact on today’s prices.

In 2005, the Energy Information Administration estimated that it would take about 10 years before oil would flow from ANWR if drilling were approved. By 2025, it said, the additional oil would have only a slight impact on global oil prices and cause a decline in gasoline prices of less than a penny a gallon, using constant 2003 dollars. Oil imports would drop from an expected 68 percent of U.S. demand to 64 percent, the EIA said.

All this hyperbole for a penny-per-gallon decrease in your gas bill — ten years from now.

The Associated Press goes on to point out the interesting fact that although Saudi Arabia has the ability to produce more oil, it’s refusing to do so.

It’s pumping a little over 8.5 million barrels a day, compared to about 9.5 million barrels a day two years ago and has acknowledged the ability to produce as much as 11 million barrels a day.

But in response to this reality, we hear Bush claiming yet again that one of the chief problems is that environmental laws have prevented energy companies from building more refineries. Again the Associated Press provides the fact:

When top executives of the country’s five largest oil companies earlier this month were asked at a House hearing whether they wanted to build a new refinery, each said no.

So rather than blaming our “friends” the Saudis, and rather than blaming Bush’s “friends” in the oil industry, President Bush blames the environmentalists and the Democrats.

Democrats who like to remind Bush that he’s wrong about his claim that drilling in the Arctic Refuge can be done safely — as it supposedly as been done at Prudhoe Bay. And for those facts we go to the Christian Science Monitor:

In recent years, about 500 oil spills have occurred in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and along the 800-mile pipeline each year, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, even though the daily “throughput” of oil has declined from about 2 million barrels a day in 1987 to less than half that today. Most leaks are minor, quickly detected, and remedied.

But in March, the largest leak in North Slope production history - as many as 267,000 gallons - poured out of a corroded pipeline at the Prudhoe Bay complex for five days before being discovered. Since then, US EPA investigators have been seeking to determine whether BP violated the federal Clean Water Act by failing to prevent corrosion in the ruptured line. If it did, criminal charges could follow.

Even though America will never have enough domestic oil to satisfy her thirst, Bush has done his absolute best to give the oil industry everything it wants, while asking for nothing in return. From the Natural Resources Defense Council:

Officials from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Interior Department agency that manages the vast majority of federal lands and onshore energy resources, have directed field staff to expand access to public lands for energy development and short-cut related environmental reviews. In addition to the nearly 26 million acres under lease in this region, the BLM has issued an unprecedented number of drilling permits in recent years. In the Pinedale, Wyoming area, for example, the number of drilling permits more than doubled in the last five years. Already, there are about 77,000 wells on federal lands in the Rockies. The agency repeatedly suspends seasonal closures designed to protect wildlife from harmful human activities during key times in their life cycles, so that even more drilling can occur. Presently, the BLM is rushing to revise numerous western land use plans to permit even more leasing and drilling. Current estimates are that these new plans could dramatically increase the number of oil and gas wells in the West — to 126,000 over the next two decades. Wyoming, for example, could see roughly 58,000 new wells while Montana could see more than 26,152. The impacts of development on this scale would be staggering.

Much of this drilling is leading to a revolt in the West, as citizens see their beautiful lands turned into fodder for the oil industry, which uses its White House connections to bypass law after law meant to protect America’s frontier.

Than there’s drilling in the Forest Service. From the February 29, 2008 edition of the Los Angeles Times:

California sued the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday over plans that would open more than 500,000 acres to roads and oil drilling in the state’s largest national forests.

The four Southern California forests — Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland — comprise more than 3.5 million acres that stretch from Big Sur to the Mexican border. They provide habitat for 31 threatened or endangered animal species and 29 such plant species.

“California wants to keep these forests without roads, and the Bush administration is just operating with reckless disregard for the public trust,” State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said in a telephone interview. “I find it kind of ironic that the federal government won’t let us clean up our cars and they now want cars going through these forests. Once they build these roads, cars come, then they go in and chop down trees. Roads are the first step.”

And don’t forget about the coast. Bush has opened 46,000 square miles of Alaska’s northwest coast to drilling despite the fact that the Alaska government and the federal government don’t know how to clean up an oil spill in broken ice. This is an area rich in polar bears, whales and walruses, but never mind that. And don’t forget the legislation Bush signed to allow 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to be opened to oil and natural gas drilling.

But the sad fact is we’re a country without an energy plan, and with little of an energy future, and despite this fact, no one tells Americans to use less oil. At the same time that drivers are complaining about gas prices and complaining about being a slave to foreign oil, they’re buying Hummers and SUVs.

God didn’t put enough oil under American soil or off her coasts to satisfy our demand. So the demand — or the form of energy — must change. It’s as simple as that.

Tags:
wildlife, drilling, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWAR, Alaska