I Hate Nancy Pelosi and Her Tool, Harry Reid

The International Herald Tribune reports on Pelosi's asinine decision to fight the call to allow for more offshore drilling. This woman is a real piece of work.

"The president of the United States, with gas at $4 a gallon because of his failed energy policies, is now trying to say that is because I couldn't drill offshore," Pelosi said in an interview. "That is not the cause, and I am not going to let him get away with it."

Her voice carries considerable weight since, as speaker, Pelosi is in a position to prevent a vote on expanded drilling from reaching the floor

And she and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, appear intent on holding the line against calls to approve drilling in areas now off limits.

Does she really think that we are going to blame President Bush for the price of oil? Some of us aren't stupid. We understand that oil is part of a GLOBAL market. Other countries also demand oil from our suppliers. Since OPEC is a cartel run by despots, dictators, and terrorists the best solution is to lower our dependence on foreign oil. We also know that a liberal Congress has been blocking Bush and the conservatives on many issues for over 3 yrs.

What about alternative fuels? I have nothing against them - in fact more power to you if you find a viable, marketable alternative fuel that can compete with gasoline and diesel fuels. (Just don't force anyone to use it or subsidize it with my tax dollars!)

Lets look at some facts about petroleum - I gathered these myself so if you find any errors please let me know. (based on information from the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy)

• 2007 the US produced 1.86 Billion Barrels of crude, sounds like a lot but it is actually about the amount the US produced in the late 1940s.
• The height of US oil production was 1970 with over 3.5 Billion Barrels of crude.
• This means that US oil production is down 47% from 1970.
• 1989 was the first year since 1970 that US oil production was under 3 Billion Barrels, the number of barrels drops every year.

• In 2006 the US oil reserve was 20.9 Billion Barrels, again similar to the mid 1940s.
• 1970 was the year with the largest US oil reserve at 39 Billion Barrels.
• This also is a 47% drop in the oil reserves.

• Accounting for all petroleum products the US consumed 7.55 Billion Barrels in 2007.
• When compared to the 1.86 Billion Barrels produced in the US this means we are 76% dependant on foreign oil.
• During Nixon's administration our dependence on foreign oil was about 20%.
• This amount of consumption means that with foreign oil out of the picture the US only has a little over 3.5 years worth of oil in the reserves with the current production rate of US oil included.

Knowing these facts tells us that we are in a precarious position in regards to oil. In 2007 almost half of all oil imports came from OPEC (1 billion barrels from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela combined). Other imports came from countries that have tense ties with the US including Russia, Mexico (half a billion barrels), China, and other Middle and Far Eastern States.

It tells me that we need to hold on to our diminishing reserves. We need to drill now. It is a crock of crap to say that it will take 10 to 30 years to see the benefit of drilling now. Economically it will make OPEC rethink their prices which will give an immediate benefit. It didn't take 10 years to get a significant amount of oil out of the ground during the oil boom at the turn of the 20th century. Surely our technology for extracting oil is faster and cleaner now. We should also pursue renewable sources of energy. If we can reduce dependence on oil without government intervention I am all for it. If the government hadn't intervened in drilling and exploration we wouldn't be in this predicament.