Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, commented today on the introduction of the Senate Republicans’ “Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008.”
“The Senate Republicans have proposed a common sense energy plan to bring real relief to the American people,” Senator Inhofe said. “With recent polls showing overwhelming support for offshore drilling, I am hopeful that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join us in this effort. Unfortunately, Democrats and environmental activists have pursued a strategy to shift the focus from the real issue of increasing domestic supply to issues that won’t bring down the price of gas - nationalizing refineries, suing OPEC, price gouging, global warming and windfall profits taxes. The ‘Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008’ will help restore sanity to our national energy policy.”
Background: A recent Rasmussen Poll shows that 67% of Americans support offshore drilling, while only 18% oppose. Democrats are blocking development of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), of which 85 percent is currently off limits. The Department of the Interior estimates that the OCS contains 19 billion barrels of undiscovered recoverable oil. That equals 35 years of imports from Saudi Arabia. According to the government’s own Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, the U.S. imported over 543 million barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia in 2007. Using these 2007 figures, the potential of OCS American-based resources equals 35 years of imports from Saudi Arabia. Democrats are blocking development of oil shales. Although commercial scale development is more than a decade away, Rand Corporation estimates up to 1.1 trillion recoverable barrels of oil exist in the oil shales. Once again, using EIA data, that equals more than 2000 years’ worth of imports from Saudi Arabia. Despite its enormous potential, Democrats put a moratorium on the final regulations for development of this domestic resource.
Highlights of the Senate Republicans “GAS PRICE REDUCTION ACT OF 2008”. The legislation is a result of efforts by Senate Republicans to intensify the legislative debate and provide a vehicle for bipartisan action addressing high gas prices. Summary of Provisions:
TITLE I: DEEP SEA EXPLORATION (OCS) 14 Billion Barrels On Atlantic and Pacific OCS - More Than All US Imports From Persian Gulf Countries Over The Last 15 Years
• Allows State Option Nationwide (except Gulf of Mexico)
• Governor petitions to allow exploration, with concurrence of state legislature
• Exploration must be at least 50 miles from coast
• 50% of revenues to Federal Treasury, 37.5% to States, 12.5% to Land & Water Conservation Fund
TITLE II: WESTERN STATE OIL SHALE EXPLORATION More Than 3 Times The Oil Reserves Of Saudi Arabia
• 800 billion - 2 trillion potentially recoverable barrels in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming
• Democrat Congress put moratorium on final regulations for development of this resource
• Republican proposal would repeal the moratorium and allow exploration to move forward
TITLE III: PLUG-IN ELECTRIC CARS AND TRUCKS
• Increased R&D for advanced batteries
• Direct Loans for advanced battery manufacturing facilities
• Sense of Senate that the Federal Government should increase its purchases of these vehicles
TITLE IV: STRENGTHENING U.S. FUTURES MARKETS
• Authorizes increased funding/staff for Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
• Directs the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets to study the international regulation of commodities markets
• Codifies CFTC action on position limits and transparency for foreign boards of trade
• Requires the CFTC to gather information on index traders and swap dealers
By James Kerian, Wall Street Journal
In the late 19th century, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer developed what would come to be known as yellow journalism. By disregarding what had been standard journalistic methods, particularly in regards to the verifying of sources, these two publishers were able both to push their country toward war with Spain and dramatically increase the circulation of their respective newspapers.
Scientists, like journalists, are called upon to plumb the depths of the unknown and to fairly and objectively report their findings to their own professional community as well as the general public. Scientists, like the journalists of yesteryear, have specific methods for ensuring that the public trust placed in them is not abused. The most fundamental of these methods is the well-known, if not so creatively named, scientific method. The essence of the scientific method is the formulation of hypotheses (ideas) and the using of these hypotheses to make predictions that can be experimentally tested. In the words of Sir Thomas Eddington in “The Philosophy of Physical Science,” “Every item of physical knowledge must therefore be an assertion of what has been or would be the result of carrying out a specified observational procedure.”
Nevertheless, over the past several decades an increasing number of scientists have shed the restraints imposed by the scientific method and begun to proclaim the truth of man-made global warming. This is a hypothesis that remains untested, makes no predictions that can be tested in the near future, and cannot offer a numerical explanation for the limited evidence to which it clings. No equations have been shown to explain the relationship between fossil-fuel emission and global temperature. The only predictions that have been made are apocalyptic, so the hypothesis has to be accepted before it can be tested.
The only evidence that can be said to support this so-called scientific consensus is the supposed correlation of historical global temperatures with historical carbon-dioxide content in the atmosphere. Even if we do not question the accuracy of our estimates of global temperatures into previous centuries, and even if we ignore the falling global temperatures over the past decade as fossil-fuel emissions have continued to increase, an honest scientist would still have to admit that the hypothesis of man-made global warming hardly rises to the level of “an assertion of what has been or would be the result of carrying out a specified observational procedure.” Global warming may or may not be “the greatest scam in history,” as it was recently called by John Coleman, a prominent meteorologist and the founder of the Weather Channel. Certainly, however, under the scientific method it does not rise to the level of an “item of physical knowledge.” Read more here.
PRNewswire
Two studies released today show that federal ethanol mandates have placed significant pressure on food prices, while any effect on gasoline prices has been “almost too small to measure.” Dr. Thomas Elam of FarmEcon LLC, and Keith Collins, former chief economist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, submitted their new analyses to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Today is the end of EPA’s public comment period on a request from Texas Gov. Rick Perry to partially suspend the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) in light of serious economic harm caused by the current policy.
“The 2008/2009 increase in fuel production made possible by the RFS is almost too small to measure against the global energy market, but the effects on food prices and security are huge,” Elam notes. “The U.S.
government should re-examine and reduce the RFS in light of the damage it can do to our food production capacity and the overall welfare of the country.” Elam’s study concludes that ethanol actually has had little effect on
gas prices—only about 4 cents per gallon.
Dr. Elam’s study also describes the expected impact of crop shortages on commodity and food prices if congressional food-to-fuel mandates remain at their current levels. The study concludes that maintenance of the current RFS in light of recent flooding in the Midwest would prove “devastating” to livestock and poultry farmers and would increase the burden of food prices for American consumers.
A recent Goldman Sachs analysis predicted that 2-4 million acres of corn may be lost in the wake of the Midwest flooding. The USDA is expected to provide a detailed estimate of losses in the coming weeks and has already revised down its expected crop yield data. The Collins study, “The Role of Biofuels and Other Factors in Increasing Farm and Food Prices,” indicates that unless the RFS is suspended or revisited, U.S. grain stocks—already pushed to dangerously low levels—will fall even further as ethanol consumes a larger share of the dwindling corn supply. “Government support for corn-based ethanol ensures a permanent, significant, and increasing demand for corn,” Collins said. “These policies interfere with the normal price rationing function of markets when supplies are short such as in 2008, with production being reduced by flooding and excess moisture.
Read more here.