To the editor:
After years of failed energy policies that contributed to skyrocketing fuel prices and environmental degradation, the Bush-Cheney White House and their congressional allies now seek to divert the public's attention.
After almost eight years of subsidizing a wealthy oil industry and refusing to appropriately diversify our energy resources, their best and brightest solution is drilling — a path that would further distance us from what should be our shared goal of reducing our dependency on fossil fuels.
From 1999 to 2007, drilling permits issued for the development of public lands increased by more than 361 percent. Despite this increase, gasoline prices rose exponentially. At that rate, the United States, which uses about 25 percent of the world's energy, but has only an estimated 2 percent of energy reserves, will never drill its way to a solution.
Additionally, oil companies have refused to even file for permits to build refineries that could process crude oil, thus keeping supplies of gasoline and heating fuel low and prices — and their profits — high. Furthermore, companies already lease 91.5 million acres of on-land and offshore federal lands; yet only 23.7 million acres are actually used for production. One could be justified in concluding that the industry is simply speculating by stockpiling more federal lands.
There are ways to affect fuel prices. Although it would have slow and minimal effect on current prices, we could start by compelling oil companies to actually develop the already-leased acres or risk losing their permits or incurring an escalating charge for letting them lie unused. The money collected could be applied to lowering prices for consumers or for research and development of alternative sources of energy. Such a bill is being passed by the New Majority in Congress.
That same New Majority Congress has already passed a law — over strenuous administration opposition — mandating new fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles and requiring new standards for appliances and building materials. The U.S. House of Representatives has also passed bills to combat price fixing, market manipulation and price gouging by unscrupulous companies. It is moving to curb unregulated market speculation that experts claim may be adding $30 or more to the cost of every barrel of oil.
The Bush administration and its accomplices are opposing these obvious solutions, as well. Pundits are right when they suggest that if this oil-oriented White House isn't going to lead, then it should get out of the way.
Still, we should not have to wait for sensible action. Together, with the aforementioned legislation, we should act now to move forward on support for mass transit, and on the redirection of fossil fuel subsidies of big oil companies toward support for efficiencies and alternative energy resources.
So, yes, drill the leases already available as a bridge to the future, but stop misleading the public by claiming that drilling in fishing grounds and conservation areas is the solution America needs and deserves, and let us move forward with an honest and effective energy policy for the future.
JOHN F. TIERNEY, congressman
Sixth Massachusetts District
Salem
(Editor's note: For another opinion on this issue, see "Our view" elsewhere on this page.)
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