If you were to believe the oil industry and their congressional cronies, all we’d have to do to lower prices at the pump is to open up the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to drilling. It is a cruel hoax.
The entire Atlantic Coast contains a total potential of several months of oil and about 112 years of gas at current US consumption rates – and don’t hold your breath or plan a major purchase with the savings. It will take up to 22 years to tap and get it to the pumps, and it will only reduce the price a whopping 5 cents at most.
Vast amounts of offshore oil and gas sources are already owned by the oil industry, but they have only used 18 percent of these areas. Moreover, the oil industry exported a record-breaking half-billion barrels of U.S.-produced crude and petroleum products. Think of it – sending U.S. products overseas when citizens want it here!
Make no mistake, oil drilling is a dirty process, discharging millions of gallons of toxic drilling waste fluids into the ocean and sending piercing noises that impact endangered whales and dolphins.
The oil industry czars are using the petroleum panic to dupe us into drilling up our most fragile ocean resources, putting our coastal tourism and fishing industries at grave risk, and threatening our quality of life.
Oil companies are indeed pocketing billions of dollars in record profits on the backs of citizens. Don’t be fossil fooled.
The real solution is to have local, state and federal leaders focus on helping us implement real energy conservation and alternate energy sources. Unfortunately, the president and some in Congress are busy buying into the topsyturvy, deceitful spin of oil execs.
Cindy Zipf
Executive Director
Clean Ocean Action
Highlands
www.cleanoceanaction.org