U.S. energy policy misguided, against will of the people

A Gallup poll taken in May asked "Should drilling for oil and natural gas be allowed in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas now off limits?"

The answer was a resounding 57 percent in favor, versus only 41 percent against.

When is Congress going to react to the will of the people, rather than the unholy alliance of biofuel lobbies, environmental special interests and the sheer ignorance and incompetence of elected officials that don't understand the consequences of their inaction.

The dysfunctional and irrational actions of our legislators are best exemplified by their recent votes.

What logical body of representatives would threaten to sue OPEC, seriously considering the cap/trade bill and dealing out a windfall-profits tax to punish the oil companies.

I wonder what percentage of both Houses of Congress realize the percentage of the world's energy reserves are in the hands of the controlling governments and bureaucratic companies under their control.

Many of these harbor the sovereign wealth funds that are generating an increasing amount of the world's unfettered liquidity.

It's ironic that the OPEC nations - Russia, Brazil, even Norway - leave no stone unturned when it comes to squeezing the last ounce of energy out of their available reserves.

This obsession with "climate control" is left to the United States, which is expected to unilaterally accomplish this global restraint. With oil heading for $150 a barrel, and $5 a gallon of gas, the average American is shouldering the world's burden.

This is while China, India and other newly "motorized' nations are given a free pass to let them catch up with developed nations, who have enjoyed the fruits of mobility for the past century.

What's in control?

With states' rights and special interests in control, it's next to impossible to unlock America's massive reserves, still totally untapped. It's incredible that the U.S. remains practically the only country in the world that chooses to lock up its natural resources as a matter of policy.

While energy "independence" is an impossible dream, no one questions that the U.S. has vast undeveloped fossil-fuel deposits.

A small corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge contains an estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil and would be the largest producing oil field in the Northern Hemisphere. Yet the Senate blocked that development as recently as May.

The outer continental shelf is estimated to contain some 86 billion barrels of oil, plus 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Did you know that of the shelf's 1.76 billion acres, 85 percent is off limits, and 97 percent is undeveloped?

Shale, which is the most prolific of all natural resources, now has the advantage of engineering refining techniques that could unlock the 1.8 trillion barrels in the American West. That's enough to meet current U.S. oil demand for more than two centuries.

Yet, as late as last year, Congressional Democrats attached a rider to the energy bill that prohibits leasing the federal interior lands that contain more than 80 percent of America's oil shale.

Even though increased drilling may not provide an immediate answer, the world's realization that the U.S. has finally found its energy sanity could have an inhibiting effect on the global exploiters, who have seen America sit on its haunches while demand inflates and supplies decline.

The constant upward tilt of today's oil pricing is largely based on the expectation that America's majority political establishment is committed to maintaining a pristine landscape, undisturbed by the disruptive upheaval that massive drilling would bring.

Unfortunately, even the Republican standard bearer, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has supported the "environment retention" crowd's unreasonable demands in the past.

Without the passionate leadership necessary to wake up the American people to the fact that confiscatory energy price costs and unacceptable shortages can be avoided, the U.S. continues to ship its wealth to OPEC without restraint.

But wouldn't it be better to control our future within the borders of the U.S.A. than to keep putting ourselves at the mercy of the OPEC crowd and other hostile nations, wishing to cut America down to size?