National Review: Faith-Based Energy

Victor Davis Hanson has written an interesting editorial over at The National Review concerning President Obama's seeming distaste for expansion of domestic oil drilling. For the most part, he barks up a one-sided tree, as most opinion pieces seem to do, but he has valid questions and comments, until they're probed more deeply than most Americans care to bother.

Hanson's largest criticism of the Obama Administration's energy policy is their lack of expanded domestic oil production, but he also raises questions about the true power of OPEC in relation to the international oil market, as well as the possibility of the complete elimination of America's dependency on foreign energy. That final comment -- that America needs to reduce our intake of non-domestic product -- is entirely accurate. We are currently operating on a decades old energy policy that dictates an incredibly lopsided intake of crude oil compared to our domestic production, and that policy could only realistically be changed if the policy began at the White House. The other complaints mentioned by Mr. Hanson are, frankly, near-sighted. American oil reserves are less than 10% of the total reserves on the planet, and that number would only increase marginally if extraction was increased to allow for the exploitation of oil sands or further offshore drilling. The reality is that OPEC holds a monopoly on oil -- other sources may undercut their prices, but the supply of that cheaper oil would be so limited that it would have a minimal impact on the price per barrel.

Also, it bears mentioning that while the economic benefit of expanded drilling is questionable, the environmental impact is well-documented. In this time of increased global awareness, America would be best represented as a leader in internal environmental policy, as well as a proponent for cleaner energy sources.

It is true that the United States could be a short term powerhouse in the production and distribution of fossil fuels, but that policy would see us wrung dry in decades, with no recourse but to purchase fuel at whatever price it was offered. Once everything is said and done, I take solace in knowing that my gas is a fraction of the price that drivers in Europe pay (in Ireland, for example, a liter of gasoline is over one and a half euros, which translates out to over $8 a gallon).