Dear Editor:
Drill baby drill, then wave goodbye as U.S. fuels go sailing away. Sarah Palin was saying this day after day when she was running for vice president in 2008.
As a matter of fact, U.S. refiners and big oil are exporting 117 million gallons per day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products, worth an estimated 88 billion in the year just ended, according to an Associated Press story. And there isn't anything any president of the U.S. can do about it because big oil has us all by the throat.
Our great U.S. Representative Tea Partier Blaine Luetkemeyer has been bashing President Obama for not approving the XL pipeline across the U.S. so that the Canadian Tar Sands can be sent across the central U.S. to the gulf coast so they can send every drop to foreign countries. Also Blaine keeps saying that if the pipeline were constructed we would have all the gas and oil we would ever need. And the price of gasoline would stay under $2 per gallon.
Conjecture aside, the present reality is that a growing contingent of energy analysts agree that increases in production of U.S. oil would have little impact on prices.
Also many farmers in Nebraska are saying there is a real risk of destroying the biggest fresh water aquifer in the U.S. if there would ever be a break in that pipeline and it would be devastating all the way to Texas. And there has already been numerous breaks along the pipeline in Canada and the Dakotas.
Each American uses on average five litres of fresh water per day just for hydration and another 25 for minimum hygiene. In addition livestock and crops would suffer as well as the American people who depend on that production. Destroy that and one can see the devastation that would cause.
So why should this country risk the movement of such dangerous materials across our fresh water supply from a foreign source to the gulf just so big oil can get even richer?
So while more U.S. oil could in theory lessen this nation's reliance on imported oil the fact is we could all go and line up on shore at U.S. ports and wave goodbye as much of the fuel we now produce goes sailing away to other countries.
Think about that the next time you hear, drill baby drill.