Myrick’s Offshore Drilling Proposal Ineffective; A Publicity Stunt
In a publicity stunt, Sue Myrick claims that the answer to high gas prices is to drill off the coast of North Carolina. What Myrick won’t say is that her proposal will not reduce the price of gas one single penny.
What Myrick won’t say is that over 44 million acres of public lands are already under lease, and only 25% are actually being explored.
What Myrick won’t say is that due to already record drilling permits being granted over the last year, the availability of locations is far outstripping the oil and gas industry’s ability to drill.
What Myrick won’t say is that since it will take five to ten years before a single drop of oil will be pumped from her proposal, the price of gas won’t drop by one penny.
The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough places to drill now. The problem is that though we have only 3% of the world’s oil reserves, we use 25% of the world’s supply. And our addiction to oil is threatening our economic security, our national security and indeed our standard of living.
Our leaders need to stand up and tell the truth. Gas is at $4.00 because China and India, one-third of humanity, are experiencing unprecedented economic expansion, and the era of cheap gas is over…forever.
We need to do four things immediately:
1. To offset the enormous burden on working families, we need a middle class tax cut of $2,000. They can keep the money to pay for high gas prices, but my hope is they’ll pocket the money by switching to more fuel efficient vehicles.
2. We should offer a $4,000 tax credit for the purchase of any hybrid vehicle that gets more than 30 miles to the gallon.
3. We should require that within four years, every car sold in America will be a hybrid, or better.
4. Most importantly, we should have a national call to service, a patriotic pledge, that for the interests of national security, economic security and the planet we all live on, that we will cut our gas consumption by 10% within 30 days.
If we act immediately on these four things, the speculative bubble in world oil markets will burst.
We have soldiers fighting and dying in Iraq, for oil. If we truly want to support our troops, let’s show them we’re capable of sacrifice. Let’s show them we are willing to stop sending our petro dollars to terrorists. Let’s change our wasteful behavior.