Schmidt Column: "It’s Time to Stop Playing Politics with Gas Prices"

When speaking with constituents, the first question I am asked is, “What can we do about the out-of-control gas prices?” And, like each of you, I am frustrated by the high cost of fuel and the fact that it is driving up the prices of many goods and services.

The fact is that high costs for gasoline and oil are having a ripple effect throughout the economy. It is not just a pain at the pump. Families are paying higher home energy bills and higher prices for groceries and clothing.

The reasons for these across the board increases are fairly simple. Farmers use fuel to run their tractors and fertilizers are also petroleum based. Truckers who move products to markets are paying $5 dollars a gallon for diesel fuel. Higher oil prices for farmers and truckers are reflected in higher prices for everyday products.

The reason for higher energy costs is fairly simple, too. World supplies of oil and gas have not kept pace with worldwide demand. One way we can start to deal with this problem is by utilizing our own domestic energy resources.

There are some things that we as consumers can do to help reduce the cost of oil. First and foremost we can all conserve to relieve some of the demand pressure from the higher oil costs.

More importantly though, we can, as a nation, begin to address our need and reliance on foreign oil by opening up areas of the United States that contain oil resources to environmentally-safe exploration and production.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that there are 10.4 billion barrels of oil available in the Coastal Plain of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The Coastal Plain amounts to .01% of the entire 19.6 million-acre Refuge area and it was set aside for oil and gas development by President Carter and Congress in 1980. Despite the fact that technology exists to allow extraction of that oil in an environmentally-responsible way, the current leadership in Congress refuses to allow us to use this resource.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service estimates that there are 86 billion barrels of oil located off our own shores. Unfortunately, 85% of this oil is off-limits to producers due to a 1982 moratorium on offshore drilling. Despite the fact that technology exists to allow extraction of oil in an environmentally responsible way, the current leadership in Congress refuses to allow us to do what every other developed nation in the world does – drill and explore on its own outer continental shelf.

According to the Bureau of Land Management, the United States has 31 billion barrels of oil available on federally-owned lands. 28.5 billion barrels of this oil is not legally recoverable because we will not allow oil companies access to the lands.

By my count, in the Coastal Plain, the Outer Continental Shelf, and in the interior lands of the United States, there are approximately 124.9 billion barrels of oil that, if Congress would act, could be produced domestically. To put that into perspective, we are currently importing approximately 4.5 billion barrels of oil annually.

To be sure, drilling for more supplies domestically will have only a modest effect on gas prices in the very near term. And, those who believe we cannot drill our way to energy independence are right. We need to do more over the long term to reduce our dependence on oil. Alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, and renewable fuels are important to the future. But, these sources will not be available for some time and energy conservation will only take us so far.

The answer to our energy problems is sitting right under our noses. We simply need the political will in Congress to take advantage of it.