'Thank a liberal for $5 a gallon gas'

Terrific letter to the editor originally published in The Mercury about how decades of inaction by Democrats in Congress has led to today's energy crisis.

Democrats have blocked U.S. oil production for decades

Now that the candidates vying for the position of being nominated to represent the office of president of the USA on the Democratic ticket is over, the person representing the Democratic Party is telling you what he is going to do.

To all voters, here are facts that the Democrats did not do:

1) For 31 years, Democrats in Congress have prevented the U.S. from building any new oil refineries. During the Clinton administration, U.S. oil production declined 1,349,000 barrels per day (19 percent), and foreign imports increased 3,574,000 barrels per day (45 percent).

2) In 1995, when oil was $19 a barrel, President Clinton vetoed legislation passed by the House and the Senate, to begin drilling in ANWR which would today produce one million barrels of U.S. oil per day (the amount imported from Saudi Arabia daily).
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3) Congressional Democrats have defeated all bills that would allow the U.S. to drill offshore (100 miles out in deep sea). Democrats always reach for an oil “windfall profits” tax. When Congress imposed a windfall profit tax on the oil industry in 1980, revenues were nearly 75 percent less than predicted, according to the Congressional Research Service. Domestic oil output fell 8 percent, while oil imports increased 16 percent. The American Energy Protection Act of 2008 would have removed restrictions on exploration and drilling in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) containing about 24 billion barrels of oil — enough to provide U.S. needs for five years with no foreign imports. In May, Democrats (including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton) voted as a block to deny passage.

4) Senate Bill 2958, also in May, would have removed commercial leasing restrictions on oil-shale-rich areas of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah containing an estimated two trillion barrels of oil. No Democrats voted in favor of oil shale development.

5) A motion on the Senate floor to allow state governors authority to explore the OCS was defeated by Democrats 51 to 44.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. oil consumption has grown more than 30 percent since 1985, while U.S. oil production has fallen approximately 40 percent. Thanks to Democrat obstruction. According to the Department of the Interior, 19 billion barrels of oil under U.S. public lands is off limits to drilling.

Thank a liberal. This is the reason you will be paying $5 a gallon for gasoline and home heating oil.

RALPH MINOTTO
Stowe