Facts and Lies about Lowering Oil Prices

Why do 67 percent of Americans favor drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf? According to Rasmussen Reports, 64 percent expect it will lower gas prices. But according to the Department of Energy's Energy Information administration, whatever insignificant impact such drilling might have won't happen until 2030, if ever. So where did two-thirds of the public get such a misguided impression? The same place 70 percent of the public got the impression that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. They got it from the spout of lies coming from the Bush Administration and other conservatives bent on feeding profits to Big Oil at the expense of consumers at the pumps and global climate change.

Conservatives continue to peddle a program to lease 65 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf to oil companies with a sack full of lies. They tell us that China is already drilling off the coast of Cuba. That's a lie started by George Will, repeated by Vice President Cheney, corrected by Will, yet still repeated by Fox News, infecting the public mind.

They tell us that drilling offshore is safe, as evidenced by the "fact" that there were no spills during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Another lie! Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused significant amounts of oil spills.

President Bush tells us that he has no "magic wand" to lower gas prices; that there is no immediate fix. That, too, is a lie. President Bush, himself, used the Strategic Petroleum Reserve following Hurricane Katrina to lower gas prices.

and his father did it in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm.

Congress will be voting this week on using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower fuel prices again. They will also consider what to do with the $7 billion profits we will get from the sale. That money should be invested in medium- and long-term programs to help us transition to a low carbon economy. Simply put, by selling just 50 million barrels of the 706 million barrels in the reserve, oil that belongs to the taxpayers, we can lower oil prices, raise funds for investment into green energy solutions, and rein in speculators, all without adversely affecting our energy security.

The Center for American Progress recommended selling oil from the reserve earlier this summer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) took up the reins of this policy earlier this month. The Center for American Progress Action Fund launched an online advocacy campaign this week called Real Energy Solutions in support of Speaker Pelosi's efforts to sell off a small amount of the reserve to help lower oil prices. In addition to asking activists to email Congress in support of the proposal, it is launching an Energy Truth Squad on Facebook, asking activists to help expose more of the lies being used to thwart efforts to transition to a low carbon economy.

The bottom line is that when it comes to determining who you can trust to provide the truth about addressing runaway oil prices and breaking our addiction to oil, Big Oil and its conservative allies ain't it. Big Oil makes more money when prices go up and that money is nicely spread among its allies in Congress and on ads run during its favorite TV news shows. Trusting these guys is like trusting your neighborhood pusher. Don't do it. See through the lies and straight into real energy solutions.

Comments

[richies1964]

Many would like us to believe that by expanding the areas where we can drill for oil, somehow it will magically lower the price of oil and take care of our current crisis. Who are the trying to kid? They want us to believe that by drilling in areas off the shores of our coast will decrease our dependency on foreign oil. Our only hope for decreasing that dependency is to change our consumption habits and that is not going to happen if the price of oil drastically drops back down.

I hate paying that much for gas when I stop at the station but I know that it is the very same high prices that will change the motoring publics consumption habits. It will be those high oil prices that will FINALLY get U.S. auto manufactures to seriously look into AND build cars, trucks & other modes of transportation that utilize less fossil fuel. Ford's recent announcement that it now has plans to curb back SUV production and concentrate more on smaller more fuel efficient vehicles would never have done if gas prices were low.

Yes high fuel prices are hurting our wallets now, but in the long run, the changes it will bring about in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, developing fuel efficient vehicles and in changing our fuel usage habits will benefit us more than more off shore drilling. Those are the types of changes that will reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

[darrell198023]

Exactly...We should respond by boycotting automakers who don't make an honest effort to decrease our country's dependency on oil, period. Like Ford, for starters. They offered autos that are more fuel efficient (50-60mpg) in Europe for years but now they are saying they will offer the US better cars in 2012. These guys are working together; oil companies, auto manufacturers, and government...so we should work together. We can't stop buying gas but we can stop buying cars.

[BilCon]

I would recommend using a different source than think Progress for the following quote:
"They tell us that drilling offshore is safe, as evidenced by the "fact" that there were no spills during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Another lie! Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused significant amounts of oil spills."
It is true that there were appx 2,256 barrels of oil spilled in 2005, but compared to natural seepage appx 1,700 barrels of oil per day, I hardly consider that significant.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5897424.html

[KillTheMessenger]

Now given the fact that a single gallon of oil will poison millions of gallons of water, why drill at all? It won't do anything else than to make a few oil people even richer. They don't need it. We don't need the oil. But the people who live at the coast need it to be clean.

[Alan Rosenblatt - Huffpost Blogger]

I have no problems using Think Progress as a source. I see how much effort they put into verifying their facts every day. And if you read the article, it cites the U.S. Minerals Management Service that 554,400 gallons (13,200 barrels) of oil was spilled from platforms during Katrina. That is a lot more than the 2,256 barrels you assert. According to MMS, the largest spill during Katrina, alone, was 3625 barrels (150,000+ barrels). That one spill is considerably larger than the total spillage you assert.

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/07/16/hurricane-spill-lie-repeated/

[Paul]

What is the point of reducing gasoline prices?

So we can go back to driving our inefficient SUVs ?

So we can continue to be held hostage to foreign oil suppliers?

So we can send hundreds of billions of dollars out of the country to people who do not approve of us?

Congress won't even demand decent gas milage on new cars. The only way things will change for the better is if gas prices continue to increase so that demand for petroleum products is permanently destroyed.

[MarkLotwis]

The US Senate today took a big step towards reducing oil prices by passing a bill by a huge margin to rein in oil speculators. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-usa-energy-vote.html
Almost all Republicans voted for this bill to limit speculation over oil but they are still threatening to block this bill if they don't get vote on opening oil drilling in sensitive coastal areas.

At one time, oil futures contracts were bought by those who actually consume oil. This can be helpful to some businesses like airlines trying to control future costs for jet fuel. But now, speculators who never intend to use the oil buy and sell millions of barrels oil and each person in the chain of ownership gets their piece of the profit ultimately paid by consumers who have to choose between getting to work and pay for housing, health care, or even food. Economists have found that 25% to 50% of the price of oil is a result of these paper speculators.

Congress can act now to reduce the price of oil. If the Republicans filibuster, the Democrats need to call their bluff and let them stand up straight for days until they break a filibuster. And if Bush vetoes reining in oil speculators, they should keep voting to override his veto over and over and force John McCain and his buddies to take a stand for the big oil speculators or you and me.

[UnbiasView]

The Dems are talking out of both sides of their mouth with this bill:

If they believe speculators are the main problem, then drilling would cause the price to go down as well since they are speculating that we won't drill and there will be a supply shortage.

If they really think this is the right target, they could knock them over the head big time by lifting the drilling ban and closing all of these loopholes they think will fix the problem.

[timm0]

Prove that the possibility of getting some oil 4-10 years from now changes prices today.

[SoapboxDave]

The most amazing magic trick this administration has perfected is to lie, get people to believe AND when they find out its a lie to shrug their shoulders as if they already knew and then take solace with everyone that they are powerless to do anything about it...and this is all normal. sigh...

[UnbiasView]

Why is that a magic trick?

If you believe speculators are the guys causing prices to go up (like the Dems do), adding supply would cause prices to go down right?

[JimR]

If it is a large supply in a short amount of time.

But even in the rosiest scenario for offshore drilling, that's not going to happen.

[KillTheMessenger]

Correct, if you can be stupid about one thing, chances are, you will be stupid about anything else. Republicans love this fact and make perfect use of it.

[jhNY]

Liars lie and the gullible believe them. Agreed.