Gingrich Mounts Campaign to 'Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less'

grist.org

"Green conservative" and We campaign spokesman Newt Gingrich is mounting a new campaign: "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less."

His promise is that (blocking the Lieberman-Warner climate bill and) opening up drilling off the coasts, in the Gulf of Mexico, in northern Alaska, and in the Rockies (for oil shale) would lower gas prices.

Now, for one thing that's just a lie. It's false. According to the EIA, the U.S. has about 21 billion gallons in proven oil reserves -- about 3% of the world's total. Even if we started drilling today, it would be 10 years before we got substantial production out of those fields, and 20 years before peak production. Ten years -- while gas prices have risen $0.50 just this Spring.

Right now, Saudi Arabia is sitting pretty, enjoying sky-high oil prices. They are ignoring our entreaties to pump more because they like these supply constraints just fine (and they probably can't pump any faster if they wanted to). Say we start pumping those reserves out into the world oil market. What's to stop Saudi Arabia from dialing back production a little bit, so supply (and prices) stay roughly the same? Answer: nothing. U.S. domestic oil prices rise to meet world prices, and those prices are outside our control.

In short: The U.S. cannot affect oil or gasoline prices in any significant way by drilling more oil. Full stop. Gingrich is knowingly lying to people (and taking their money).

The other thing I'd say about this is that the We campaign people and all the other earnest politicians and enviros out there trying to convince us that climate and energy are bipartisan issues should wait until they are actually bipartisan before celebrating. Gingrich is using a green fig leaf to push the same corporate-friendly policies the GOP has been pushing for decades, and rather than getting smacked down, he's being helped by greens. It's stupid.

Here's the man himself, delivering his oily lies just like those of us alive in the mid-'90s remember:

 

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Comments

[joebhed]

Dear Folks,
Don't think of yourselves as a country.
You are not a country.
You are a market.
As market players, you are either producers or consumers of oil, and also coal.
I doubt if the producers are commenting here, except an occasional mole who says talk of corporate taxation and consumer boycotts are communism and anti-american.

You are collectively the market players known as consumers.
You do not own either the oil in ANWR or the oil in the gulf or other offshore locations.
Again, likewise with coal.
So, you are not an American with a national policy question to ponder.
As a consumer, your job is to pay the piper.
Who, in turn, sets the tune in a complex array of non-governmental global interchanges, over which you have absolutely no control.
None.

Too often well-meaning people think that we can get back to the good old days of $200 per barrel oil by despoiling the rest of our country.
We cannot.
We can only add more oil to the global supply, filling the pockets of those there producer corporations, so they can go out and get the corner on the next fuel or technology that is coming down the pike.
Free markets.
They are bigger than countries.
I hope y'all get it.

[robinhood2]

The market sends out pricing signals every trading day. We may not like the prices, but we can change our behavior if the pain becomes too great. I sold my car over 30 years ago and have relied on public transportation, car pools, walking, biking and the occasional ride from neighbors ever since. It's not the end of the world. But I know that the price of gas will have to go up a lot more to get tens of millions of Americans to change their driving habits in a major way. Will $8.20 be high enough to get the people of Beverly Hills to start taking the Santa Monica Blvd. bus into downtown LA? People in Paris already pay that (owing to higher gas taxes), according to recent articles, and I think that in a few short years people in California will as well. They better get used to sharing a bus with Blacks and Latinos or go broke driving their cars wherever they please.

[joebhed]

First of all, nationalize oil.
Or, grin and bear it.
Or, shut up.

Second of all, I resent that the former Speaker's second coming has resulted in the disparagement of the existence of the rest of us proud "newts" out there in the world.
You know who you are. :-)

[topper2t]

DRILL FLORIDA!! The Gulf of Mexico in and around Florida has billions & billions of barrells of oil just waiting for us there in the water. Drill now and that oil will be in our tanks in a few months! Cuba, Communists in China and Venezuela are in a joint venture to produce oil between Cuba and Florida and are drilling there right now. DRILL FLORIDA!!

[JohnnyCostic]

As the price of gas creeps toward $4.00, I have a solution that Senor Newt should have no trouble championing; that is, if he's truly serious about freeing America from the tyranny of Big Oil.

Right now we're coming to the Saudis with our hats in our hands begging them to increase production and relaxing the market. The hell with that. While we can't cut down our dependence over night, we can signficantly put a dent in the allocation of petroleum-based products, specifically gas. The first step in this plan is to eliminate ALL motor sports. That means no NASCAR, Formula One, Motocross, Funny Cars, and that stupid Big Foot thing. I know what you're thinking: How will the Red States cope? This may actually mean that those living below the M/D would have to turn toward other recreation, perhaps even reading...Yikes.

This is America. There should be shared sacrifice. We should mandate that gas be used for ESSENTIAL travel and trips to Dunkin Donuts so we could show off our new keffiyeh. Just think of all that gas going into the general supply. The price at the pump will be significantly reduced. We will now have more disposable income and that means the economy will start feeling an upturn. If we eliminate these dubious gas-guzzling sport, America will be stronger!

So Newt, help strengthen American by following my lead and call for the end of motorsports that holds this country in its toothless grip.

[ofbbg]

Oh, Boy!! Another left-wing War on something. Just what we need. You lefties can't run a primary, and you think you have the moral and/or legal authority to tell everybody else what their level of sacrifice should be? By the by, how's that War on Poverty coming along?

[lochnessmonster]

Hmmm...I thought we bought most of our crude from Canada not the OPEC nations. I thought I heard we produce 40% ourselves. Drilling in ANWAR will just send that oil to China or some other nation overseas closer to the drilling site. It would be too expensive to send it to the US for refining.

I'm not a fan of NASCAR but didn't they change formulas so they use biofuels this year? That way they could avoid the calls for the end of the "sport" because of the waste - burning all that gas just to drive around in circles (ovals).

Rich people don't think they need to sacrifice. They can afford it so they want more just like Newt.

[SkipHarv]

If we had started drilling in ANWAR and off the coasts for oil and gas when OPEC first became a MAJOR FACTOR in the 70's we would be reaping the benefits of it now. Also, who says that the oil we drill has to be priced in line with OPEC or that we even had to sell it to other countries? I thought this was a free market and if the people who were drilling decided to sell at $60USD/Barrel whats to stop them?

[Atticus]

Shareholders will stop them. Why would anyone sell a barrel of oil to me for $60 when the guy standing behind me is waving $120 for the same barrel?

[noozone]

If we started drilling in ANWAR in the 1970's, not only would that amazing unspoiled piece of wilderness be gone by now, so would all of the oil.

Face it folks, the answer to the oil crisis is not pumping more, but using less.

[ofbbg]

And, of course, you've figured out a way to make sure the rest of the world uses less.

[angeranddespair]

Please see Howie's Stupid Newt Quotes Page

just search it and then read it
Need I say more

[angeranddespair]

Please see Howie's Stupid Newt Quote Page

and thats alI have to say about that

[Atticus]

You're right-- oil is a commodity and its price is governed by the world market. New drilling and refinery building aren't going to happen, except on a very limited basis, in order to keep the price of oil high. Diamonds fall into this catagory, too. Diamond mining is carefully controlled so as not to cheapen the market price by having a glut.

There is plenty of oil, just like there are plenty of diamonds.

You can't fight a market-driven economy, but you can destroy it if you tinker with it.

[Insideout143]

Unfortunately, it seems as though they already did destroy it.

[speakeasy]

And your proof of plenty of oil comes from where? What if you're wrong? Market driven economies only thrive on acutal products changing hands, what if theres no more product?

So what you are saying is that we should just sit back and get f****d by corporations? I'm all for destroying parts of this idiotic, unsustainable "growth".

[BADEN]

He's named after an amphibian that lives slimely under a rock.
That is where he belongs.
Gone.

[ofbbg]

Intelligent discourse. Typical!!