Krauthammer uninformed on oil policy
Charles Krauthammer’s recent column is pure Krauthammer; a thick layer of invective wrapped around a chewy center of neoconservative misinformation.
Krauthammer’s “drill baby drill” mantra would bring no short-term and very little long-term relief to U.S. drivers. The chairman and CEO of Chevron, David O’Reilly, in a 2005 letter published in many American newspapers wrote, “One thing is clear, the era of easy oil is over.”
In 2009, the U.S. Energy Information Administration issued a report that examined the difference between full offshore drilling and continued restrictions. In 2020, there is no impact on gasoline prices. In 2030, U.S. gasoline prices would be three cents a gallon lower.
In regard to TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline, last year Nebraska’s Republican Gov. Heineman sent a letter to President Obama urging the federal government to deny the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline “because it is directly over the Ogallala Aquifer” and that a spill could damage Nebraska’s water supply. So the Obama administration denied the permit until, as requested by Gov. Heineman, “alternative routes through Nebraska could be evaluated.” Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) offered an amendment to keep oil from the Keystone pipeline in the U.S., but the Republicans blocked the amendment.
Finally, creating fuel from algae is not as far-fetched as Krauthammer implies. As noted in an article in Scientific American, petroleum crude oil used today to create gasoline, jet fuel, plastics and other products was algae 500 million years ago. After time, temperature, and pressure worked their magic, algae became the crude oil extracted today from oil reservoirs around the world.
Sapphire Energy of La Jolla, CA, supported by major oil companies, announced in 2009 it would be producing from algae-based fuel 1 million gallons of diesel and jet fuel a year by 2011, more than 100 million gallons a year by 2018 and 1 billion gallons a year by 2020.
As usual, Krauthammer is in the 19th Century.
Tom Bartlett-Svehla
Mundelein