BUSH'S OILY LIES

by Jim Hightower
published August 4 '08

When it comes to energy policy, George W has oil for brains. If he could, he'd lease out the Rose Garden so Exxon Mobil could sink a well there.

Remember the lies the Bushites told while rushing congress and the public into their Iraq war? Now they're using the same tactics to stampede us into an awfully oily energy future. Open up our coastal waters to more floating oil derricks, cries Bush, unleash Big Oil on Alaska's wildlife refuge, and turn our national parks into drilling opportunities! More domestic production is the solution to $4 gasoline, he hollers, blaming those meanies in Congress for standing in the way of beneficent oil companies that want nothing more than to lower our prices. "The need for congressional action is urgent," he wailed.

Big fat fib. First, opening up those public lands and waters would have no effect on gasoline prices. It'd take years to develop any potential that is there, and even then the areas hold only a couple of year's worth of America's oil consumption.
Second, any oil produced is as likely to go to China or India as to us. These are global corporations with no loyalty to American consumers, and they'll sell anything they can extract from our public resources to the highest bidder. Indeed, there's nothing to stop China's oil company from winning these drilling rights and shipping the oil anywhere it wants.

Third, Big Oil doesn't really want more crude. They're reaping huge profits by keeping world supply short and are not even drilling on 68 million acres of public leases they already hold. Make them drill there before we expose even more of our natural resources to their contamination.

Fourth - and most important - we should be investing in a massive conservation push to consume less oil, not trying to squeeze a few drops more out of our already oil-soaked earth.