Let's Drill
CONTINETTI, MATTHEW
EDITORIALS Let’s Drill Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Mr. Magoo of American politics, stumbled onto the truth last week. He discovered the law of supply and demand. “We want to put...
...By increasing the supply of oil, it would reduce the price, or at least ease the pressure on price from rising world demand...
...And it requires a man-made response...
...But it can also be the result of inaction...
...It killed (at least) 80,000 people and put up to 2.5 million more at risk of disease and starvation...
...In the case of oil, we need more of it and will for the foreseeable future...
...Great Britain and Norway drill off their coasts without polluting the North Sea...
...It blindly bars drilling for 200 miles off the Atlantic and Pacifi c shores...
...The Democratic Congress is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environmental lobby, which regards oil exploration, much less drilling, as a sin against nature...
...Unless new sources come on line in the next few years, America will produce less oil at home and become even more dependent on oil from abroad, the Middle East in particular...
...A distribution network independent from the government already exists in the saffron-robed monks who rose up against the junta last year...
...But assertiveness in the cause of natural right often decreases the chance of violence...
...by its diversion of resources so it can fi x a referendum “legitimizing” its antidemocratic authority— that sort of disaster is man-made...
...And it is the junta’s unwillingness to aid its oppressed population that rises to the level of such a crime...
...Californians may remember the damaging spill off Santa Barbara, but that was 40 years ago and was the result of ancient technology...
...This is intolerable...
...A “crime against humanity” is usually the result of a deliberate action...
...But there’s a problem: Eighty-five percent of the untapped domestic sources of oil have been put off-limits...
...With oil and gas prices continuing to break record highs every day, much more needs to be done...
...That’s a pipedream, and anyway it isn’t necessary in a global economy with multiple producers...
...The generals are empowered...
...All of this risks military confrontation with the junta...
...Why should they let themselves be bullied by the autocracies...
...One is that the language of the “responsibility to protect” clause does not fi t the current situation...
...These measures have no purpose other than to punish oil companies...
...Do they mean anything...
...China is now drilling at Cuba’s behest in waters halfway to the coast of Florida...
...The military will confi scate some of the dropped aid...
...The other is that the U.N...
...W]e are prepared to take collective action . . . should peaceful means be inadequate...
...is powerless to intervene...
...Britain’s Conservative leader David Cameron suggested airdropping aid directly to those in need...
...powerless...
...Is the U.N...
...And Senator Hillary Clinton is eager to impose a new windfall profi ts tax on oil revenues...
...This does not mean invasion using conventional forces...
...And the mere commitment to boosting production would have a soothing effect on a world market easily spooked by threats to supply...
...Great Britain and Norway drill off their coasts without polluting the North Sea...
...Cyclone Nargis swept Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta weeks ago...
...Strong words...
...Let China or Russia veto it...
...The United States is virtually alone in treating offshore production as taboo...
...If not, however, the aid should still fl ow...
...Drilling now goes miles deeper to capture oil once out of reach—and much farther offshore...
...The oil he wants on the market is the oil the administration is buying for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), now nearly full...
...But it won’t come out of the ground on its own...
...The democracies on the Security Council won’t introduce a resolution calling on the junta to accept aid because they expect China and possibly Russia to veto it...
...But the military junta that has ruled Burma since 1962 is only beginning to let foreign aid into the country...
...Simply holding a vote may pressure the junta to open Burma...
...We want to put [more oil] on the market to increase supply and lower prices,” Reid said...
...They worked then...
...And help the Burmese people overthrow the tyrants who allowed this tragedy to unfold...
...Absolutely...
...Brazil has achieved energy independence not only by ethanol use but also by expanded offshore oil production...
...The administration now plans to stop oil shipments to the SPR next month...
...The United States is virtually alone in treating offshore production as taboo...
...What keeps these areas closed are exaggerated environmental fears, strong prejudice against oil companies and sheer stupidity,” wrote Robert Samuelson recently...
...The oil is there for the getting...
...Lifting the moratorium requires action by Congress and the White House...
...But Reid won’t allow it...
...That is because it, not the cyclone, is Burma’s true disaster...
...When you remove incentives to produce something and when you slap higher taxes on its producers, one thing happens: You get less of the product...
...There’s another compelling reason to boost domestic production...
...They are counterproductive...
...There’s a federally mandated moratorium on drilling offshore, and huge roadblocks to exploiting the oil on the vast federal lands have been erected...
...Beyond that, Reid and his party are committed to suppressing increased oil production in this country, as they wait for that magical day when fossil fuels are no longer needed to supply the nation’s energy needs...
...Risky...
...Meanwhile, we can establish safe havens along the coast and river deltas where aid can fl ow and where those desiring protection from the regime can gather...
...Conscience and justice demand it...
...That is the unanimous consensus of the United Nations— Burma is a member—which in 2005 adopted the following resolution: “Each individual State has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity...
...New technology also means the coastlines would not be marred by unsightly oil platforms...
...His critics make two arguments...
...The Burmese people suffer and die...
...Advances in technology, however, make serious offshore oil spills a thing of the past...
...So more oil production would strengthen America’s national security...
...Robert D. Kaplan—no bleeding heart—wrote in the New York Times that “an enormous amount of assistance can be provided while maintaining a small footprint on shore...
...Hence the third part of an appropriate international response: rollback of the regime causing this tragedy...
...French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner suggested that the “responsibility to protect” clause applies to Burma...
...So don’t hold your breath...
...Drop the aid...
...So hold the vote...
...Let the world see who is willing to assist the affl icted Burmese and who is willing to stand in the way...
...Donors can hand over relief to the junta’s agents...
...Only if it wants to be...
...We wouldn’t achieve energy independence...
...Reid and Democrats, OPEC’s best friends, aren’t noticeably concerned...
...One hundred eight platforms were destroyed and hundreds more damaged in the Gulf of Mexico by hurricanes Rita and Katrina without a single major spill...
...They’d work now...
...Rather than welcome and cooperate with international donors, the generals have dithered, postured, and placed tight restrictions on the manner in which aid is delivered to the destitute...
...But America would be taking a big step toward energy security and reducing the fl ow of dollars to unstable countries—notably Iran and Venezuela—that do not wish us well...
...Reid got his way...
...To do otherwise is criminal negligence...
...Necessary...
...The donors are blind...
...by its confi scation of aid...
...And the fl ags on the relief kits will show the Burmese people that they are not alone...
...The international community, through the United Nations, also has the responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means . . . to help protect populations...
...The allies established safe havens in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq...
...In the meantime, America needs oil, and the good news is we’re awash in the stuff...
...There are too many lives at stake to do nothing...
...Sure...
...In 10 years, half of America’s oil could be produced at home (up from 40 percent), with more coming from increased exports from Canada...
...China is now drilling at Cuba’s behest in waters halfway to the coast of Florida...
...The policy can be pursued by providing assistance to the Burmese opposition, by stepping up democracy promotion, by preparing indictments of regime leaders for crimes against humanity, by covert (and, yes, overt) action to disrupt the junta’s command and control...
...But they have neither control over nor knowledge of what those agents do with it afterward...
...Fred Barnes, for the Editors UN to Burma: Drop Dead There are natural disasters, and there are man-made disasters...
...Cyclones and earthquakes are, of course, natural...
...Indeed it does...
...Matthew Continetti, for the Editors...
...Let the Security Council vote on such a resolution...
...That day may come in 50, 60, 70 years—or never...
...His understanding of economics only extends to matters in which he might embarrass President Bush...
...The response was fi rst silence, then criticism...
...The moratorium doesn’t take this into account...
...If the oil reserves miles off the Atlantic and Pacifi c coasts, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and in federally owned lands in the West and Alaska were tapped, our dependence on foreign oil could begin to be reversed...
...Their next step is to remove tax incentives to explore and drill for more oil...
...But not all of it...
...Every government, even the most despotic, has a responsibility to protect its people from this sort of situation...
...But these arguments are nothing more than rationales for ambivalence...
...But the devastation wrought by a government’s refusal to allow aid workers entry into crisis areas...
...Oil from current sites is gradually being depleted...
Vol. 13 • May 2008 • No. 35
