MOsanthrope

Posted by Chris on April 27, 2006 at 11:50 am.

Republican politicians have one solution for every problem:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Every American taxpayer would get a $100 rebate check to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.

However, the GOP energy package may face tough sledding because it also includes a controversial proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, which most Democrats and some moderate Republicans oppose.

That sounds like a fantastic deal for big oil! Will average Americans grab their ankles for $100?

They bought the Bush tax cuts.

On the other hand, as noted in a February 14, 2006 New York Times article, oil companies aren’t that cheap:

The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

New projections, buried in the Interior Department’s just- published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.

* * *

Moreover, the projected largess could be just the start. Last week, Kerr-McGee Exploration and Development, a major industry player, began a brash but utterly serious court challenge that could, if it succeeds, cost the government another $28 billion in royalties over the next five years.

Republicans’ perverse fascination with oil exploration in ANWR defies rational explanation:

Although drilling proponents often say there are 16 billion barrels of oil under the refuge’s coastal plain, the U.S. Geological Service’s estimate of the amount that could be recovered economically — that is, the amount likely to be profitably extracted and sold — represents less than a year’s U.S. supply.

It would take 10 years for any Arctic Refuge oil to reach the market, and even when production peaks — in the distant year of 2027 — the refuge would produce a paltry 1 or 2 percent of Americans’ daily consumption. Whatever oil the refuge might produce is simply irrelevant to the larger issue of meeting America’s future energy needs

Any questions? Who’s your daddy?

Filed under: Politics, Business, U.S., Environment