Drilling off shore - read this first liberals and conservatives
Drilling offshore and in Alaska can be a good idea if we Americans use our heads and stand firm on what we expect from our government if we do so.
There is no doubt that we need oil for economic and security reasons. But, we may as well face the fact that the corporations that drill and get it will not give our country preference in it’s purchase as they will sell it at nothing less than market value to the highest bidder. Our supply will not affect the overall world’s supply so as to affect the market price. Unless we use our heads as a nation, all it will do is enrich the shareholders of the major oil companies with very little long term benefit to our country as Wall Street could care less about loyalty to our country as their only concern is the “bottom line”---profit. I don’t like the un-American attitude of wall street and I certainly don’t have a problem with any company making a profit. But, we Americans need to have our politicians act on our behalf in the development of our oil resources and demand that they use the proceeds of that development for our country’s long term interests.
Let me explain.
If I as a land owner agrees to lease my mineral rights to an oil or gas company and they hit oil or gas, I would expect to receive 25 to 30% of the gross proceeds of what is taken from my land. That is the industry norm.
Our government, on the other hand, greases their cronies pocketbooks by leasing huge tracts for next to nothing with no percentage to be had by us citizens, the owners. They routinely allow the rape of our resources through sweetheart leases on government land for coal, gold, oil, gas, and cattle grazing, many time to foreign companies who sometimes file bankruptcy and split the scene leaving us with the bills for toxic cleanups. I’m sure this is one reason of the many that our senators and other politicians spend millions to get in office and give up jobs paying millions to get a job as a senator that pays $125,000.
We citizens should not expect or want to pay less than market for our oil if we allow offshore and Anwar drilling. But, we should demand a few concessions so that we are seeing fair benefits to our country and its long term well being.
For example:
We should demand the 30% share of all proceeds as we are the landowners.
We should demand that all proceeds be put into an escrow account, untouchable by the politicians, that can only be used to develop alternative energy sources--mainly nuclear, so we can start focusing on ridding our economy and lives of fossil fuel dependence. Surely the risk of damage to our environment would be off set by this long term benefit to our country and world stability.
We should demand that a portion of the moneys be put into development of electric mass transit systems and electric cars for when the nuke plants can meet our energy needs.
With this approach, our country would have meaningful long term benefits no matter what the price of oil does.
How can this not make sense?
Coop