To Drill or Not To Drill? That is the Question!

Thirty years after the second oil crisis, triggered by the dethronement of the Shah of Iran in 1979, we finally have a choice of energy policies: "Drill" (offshore and ANWR), or "Don’t drill." Doesn’t it astonish you that after four presidential administrations since 1979, we have finally come to an energy policy decision that appears so simple? It is, in fact, very complicated, and the current simplified political discourse is not in the best interests of this country.

Let’s take the "No drill" side first.

The British were among the first to realize the strategic importance of oil. After obtaining the office of First Lord of the Admiralty, about 1913, Churchill converted the Royal Navy ships from coal to oil. World War I, our first mechanized war, reinforced the strategic importance of oil and the Middle East.

During World War II, our soldiers fought bravely, but the secret to winning was the Allies’ unlimited access to U.S. oil. When the Germans failed to capture the Russian oil fields in the Caucasus, Stalingrad was never the primary objective; they relied on synthetic fuel made from coal. They produced more than 50 percent of their petrol needs, including aviation fuel, using this method. After Allied bombing destroyed their synthetic refineries in 1944, the Germans were reduced to using draft horses and railroads for most of their transportation needs.

The Japanese had an even more difficult time, as they had no coal reserves with which to duplicate the Reich’s synthetic fuel option. All of their oil had to be imported, and when the Japanese were driven from the oil reserves in the East Indies and Balikpapan, it was checkmate.

Oil remains a vitally strategic commodity, and expenditures for U.S. defense and foreign policy in the Middle East are proof of that. If you added those costs and the cost of tax breaks for oil companies to the price per gallon of gas, we have been paying $8 to $12 per gallon for years. Excluding oil, the exports of all the Middle East countries combined are slightly less than that of Finland. Indeed, I challenge you to name one democratically governed country that derives 90 percent of its gross national product from oil. That might be a hint as to the probable success of our current foreign policy.

Oil has another important strategic role in our lives. An average family of four will use 1,077 gallons of gas for their automobile, but it takes 930 gallons to produce, process and deliver the food they eat.

It makes elemental sense to me to hold some or all of those offshore and ANWR reserves for some future date when our national security, including food supply, is severely at risk. Perhaps a program that would allow us to explore, drill and cap those productive areas for emergency use - and not just an extra trip to Grandma’s house - might be in order. If that were the case, those of you who say "no drilling" would be sorely pressed to win your argument. I’m confident we have the skills to accommodate the caribou.