Brunswick Beacon, 03.10.22
Congressman David Rouzer’s Feb. 28 Newsletter parroted misleading Republican talking points that won’t lower energy costs but will deepen our dependence on fossil fuels.
Rouzer played politics with Ukraine’s terrible tragedy. He falsely claimed we could reduce the leverage Russia has over Western democracies because of its fossil fuel production by “opening up leases on federal lands.”
Biden is approving more leases on federal lands per month than Trump did. Oil and gas production have increased and should hit historic highs next year.
There are 9,000 unused leases oil companies could drill on immediately. They’ve stockpiled enough leases to last until 2030, when GM and Ford will produce electric vehicles almost exclusively. Bloomberg.com says U.S. companies aren’t drilling more because of greed. They’re choosing to send profits back to investors instead of spending them “on new drilling that could flood the world with cheap crude.” In plain English: We don’t have cheap gas because oil companies don’t want cheap gas.
Biden is taking an “all-of-the-above” approach to oil prices. He persuaded every member of the International Energy Agency to release oil from their Strategic Petroleum Reserves. He is urging domestic producers to drill on their stockpiled leases and pressuring OPEC nations to pump more. And he is pursuing renewable energy to end our dependence on fossil fuels and eliminate the source of Russia’s power.
Rouzer’s argument careened from deceptive to dangerous when he demanded that Biden “immediately shelve” our renewable energy program. Dangerous because “The move to renewables was and is the right thing to do” to check Russian aggression says Yuriy Vitrenko, head of Ukraine’s national natural gas company Naftogaz.
Our fossil fuel addiction emboldened Russian aggression and trapped us in an energy hole. By helping oil and gas companies deepen our dependence on fossil fuels Rouzer broke the Law of Holes: when you’re in one, stop digging.
Vince Amoroso
Sunset Beach