Democrats under the leadership of Barack Obama want to effectively give away in trust our offshore exclusive economic zone by standing in the way of any current offshore development. Under the 1982 United Nations Law of the Seas Convention the US has an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles and mineral seabed rights up to 350 nautical miles extending along the Continental shelf. A nautical mile is 6080 feet so our exclusive economic zone extends about 240 miles and mineral seabed rights extend 420 miles. The US has the world's largest offshore exclusive economic zone totaling 4.4 million square miles. In comparison, the total land area of the United States is only 3.4 million square miles.
On the East coast alone, if you drive from Key West Florida to Bangor Maine it is 2000 miles. Multiply the 2000 miles by mineral seabed rights extending out 420 miles results in a total of 840,000 square miles of ocean acreage. Because we have the world's largest offshore coastline which is twenty-five percent greater than our land area, it only makes common sense that we exploit our offshore resources to achieve our energy independence.
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Bluegrass Gasoline Blues
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Roberton Williams, principal research associate at the Tax Policy Center, says the ad valorem tax has eliminated the need to increase the per-gallon tax to account for inflation. More recently, says Williams, it has insulated the state government from declines in revenues used for roads and bridges and other purposes. "All the [other] states are getting killed right now because less gas is being sold and their prices are set at cents per gallon," Williams told FactCheck.org. But "for Kentucky the tax went up because the price went up, so the government isn't in as bad a shape."
But whether the 1980 tax change was good or bad—and we take no stand either way on that —McConnell's ad misleads voters by tagging Lunsford with responsibility for the prices pictured in the ad.
Lunsford Hits Back
Bruce Lunsford for U.S. Senate Ad
: "Dishonest"
Announcer: Kentucky's largest newspapers call Mitch McConnell's attacks on Bruce Lunsford "dishonest." They say McConnell's ad is "an insult to the people who have kept him in office for 24 years." McConnell raised 3 million dollars from Big Oil, while voting to give them billions in tax breaks. But he blames others for high gas prices, hoping voters can be fooled one more time.
Bruce Lunsford: I'm Bruce Lunsford, and I approve this message, because it's time for a change.
Lunsford could have said all this in his ad striking back against McConnell's attacks. He didn't. Instead, he chose to zero in on the amount of campaign money his opponent has taken from the oil and gas industry. The ad alleges that McConnell has "raised 3 million dollars from Big Oil, while voting to give them billions in tax breaks." But the Center for Responsive Politics only shows donations of $650,000 to McConnell from the oil and gas industry over his entire political career.
Whence the 2.4 million dollar discrepancy? The Louisville Courier-Journalreports that the Lunsford campaign was counting money donated to the National Republican Senatorial Committee while McConnell was its chair. Is that fair? It's true that a party committee chairman's success is judged in large part by how much money is contributed to the committee under his leadership, though he personally doesn't solicit every contribution. That chairman might or might not be as grateful for a donation to the committee as for a donation to his own campaign reelection fund.
Reprinted with the permission of Factcheck.org
Sources
Interview with Roberton Williams, principal research associate at the Tax Policy Center, 29 Jul. 2008.
Kentucky General Assembly. "Chapter 218 (H.B. 973)." 3 Apr. 1980.
American Petroleum Institute. "State Motor Fuel Excise Tax Rates." Jul. 2008.
Kentucky Department of Revenue. "Motor Fuel Tax Rate History." Accessed 30 Jul. 2008.
OpenSecrets.org. "Mitch McConnell: Industry Data." Center for Responsive Politics. Accessed 30 Jul. 2008.
Gerth, Joseph. "Lunsford Ad Targets McConnell's Oil Votes." Louisville Courier-Journal. 26 Jul 2008.
© 2008
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