Member Comments

• • Reply
  • Report Abuse

  Posted By: David Lewis @ 05/25/2009 9:56:29 PM

  There isn't one mention in the entire column of climate change, the reason why there is a "bias" against oil and gas. Where does Samuelson get this idea that it is in the national interest for the US to experience wholesale global climate change? He brands all those who see climate as a problem as "insane" by implication. Expanding fossil fuel production doesn't "offend" many Americans, it is seen as a bad idea. In the face of the evidence, it is expanding fossil fuel production that appears to be, to use Samuelson's word, insane.

• • Reply
  • Report Abuse

  Posted By: Miles @ 05/24/2009 2:06:53 PM

  The oil and gas industry should be getting some help. Right now Exxon Mobile, Chevron, and Conoco Philips are sitting on around $50 billion in cash reserves, while they will not be raking in record profits. Their profits will put them in the top 10 most profitable companies this year. This industry has always received tax breaks and government donations and when oil prices are at rock bottom that is OK, when they are flush with cash and report huge profits is not the time.

• • Reply
  • Report Abuse

  Posted By: ConsumerEnergyAlliance @ 05/20/2009 9:29:30 AM

  The matter of how and where the United States gets its energy is an extremely complex issue involving financial, environmental and national security considerations. Too often it is diminished to a kind of good versus evil dynamic, and more often than not the parties that argue for any expansion in domestic oil drilling are cast as the bad guys. This, even though any reasonable person knows that our country will remain at least partly dependent on fossil fuels for generations to come, regardless of how much we invest in alternative energies.
  
  Like the airline industry, most industries that rely on oil have worked hard to limit their consumption by adopting more efficient ways of operating. But improved efficiency does not negate the need for oil. When it comes to domestic production, we???ve been good at taking the moral high-ground and imposing drilling moratoriums across much of the country. But when it comes to consumption, we conveniently look the other way, choosing to ignore that our cars, planes and domestic industries are more often than not running on imported oil. That is oil that takes both significant power and cash to import and which complicates our national security.
  
  It???s time for a domestic energy policy that looks to all our natural resources: wind and solar power, shale and natural gas, and oil, that is produced and transported with regard to the environment. But until we make an honest assessment of our needs and our resources, the country will remain far too dependent on foreign sources of power, which is not good for our economy or our security. David Holt, President Consumer Energy Alliance.