The truth behind rising fuel prices

Here is an article that the Dems have been trying to side step since the Clinton regime was in power.
I thought it only right to re post it here for all its glory!

Fueling America's Economy

I believe that the economy and the need for affordable energy are inextricably connected. Alan Greenspan recently cited rising energy costs as the biggest threat to the economic recovery. High energy prices increase costs to businesses and consumers alike, stifling the economic recovery, and cramping job creation. At the same time, Congressional opponents of common-sense oil and gas exploration, and their friends in the radical environmental movement, appear hell-bent on hampering the ability of America's energy sector to contribute to both the creation of jobs for American workers, and cheaper energy for American consumers.

Obviously, the most high-profile front in this battle is the tug-of-war over whether or not to permit energy exploration in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The case for allowing such development in a tiny fraction of the 19 million acre refuge was recently bolstered by a report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The report found that development in just 2,000 acres of ANWR could increase domestic oil production by nearly 20% - or some 876,000 barrels of oil per day.

That is 876,000 barrels of oil that Americans would not be importing from overseas, and 876,000 barrels per day being produced in America, by American workers - and not just those in Alaska. One study found that investment in ANWR could create more than 700,000 jobs by as early as 2005, and that most of them would be in other states. Indeed, of the $22.5 billion spent between 1980 and 1984 on development on Alaska's North Slope, some 78% was spent outside Alaska. Had responsible development in ANWR not been vetoed by President Clinton in 1995, that energy - and the jobs it would have created across the country - might be helping to provide fuel for the American economy today.

ANWR is not the only front in this battle. Environmental groups are also working hard to stymie energy exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve - despite the fact that the area was originally set aside for the express purpose of energy development in 1923 by then-President Warren G. Harding - which raises an interesting question: If Americans can't get their petroleum from a "Petroleum Reserve", where are they supposed to get it?

American Energy Means American Jobs

Ironically, many of the loudest voices denouncing domestic energy production are the same voices vehemently criticizing the movement of American jobs overseas. It is ironic because their largely successful efforts to thwart new domestic energy production have resulted in Americans spending more than $100 billion annually on imported energy - energy that could be produced safely right here in America, by American workers.

Energy production and environmental conservation are not mutually exclusive goals. America has by most accounts the most advanced technology, the toughest environmental safeguards, and the best workforce in the world. Utilizing that workforce to make America more energy self-sufficient will provide a potent remedy for the ailing job market, and a solution to higher prices at the pump.