Trump Is Trying To Sell ANWR To The Oil Companies

 Donald Trump seems determined to do as much damage to this country as he can before leaving office. One of the things he wants to do is sell oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and he is accelerating the process to get it done before leaving office.

Here is part of how Bloomberg News is reporting this:

The Trump administration is racing to sell oil drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Joe Biden takes office so the president-elect can’t revoke the contracts.

The Interior Department announced Thursday it will hold the auction on Jan. 6 -- an accelerated timetable meant to ensure the oil and gas leases are formally issued before Biden is sworn in Jan. 20. Biden has vowed to permanently protect the refuge, but formal leases are contracts with the federal government and are difficult to cancel. . . .

The Interior Department is posting the formal sale notice before it finishes soliciting input on what specific tracts should be up for auction. The agency had given oil companies until Dec. 17 to make recommendations and told a federal court that it would publish a notice of sale “subsequently” if it decided to hold an auction. . . .

The sale date gives the Trump administration two weeks to formally issue any leases sold at auction before Biden is sworn in as president. That process of vetting high bidders and subjecting them to a Justice Department review typically takes months, but Interior officials have been strategizing on ways to accelerate it.

It’s not clear which oil companies might show up for an auction, given the current economic environment, the regulatory uncertainty and the steep public opposition to Arctic drilling. Companies once viewed as potential bidders for Arctic acreage have slashed spending this year as the coronavirus pandemic eroded crude demand and prices. Conservationists have identified a handful of little-known oil explorers, speculators and Alaska interests that could vie for coastal plain drilling rights.

Drilling Won't Make Us Energy Independent

After the mess the Bush administration has made of our economy, it seems like Bush thinks he can still lie to the American people and get away with it. The price of gas is now spiraling out of control. It's already over $4.00 a gallon, and it looks like it might rise to $6.00 or $7.00 a gallon before much can be done about it. But Bush (and his elderly protege, Sidney McCain) claim they have a simple solution.

Bush and McCain say all we have to do to lower the price of gasoline is let the big oil companies drill for oil in our pristine wilderness areas (ANWR) and offshore of some of our most beautiful and popular beach areas. They would have us believe that as soon as the drilling starts, the price of gasoline will magically begin to fall. What a load of crap!

The new proposed drilling would fatten the wallets of Bush and Cheney's corporate oil buddies, but it would do nothing to bring down the price of gasoline. As McBlogger tells us, it would take nearly 10 years for that new oil to get to market. In addition, there's simply not enough of it there to make much of a dent in the oil market.

There are a few other things to consider before buying into the silly argument that we can drill our way out of this mess. First, one of the most successful of all oilmen, T. Boone Pickens, says it can't be done. He says there's simply not enough oil there to drill our way to energy independence.

Second, the chances are much greater of ruining our wilderness and beaches than of finding enough oil in those areas to affect the price of gasoline.

Third, there are already 68 million acres of land and water where oil companies currently hold leases, but have not drilled. Shouldn't these areas be tapped first?

Fourth, a significant portion of the oil that is produced in this country is being shipped to foreign countries. What guarantee do we have that the oil companies won't do the same with any new oil found in America? The big oil companies are multi-nationals. They're not trying to make us energy-independent. They're only interested in record profits.

The truth is that there's only one thing that will bring down the price of gasoline -- a significant drop in demand for it. As long as our only alternative to power our vehicles is gasoline (and those vehicles use that gas inefficiently), the price will continue to rise.

It is time for the United States to adopt a reasonable energy policy -- something that has been non-existent in the last eight years. Part of that policy should be to significantly lower the vehicular demand for gasoline.

We must raise the fuel efficiency of all gasoline powered vehicles and produce more hybrid vehicles. We should also run more of our vehicles on natural gas and biofuels (that are NOT made from food products such as corn). We should also hasten the development and production of electric and hydrogen vehicles.

If we were to stop playing around with these ideas and get serious about them, we could greatly reduce the demand for gasoline in just a few years. Then the prices would come down. The more that we don't need gasoline, the lower the price will be.

But the idea that we can drill our way to energy independence is just another Republican lie.

Dems Stop ANWR Drilling Again

Since the Republicans came to power a few years ago, this country really hasn't had an energy policy that made sense. For the Republicans, energy policy means letting the big oil companies do whatever they want. Since Bush and Cheney, both oilmen, came to power they have single-mindedly pursued this policy -- even to the extent of starting an unnecessary war to provide access to Iraqi oil for their oil company buddies.

Another favorite pet project of the Republicans is to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to massive oil drilling. Bush has tried to get this done since coming to office. It doesn't seem to matter to the Bush and the Republicans that this would ruin one of our last pristine wilderness areas (and add to the carbon-based pollution ruining our planet).

This week they tried again to get it approved, and once again they were stopped by Democrats. Senate Democrats (joined by six sensible Republicans) killed the bill on a 56 to 42 vote.

This is just one more reason to elect solid majorities of Democrats this coming November. We need to keep the big oil companies out of ANWR, and we also need to develop a sensible and sustainable energy policy. The only way to do that is to give Democrats a working majority in the Senate, and put a Democrat in the White House.

For far too long we have paid lip service to finding alternate energy sources and more efficient technologies, while letting the oil companies set our energy policy. It is time to get serious.