THE MORAL IMPERATIVE FOR DRILLING

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THE MORAL IMPERATIVE FOR DRILLING

Victor Davis Hanson

June 12, 2008 --

THE other day in a poor part of Central California, I talked with a number of folks at a rural gas station. Most drove second- and third-hand pickups, large cast-off sedans or used SUVs.

They didn't have the cash to buy a new fuel-efficient Honda or Toyota. And they were now spending a day or two of their wages just to fuel their cars.

But I also fill up three hours away on the San Francisco peninsula. High-priced hybrid cars and new more-efficient SUVs are everywhere. After listening to these quite different motorists, I can confirm: The wealthier and better-educated seem less concerned about gas prices.

From my informal conversations, I'd go even further: The wealthy, especially political liberals, also like that high-priced gas translates into less burning of fossil fuels by others and will help accelerate research into alternative energies. (Which would be confirmed by Obama's statement that he had no real problem with high gas prices.)

But what these elites don't seem to realize is that the energy policies they advocate are paralyzing almost everyone else - and that the truly ethical and environmental solution would require embracing positions long considered anathema to traditional liberalism.

The debate in Congress over more refineries and nuclear-power plants; drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts; and developing oil shale, tar sands and liquid coal has been a predictable soap opera: Grasping Republicans supposedly wish to enrich energy companies, while idealistic Democrats want only to protect the environment. But those stances, hatched in the days of $1.50-a-gallon gas, should be revisited in light of different moral considerations.

One is fairness to the poor and middle class. Like it or not, radical environmentalism appeals to an elite not all that worried when gas prices rise or electricity rates go up - since fossil-energy use goes down.

But a paradox is that most environmentalists think of themselves as egalitarians. So, instead of objecting to the view of a derrick from the California hills above the Santa Barbara coast, shouldn't a liberal estate owner instead console himself that the offshore pumping will help a nearby farm worker or carpenter get to work without going broke?

Another paradox: US laws ensure a rig off Florida has far less chance of springing a leak than one in the Persian Gulf. If there's really a shared "planet earth," aren't we all its stewards? By locking out energy exploration here, we're encouraging it everywhere else.

No one is talking of more domestic drilling to give our SUVs one last gasp at $2 a gallon gas. Everyone is already cutting back and waiting for more efficient engines and conservation methods. Instead, producing as much of our own energy as possible means extracting more safely the world's oil for the world's biggest consumer.

Consider also how oil triggers a massive transfer of wealth abroad that's as illiberal as it's dangerous. Energy-strapped Americans, Europeans, Japanese, Chinese and Indians are working day and night to give the world critical material goods, ideas and services. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia and Iran aren't.

At best, the transfer of wealth to most oil producers means a Chinese worker working longer for less money while artificial island resorts pop up in the Persian Gulf. At worst, that strapped Chinese is also working harder for another Iranian centrifuge, al Qaeda landmine or Saudi-funded madrassa.

We should stop talking about suing the OPEC cartel, jawboning the House of Saud to lower prices, blaming the oil companies or adding yet another tax on gas prices. What we don't need right now are more pie-in-the-sky sermons about wind and solar saving us all or about millions of new jobs in green technology that can be almost instantly created.

That all may be well and good in a generation. Here and now, we still need to tap the abundant conventional energy we already have in America. That means building, mining and drilling.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06122008/posto...ling_115065.htm