Witchy Woman

The Republicans have been gung-ho about the need to drill everywhere possible in an oil panick, as opposed to finding other methods before we literally have such a shortage that we're up chocolate creek without a popsicle stick.

" September 2, 2008
The
Honorable Samuel W. Bodman U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue,
SW Washington, DC 20585
Dear Secretary Bodman,
On June 3,
2008 and July 30, 2008 respectively, your Department issued and affirmed an
order pursuant to Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act that will allow two major
integrated oil companies – ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil – to export 98.1
billion cubic feet of Alaskan natural gas to Japan and other Pacific Rim countries. This order, which will allow the export of as much natural gas as is used by 1.4 million American families in a year, comes at a time when the President had demanded that the moratoria on oil and gas drilling along our environmentally-sensitive coastal areas be lifted and Americans are being warned that their winter heating bills are going to be dramatically higher. The Administration is trying to have it both ways – arguing that we need to drill everywhere because we don't have adequate energy supplies, while finding that we have so much energy that big oil companies can export it overseas and keep prices here at home higher than they would otherwise be."

Courtesy of Oregon's own Ron Wyden.