Gulf gusher shows inaction of Congress

The oil industry calls them “elephants”

To be sure, giant oil fields, like real elephants, are getting harder and more expensive to find. The Gulf of Mexico discovery proves the point. It begins a staggering five miles below the Earth’s surface, under 7,000 feet of water. Chevron says it will spend billions to develop the field. Only new technology and today’s ultra-high prices of $70 a barrel make production possible. Then again, high prices make many things possible. Oil sands in Canada and oil shale in the American West are expensive to exploit, yet these North American resources dwarf those of the entire Middle East. So the world won’t run out of oil any time soon.

But that doesn’t mean the United States can ignore the very real dangers posed by soaring demand for oil products. Fully three-quarters of the world’s petroleum reserves are off-limits to Western oil firms. Most fields are owned by corrupt, oppressive states such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Put another way, despots hold the economic lifeline of Western democracies. There are few greater threats to U.S. national security.

Courier News (Chicago)