Drill in ANWR!
August 8, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward
Opening up ANWR to drilling would mean that a single pipeline break can't cripple domestic oil production.
Recent high oil prices were compounded yesterday when oil company BP announced that it would temporarily shut down a pipeline from the Prudhoe Bay oilfields in Alaska for repairs. The disruption at Prudhoe Bay, the largest domestic source of crude oil, is expected to put a crunch on gasoline supplies across the nation and especially on the West Coast. The pipeline repairs are expected to take several months, and will result in the loss of eight percent of domestic production, which is equivalent to a little less than three percent of America’s oil use.
Liberals in Congress reacted predictably, calling for greater regulations of oil companies and new federal oversight of pipelines. In a press release, one Representative blamed the pipeline maintenance problems on a lack of government regulation and said that “the American people will be footing the bill.”
Is new regulation really necessary to prevent future pipeline mishaps, though? This is a mistake BP will probably not make again. The company is set to lose 400,000 barrels of production a day—and with prices at about $75 a barrel, the shutdown could set them back $30 million a day or almost $1 billion every month. And besides, further regulations would be costly, which would not help the price Americans pay at the pump.
The surest way to ensure that America is less affected by supply interruptions is to ensure we don’t rely on a single source for so much of our energy. By opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, Congress would allow much-needed diversity in America’s oil supplies and prevent a single pipeline break from being quite so disruptive. And expanding offshore oil drilling would add further diversification, helping to relieve prices at the pump over the long run.
- Read Heritage’s proposal for a sound energy policy
- How to secure America’s energy supplies
- Send this simple proposal for energy security to a friend
Survey says…
Heritage Foundation members have a clear message to America’s elected officials: secure the borders and rein in out-of-control federal spending. Nearly three in four members who responded to a recent survey indicated that immigration reform should be a top priority, while almost two-thirds said controlling spending should be on the government’s to-do list.
Keep an eye out in the next few days for Heritage’s comprehensive 2006 Election Year Survey.
Rebuilding civil society
It’s no secret that America’s families are in crisis. One measure alone is extremely telling: Nearly 60 percent of children today are rejected when one or more of their parents leaves through divorce or single parenthood, reports Heritage’s Patrick Fagan, the William H. G. FitzGerald research fellow in family and cultural issues.
In her column this week, Heritage Vice President Rebecca Hagelin describes Fagan’s presentation at the recent Moral Reconstruction conference, which sought innovative ways to rebuild America’s broken inner cities:
America must create a “Culture of Belonging,” [Fagan] says. And the formula for that is “work, wedlock and worship.” According to the social science data, if these three fundamentals are in place, government social policy is virtually unnecessary. …
These simple words -- work, wedlock, worship...and forgiveness, are not just slogans created for some clever marketing campaign. Nor is the proof merely anecdotal. They are basic principles that, when practiced, are proven to conquer myriad ills.
Solid data reveals that these core elements of civil society have been demolished by years of liberal manipulation and social programs run amok. It’s high time we set about rebuilding.
- Read Heritage’s proposals for marriage promotion
- Find out what Heritage suggests to restore religion and civil society
After Fidel
“It may be that the lights have dimmed on Fidel Castro’s stage, the curtain is closing, and the microphone is finally off,” Heritage’s Stephen Johnson writes. “Whether the old man is gasping and still pointing in the air with his index finger seems increasingly irrelevant. Now is the time for a communications strategy to open a path for true Cuban self-determination.”
Johnson proposes that the United States coordinate with European and Latin American countries to urge the Cuban people to adopt the freedoms that Fidel Castro’s Communist regime has so long suppressed. “This is the Cuban people’s moment to reflect on what they’ve been deprived of over the last 47 years, lose their fear, and consider how to reclaim their future.”
In other news
- Connecticut, Colorado, Missouri, Michigan and Georgia all hold primary elections today. Many pundits have focused on Connecticut, where Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman faces a tough reelection battle against a more radical opponent.
- As it turns out, many of those in prison are criminals, a lesson Italy is learning the hard way. To relieve crowding in the country’s prisons, leftist Prime Minister Romano Prodi released 12,000 convicts. Within days, many of these offenders had been rearrested. The last Italian prison pardon, in 1990, was accompanied by a similar surge in crime.
- Global warming doomsayers have gleefully pointed to last month’s heat wave in several parts of the country as a sure indication that we need to take drastic steps to prevent catastrophe. Last month was indeed quite warm, a new NOAA report indicates: it was the second-hottest July on record. Of course, the hottest July on record was in 1936.
- As a cost-cutting measure, Britain’s National Health Service is encouraging hospitals to impose minimum waiting times for certain treatments. The bureaucrats who manage the government-run health care system realized, The Telegraph reports, that some hospitals were “over-performing” and treating patients too quickly.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.
- On Wednesday, August 16 at 11:00am, The Heritage Foundation will host an event with The Federalist Society on the punishment of businesses for the crimes of their employees.
- On Thursday, August 17 at noon, Shmuel Bar, Director of Studies at Israel’s Institute for Policy and Strategy, will discuss the close ties between politics and religion in the Muslim world.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
