Drilling Where There Isn't Any Oil is Like Giving Money to People Who Can't Vote. Sent June 08'

Senator Nelson,
I am writing in response to your letter dated the 26th of June, 2008. In regards to the amount of acreage leased. I recommend cancelling the lease and lease the acreage the oil companies feel has a better chance of hitting oil. They are the professionals. I do not feel that this is a valid reason to keep your constituents from receiving the energy that in effect, belongs to them.

In regards to your concern that the price of gas may not go down for a while as a reason not to drill I will refer you back to my example. I only have one loaf of bread at a dollar a slice to share with 100 people but I won’t plant any more wheat, build a mill, or construct a new bakery because it may be years before the price of bread goes down. The part of the equation that you have missed is that more people can eat.

Regarding your bill S.3134, how do you plan to take the rest of the world to task for “speculating” on oil that does not belong to us in the first place? The price of oil is the same all over the world (unless Chavez likes you) and we are not the only purchaser of energy. Actually, the price of oil is set by the Law of Supply and Demand. There is now very little excess oil on the spot market. This coupled with the problems in Iran has driven the price of oil up. If a more stable economy, say ours, were able to pick up the slack and provide the cushion, the price of oil would come down because it is not in as much danger of being made less accessible. If you couldn’t tell, I am not in support of your bill. I would support a bill that would make the drilling and refining of oil less of a burden to the professionals who know how to get it to market in the most economical way.

You state that we are being gouged and we should not give away the store under President Bush. Are you saving it for your prospective president? You will have to allow drilling, refinery building, and power plant erecting sooner or later. Please make it as soon as possible.

In closing, I pointed out in my letter to you there is a need for more refineries in the U.S.. I also brought up the point that a large jump in the oil industry would be a boon to both that industry and manufacturing and steel production. You made no mention of this. It appears that you are only interested in finding someone at fault. It does not appear that you are interested in getting more oil to the country that you are responsible for protecting. Please do not expect any sympathy from me when you try and explain to your constituents why the “fine them into submission” Congress, not the president, is responsible for the debacle that is the energy crisis.

Respectfully,
Edward Rodda