Hearing back from Rep Mitchell

I wrote to my representative, Congressman Harry Mitchell about my concerns about President Bush's oil drilling policies. Following, is the email he responded with:

Thank you for contacting me about our nation's energy needs. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

As you know, gas prices have risen to record-breaking levels, and now exceed $4.00 a gallon in Arizona.

This not only puts a serious strain on the family budget, it puts a serious strain on the economy, and puts us all at risk for inflation.

Our current situation with gas prices is the result of a failed energy policy which has made our nation more and more dependent on foreign oil. Instead of strengthening our economic and national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, President Bush and the previous Republican-led Congresses repeatedly blocked efforts to increase vehicle fuel efficiency standards, and supported tax breaks for big oil companies instead of emerging alternative fuels.

I am working to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. In December, I voted for H.R. 6, the Energy Independence and Security Act, which passed the House by a vote of 314 to 100, the Senate by a vote of 86 to 8 and was signed into law on December 19, 2007.

The law increases the vehicle fuel efficiency standard to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. An increase of this magnitude has the equivalent effect of taking 28 million vehicles off the road. The increase will also provide American families with an estimated $700 to $1,000 per year in savings at the pump - $22 billion in net annual savings in 2020. Decreased gas purchases are estimated to slash U.S. oil consumption by more than 4 million barrels per day by 2030 - more than twice our daily imports from the Persian Gulf.

The law additionally requires the annual production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022, decreasing our dependence on oil and creating hundreds of thousands of new American jobs.

I also strongly believe that we must invest in alternative energy sources, and I am working to make Arizona the "Solar State" so that we can grow energy sources literally right in our own backyard. Expansion of solar production could not only help meet our energy needs, it could be an economic boon to our economy. Recently, I voted for and the House passed legislation that will extend critical solar tax credits for both businesses and homeowners, H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act.

If we want to make gas more affordable, I believe it is imperative that we focus on improving the U.S. economy. The weakening U.S. dollar has made rising oil prices even more difficult for Americans to endure.

In the short run, however, our options are more limited. The most immediate step we can take is to temporarily suspend oil purchases for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). This suspension could reduce gas prices from 5 cents to 24 cents a gallon. Currently, the SPR is 97 percent full and is sufficiently large to meet our national security needs as well as protect against any significant supply disruption. Filling the SPR diverts a supply of 70,000 barrels of oil from the market each day.

On May 13, 2008, I voted for and the House passed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Fill Suspension and Consumer Protection Act, H.R. 6022, with wide bipartisan support by a vote of 385 to 25. The President signed this measure into law on May 19, 2008.

I agree with you that we cannot drill our way to energy independence. However, I believe we must examine supply as well as demand.

The extent to which increased domestic energy production would reduce gas prices depends on how much oil can be recovered, and how fast it can be refined and brought to the market. For me the question is not so much whether we increase domestic drilling, but when, where and how.

Opening up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, as some have suggested, would not reduce gas prices any time soon. According to the Department of Energy's U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), if oil companies began drilling in the wildlife refuge today, the site would not produce any oil for at least eight to ten years, and would not reach peak production for at least 20 years.

Moreover, drilling in the wildlife refuge does not offer a long-term solution to our energy prices. Even at peak production 20 years from now, drilling in the wildlife refuge would not significantly increase total world oil production or notably affect global oil prices. According to EIA, the maximum impact for consumers would be one to three cents per gallon of gas.

I believe we need to be equally rigorous in our review of proposals to open coastal waters of the United States for drilling. According to the U.S. Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service, of the areas oil and gas is believed to be in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), 82 percent of federal natural gas and 79 percent of federal oil is located in areas that are already open for drilling. The portion of our shores that has remained off limits to drilling includes areas where drilling would interfere with military training and operations.

Also, according to the EIA, oil production would not begin until at least 2017, and significant production would not begin until at least 2030, at which point, according to EIA, the new production would not significantly reduce the price of gas in the United States, since oil prices are based on an international market.

In short, we have our work cut out for us on both the supply and demand side of things. The policies put in place by President Bush and previous Congresses came at a time when emerging economies in countries like China and India were increasing global demand for oil, making it more costly for everyone around the world to purchase oil, including oil produced in the United States. This increased worldwide demand is not going to abate any time soon. The era of inexpensive crude oil, even domestically produced, is over. If we want to make energy more affordable, in the long run, we are ultimately going to have to end our dependence on oil and develop clean, renewable sources of energy.