Say Anything Blog

The rest of the world isn’t exactly appreciative of America, the world’s biggest consumer of oil, driving up oil prices by refusing to develop its own resources.

At last month’s World Petroleum Congress in Madrid, the blatant hypocrisy of U.S. energy policy—demanding that OPEC members expand their oil drilling efforts while restricting offshore drilling here at home—was a prominent topic of discussion. Indeed, the U.S. ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf was mentioned by three of the most powerful people in the global energy business: the head of OPEC; the chief executive of Brazil’s national oil company, Petrobras; and the Saudi oil minister. All of them said the United States should start drilling in its offshore areas.

During a press conference in Madrid, Chakib Khelil, the Algerian oil minister and president of OPEC, was asked what the United States could do to lower oil prices. He mentioned three things: stabilize the value of the dollar, increase energy efficiency, and “open up your exploration. In Algeria, we have a bidding round going on. We are open. The U.S. also needs to open…offshore Florida, offshore Alaska, need to be opened to exploration.”

Aren’t the Democrats the ones always worried about how President Bush is making America less liked in the world?  Well it appears as though the Democrat energy agenda is making America less liked in the world. 

Where’s the outrage?

Of course, I don’t think we should base our energy policies on what other countries want, but it is absolutely hypocritical of us to demand that other countries increase their oil output to meet our demand while we refuse to do the same.