We need what 'Big Oil' provides us
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By LOUIS DUQUETTE
Guest commentary
Oil for gas, oil for gas; we've got to drill to have more oil for gas ... really. The marketing of the "idea" that we import foreign oil solely for gasoline has been long in the making and application. Pretty simply, this world we live in spins daily because of petroleum-related products; we just don't buy "oil for gas." We buy oil because the lives we live today depend on it.
As I sit in front of my computer writing this, all I see is my computer's shiny black case made from a petroleum byproduct. When you sit in your car, you're surrounded by shiny little gadgets encased in products derived from petroleum. The tires roll down the road atop the asphalt; both contain petroleum. The engine spins frantically as you pass another car lubricated by petroleum, the transmission shifts because of a petroleum byproduct and the brakes stop you gently, again, because of a petroleum-related product.
As you push your cart through the aisle of the grocery store, wheels on the cart made from petroleum byproducts help get the job done. You load your purchase into plastic bags made form a petroleum byproducts and swipe a credit-debit card (made from a petroleum byproduct) to pay your bill. That dress or shirt you just had to have is most likely made from a synthetic fiber containing -- you've got it -- a petroleum byproduct!
The pan you cook with is lined with Teflon, a petroleum byproduct. The milk you pour for your family comes from a container made of plastic, a petroleum byproduct. Products we use daily without taking a moment's notice -- such as facial scrubs -- contain petroleum byproducts: Gels, creams and ointments contain petroleum byproducts, and the list goes on and on and on.
The environmentalist/save-the-earth crowd and groups like the Sierra Club would have you believe drilling is killing this earth, as are cars, our industry and our lifestyles. It was 33 years ago that I first worked on an oil-drilling rig in California; things were very different then compared to today. In today's drilling companies, there is an awareness of the environment and a commitment to protect the area surrounding a drilling, producing or refining site from having adverse effects on people or nature.
For those of you in the "drill here, drill now" crowd, you need to know there are thousands of wells throughout this country that have been taken off production and "capped" that could be reworked and put back into production in a matter of weeks, not years. Why aren't we doing that? A simple comment from our president affirming that the U.S. will start drilling offshore brought the price of a barrel of oil down in days. What would happen if the U.S.A. actually produced its own, from now-idle oil fields? How many now-unemployed could find employment in this field?
For all of you in the "windfall profit" crowd who want to punish Big Oil for all the money it's made: You need to take a look at the profits concealed as taxes imposed by and collected by our government on oil importers, producers, suppliers and us, the consumers. It runs into the trillions of dollars annually; how often is this money spent in our best interests?
Before you condemn again this country's need (your personal need) for oil, take a very close look at your life and the things you depend on daily that have come from (in some manner or fashion) a barrel of oil. Please don't drink anymore "oil for gas" Kool-Aid.
Duquette lives in Washington Terrace.
