Drill Offshore and Pay Americans for It

The latest proposal for lowering oil prices is lifting America’s ban on offshore oil drilling and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a ludicrous idea that won’t have any impact on the supply of crude for at least 3-5 years. However, if Mr. Bush and his fans want to do this damn silly thing, there should be some acknowledgement of just who owns the oil. If the oil companies want to exploit this common treasure of all Americans, they need to pay into a USA National Resource Trust.

According to a CNN report, “The White House estimates that there are 18 billion barrels of oil offshore that have not been exploited because of state bans, 10 billion to 12 billion in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Green River Basin.” Call it 30 billion. At $100 a barrel (remember those good old days?), that’s $3 trillion worth of oil. And it belongs to each and every American citizen -- $1 million each.

If the oil companies want in on this, the first $75 from every barrel of oil should go into the USANRT. The rest can go to ExxonMobil. The argument that the oil companies won’t go for the deal may be true. They are under no compulsion to accept these terms, and the American people are under none to alter them. In a free market, both sides can reject a deal.

Like Norway and the UAE, the Americans would rapidly gain capital that could be put to use in developing alternative energy sources. Senator Obama has proposed $150 billion over 10 years for this purpose – the USANRT could pay for it easily. The money could be invested, as the Norwegian Pension Fund is, for the benefit of future generations. And some of the money would be used for environmental remediation.

Currently, the oil companies are making billions in profit every quarter exploiting oil overseas. They could do the same in the US, drilling on federal lands. If the ban is lifted, the US government should not give away this wealth at fire sale prices. And while America is about it, the coal companies could contribute to the fund as well.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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