To the Editor:
This letter is in response to Larry Moran’s most recent letter that criticizes President Biden and his petroleum policies. Larry is a Trump fanatic and constantly spouts Trumpian rhetoric with little regard to real facts.
Go to the following U.S. government web page and look closely at the first chart (www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/imports-and-exports.php). This chart shows various US petroleum numbers (consumption, production, imports, exports, and net imports) overtime and includes the 2020 preliminary numbers.
Look at the top two lines of that chart (blue consumption and brown production ) and you will see both lines sharply decreased in 2020. When the Covid pandemic came and shut down our economy, and even our normal way of life, not only did oil consumption drop but so did oil production.
The U.S. in 2019 produced 12.29 million barrels per day (MBD) of crude oil. In 2020 it fell to 11.283 MBD and bottomed in 2021 at 11.185 MBD; and is projected, Now That Covid is becoming endemic, to be 12.00 MBD in 2022 and 12.60 MBD in 2023. FYI these numbers only reflect U.S. crude oil production.
Finally, if you look at that chart again, you will notice how U.S. petroleum production began to dramatically increase starting around 2009, and at the same time US exports began to rise. This was the fracking revolution that caused our energy independence; one of the few real facts mentioned by Mr. Moran.
The cancellation of the fourth leg of the Keystone pipeline is irrelevant to today’s spike in gasoline prices. When the pipeline was canceled it was only 10 percent complete and would take more than two years to complete, not even considering supply chain and labor shortage delays now caused by Covid. The same irrelevancy goes for Mr. Moran’s mention of Alaska, where I believe he means President Biden’s cancellation of leases to develop the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) that former President Trump (on Jan. 6, 2021, the date of his attempted insurrection and 2 weeks before President Biden took office) offered for sale leases on this land and eight days later had nine leases signed. Seeing how rushed these leases were signed and how former President Trump was all consumed in his plot to overthrow the will of the people, who could fault President Biden for wanting to start over on these leases. It would take many, many years before oil would be produced there.
Larry Moran outright (I’m being nice) misspoke, or maybe he is citing alternative facts (remember those from the Trump White House) when he stated President Biden outlawed by executive order all fracking. Most oil drilling, including fracking, in the U.S. takes place on private or state land and Biden’s executive order does not affect them. Shortly after Biden became President he PAUSED NEW oil and gas lease sales on federal land while it reviewed the federal program and six months later a judge blocked the pause. Existing oil and gas leases on federal land were untouched by the executive order. Also, President Biden left untouched Former president Trump’s decision to approve a major oil project on Alaska’s North Slope.
It was and is the effects of the Covid pandemic that caused the slow and steady rise in gasoline prices in 2021. The vaccines and mandates were working, and as the severity of the disease deceased, life and the economy had started too sputter back to normal. All the pent up demand caused by the Covid shutdown is being unleashed, look at this years spring break season; and it takes time to ramp up oil production. Its classic supply/demand economic pricing going on, as prices fluctuate to bring about an equilibrium. The recent spike in the price of gasoline from $3.60 on 2/14/22 to $4.20 on 3/7/22, an almost 17 percent increase in 21 days, was caused by Russia invading Ukraine.
Former President Trump, I believe with divine guidance, ordered the development of a Covid vaccine at warp speed and many were successfully developed. But then he badly dropped the ball by not aggressively promoting the use of these vaccines and not painting people who take them as being patriotic Americans. Even when the vaccines first came out, we as citizens, should have followed the government’s advice and got vaccinated. People seem to have watched too many science fiction movies; medical technology at the moment can only save lives, hopefully, let alone control, manipulate or fundamentally change human beings with a simple virus vaccine. There are so many more important issues, at this time, to protest over besides the Covid vaccine mandates. Most politicians, including Trump got the vaccine shots; and yet there was a large outcry from his base about personal freedom and a demand for the right of choice. Maybe the pandemic in the U.S. would have become endemic last summer, rather than this year, and the Covid hole we are digging are selves out of would have not been so deep.
I am not a Biden fanatic nor a Trump hater, but I believe in this country as it was formed by the founding fathers and how it has progressed since then. That is until lately. We need politicians that seek to do the will of the people, all of the people. Politicians through a representative Legislature should seek to have the issues affecting the People fairly and rigorously debated and in the end reach a compromise law (by democratic vote) that benefits the nation as a whole. Have those laws executed by the people’s duly elected president; and have both the laws and their execution reviewable by an impartial judiciary to ensure they follow the Constitution.
No one person has all the answers and it seems our form of government (of the people, by the people and for the people) was divinely inspired, God being invoked by the founding fathers. But, as aptly demonstrated in the Bible and American politics, Human Beings are terrible at following Godly laws. Most people want to follow their own understanding (laws) of right and wrong. Laws made by a representative people, rather than a dictator or small group of people, are more Godly based rather than human based and thus are a better form of government. Somehow democracy is able to combat the individual sinful nature of man and produce a more Godly government without direct divine revelation.
Larry Moran opines that the bad actors (hereafter referred to as “dictators”) of the world no longer respect America under President Biden, but dictators, in reality, respect or care about nobody but themselves; even their own people are expendable if it suits their fancy. How can you really expect them to respect the President of the United States of America and why would you want respect from them. It seems to me if an American President was respected by a dictator, that President was not upholding the ideals of democracy. Dictators hate democracy.
The God of the founding fathers is the God of the Bible and as his Son, Jesus Christ, said, “Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39 ).
America has forgotten this second commandment. We have forgotten to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and just as bad, we have forgotten who our neighbors our. Jesus told us who our neighbors are in a parable, go read it and several Bible commentaries on the text to understand its meaning. American politics, today, is radically divided; us or them, Democrat or Republican.
Now serious war has broken out in Europe and the entire world could be draw into battle, and we have not yet finished one world calamity (Covid) when another starts. MAGA (Make America Great Again) is not the answer, we have always been great. Remember what happened at the Tower of Babel. They tried to make a name for themselves and they became confounded and scattered. It seems the modern scientifically advanced world has now caused our neighbor to be anywhere in the world, not just who we physically meet.
And I pray, “Lord, please for our sake, let us not forget our neighbor, whether across the street or across town, in the big city or rural America, the slum or homeless camp, the country club or penthouse, even along our borders, but now especially, for those neighbors who live outside the U.S. in the world.”
Carl Casale
Village of Pine Hills