Express-Times Publishes Baseless Attack on Sane Energy Approach - Promotes Drilling and Consumption at All Costs

by Joe DeRaymond

On Friday, May 9, 2008, the Express-Times editorial board published a column by Kevin O’Brien, a deputy editorial page director of The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, "Green policies reason we pay more at the pump". I wonder how the editors of the Express-Times could publish this unabashed exercise in "spinning" without some acknowledgment of the shabby reasoning utilized by O’Brien.

First, O’Brien initially raises the prospect of $7 a gallon gasoline, in terms of "catching up" to the "Western Europeans". He bemoans the loss of high milage cars and trucks, and notes the fact that all prices go up when gas goes up. He then states in a barely coherent sentence " You would think that the environmentalists that we have to thank for so much of this…would have hired a brass band by now." He bashes Hilary Clinton in gratuitous fashion, stating "She’s got a better shot at using smart bombs to obliterate Iran than using smart lawyers to obliterate OPEC." We’re now half through the column and he has produced nothing to buttress his argument that the environmental movement has caused the rise in gas prices.

Finally, O’Brien gets to his argument. We can drill our way out of high gas prices by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration and exploitation. He states there are 10 billion barrels of oil in the earth of the refuge, 15 years of imports from Saudi Arabia.

According to the United States Geologic Survey, here are the data: there is a 95 percent probability that at least 5.7 billion barrels of oil are recoverable from ANWR. There is a 5 percent probability that at least 16 billion barrels of oil are recoverable. The mean estimate is 10.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil. That is not a certainty, but a good probability.

What O’Brien does in this column is parrot the Bush line, which W himself stated on April 29 at the White House: "They've repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in ANWR," Bush complained to reporters on Tuesday at a Rose Garden press conference. He said oil supplies from the refuge "would likely mean lower gas prices."(WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters), by Tom Doggett)

According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2007 the US imported 2,183,974,000 barrels of oil from OPEC countries. 543,508,000 of this was from Saudi Arabia., about one and a half million barrels each day. Total imports to the US from all countries in 2007 totalled 4,905,234,000 in 2007. Total US consumption equals 20,697,000 brrels a day. Therefore, Saudi oil equals 11% of US imports and 7% of total US consumption. One brutal reality that O’Brien neglects to mention is that the United States accounts for about 25 percent of global oil consumption but has only 3 percent of proven global oil reserves.  

Nevertheless, he continues to slash at those who suggest we should cut our consumption, claiming that "eco-warriors and big corporations…want to talk us into raising energy costs even more". He dismisses renewable energy sources as "government subsidized gadgets not ready for market and not yet thought of (sic)". He does not once mention the enormous subsidies and tax breaks the government provides to the oil companies that are making record profits as the price of oil rises.

To close his piece, he rails at the lack of refinery capacity, neglecting once more to point out that this is a complex problem, and that overall refining capacity in the US is increasing, although more capacity is held back by the capital expense involved in refinery construction. O’Brien evidently believes that no environmental protection justifies the rush to consume oil, to move about at will in the largest and most consumptive vehicle that one can purchase.

O’Brien proceeds incoherently. He states, "Congress makes it even more expensive for the remaining US refineries to do their work, making it even harder to produce electricity from coal". He notes that a windfall profits tax on oil companies will be passed on at the pump, a lucid observation for sure, as we know who is in charge here, but at what point will our energy policy truly be run by our government, instead of the predatory multinationals preying on our pocketbooks and our lives?

In the last paragraph, O’Brien at last mentions the reality that oil is a finite resource, and that demand is "greater than ever’. His solution: "We need to drill and refine a lot more, and take an ax to regulatory red tape." The holy grail of drilling is ANWR, which, as noted above, will increase US domestic supply, at most, about 5%. Can we expect this bump in supply to overcome the enormous global demand, and the ever insatiable US demand? Of course not - the purpose of this column is to delegitimize environmental considerations or any support for renewable energy development, without taking the risk of actually presenting facts or data to support this rationale. It is a lazy, thoughtless piece, not worthy of publication, a turkey for the editorial board of the Express-Times.

This is not a column, it is a spin piece to support a political agenda promoted by the oil companies and the Bush cabal that has moved our domestic and foreign policies to the service of the multinational corporations that are making billions on the wars and energy policies promoted by such "editorial directors" as O’Brien and his cohorts on the Express-Times who published this unsubstantiated piece that never produces any substance to back its premise. It is presented, I believe, to create backing for those who would pollute at will, consume without controls, pursue a culture of failure in the United States.

O’Brien will, I believe, soon find a place in politics, where he can spin away for some Republicrat, in the footsteps of Gregg Bortz, Morning Call reporter now flacking for 15th Congressional District Congressman Charles Dent, or Bill Cahir, a past pundit of the Express-Times who never met a status quo position he could not support and who decided he preferred being a Republicrat to pretending to be a journalist. O’Brien will soon be spinning for some lucky pol – this will be a great column to sell to a Bushite seeking a spinner, or maybe even an Obamite looking for someone to defend keeping nuclear power in the mix.