DRILL, BABY, DRILL

Domestic oil production is declining - down nearly half since 1970 -- so imports are up, from one-third of what we needed in 1970 to just under 60 percent today. The good news is that huge resources of oil and gas exist offshore:

• Recoverable oil and gas on America's Outer Continental Shelf comes to some 85 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and there are another 10 billion barrels of oil in the North Slope of Alaska.
• If full access to these resources were permitted, together they could replace America's imported oil for some 25 years, and no doubt reduce the price of oil, gas and gasoline.

As Ronald Reagan said in his 1980 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention:

"Large amounts of oil and natural gas lay beneath our land and off our shores, untouched because the present administration seems to believe the American people would rather see more regulation, taxes, and controls than more energy."

He was talking about the Carter administration, but a quarter-century later the Democratic congressional majority would also like more energy regulation, taxes and controls...

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