THE OIL PROBLEM

, A Dessert Sun File Photo.

Some facts — not emotional blathering — about why we’re paying $3.19 a gallon at the pump … whether you like them or not. (I’d like to thank the folks at The Patriot for some a lot of this).

• We’ve plenty of oil if the Democrats would just let us drill for it. The Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming contains roughly 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil—more than three times Saudi Arabia’s preserves. That’s not to mention the oil in The Arctic Wild Life refuge … an area of which drillers have been prevented from using 1/10 of one percent. Gulf of Mexico production is still off 20 percent due to Katrina — that means when it comes back we’re up 20 percent.

•State fuel taxes run from a low of around 25 cents a gallon in Alaska to 65 cents in New York. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi voted for higher fuel taxes five times, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid did so 12 times. The Dems have also led the charge for prevention of drilling and exploration. Last October, NY Senator Hillary Clinton said she’d back a plan to hike gasoline taxes through the roof. New Yorkers pay 65 cents per gallon (on a $3 gallon). Our other senator, Chuck Schumer, was smart enough not to be quoted saying something similar.

•Prevention or obstruction of alternate energy sources. Ted Kennedy doesn’t want his view obstructed by windmills off Nantucket. Locally, the mere mention of windmills draws NIMBYs from all over the East End. There is an organized effort to prevent windmills from being constructed off Jones Beach. Even one of the founders of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, has said, “Nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another disaster.” Try breathing the words “nuclear power” at any gathering of liberals … and be prepared to be stoned.

•The pricing is caused by market supply and demand, stupid. On the supply side, the current world production is at about 85 million barrels per day.The U.S. uses 25 percent of world production; about 45 percent of that domestic, and 55 percent imported from Canada Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Angola and Iraq. Surprisingly — for liberals, at least — we only get 4.5 percent of our oil from Iraq and 14 percent from Saudi Arabia. So much for an “oil war.

•Bottom Line: If Iran’s whack-job leader Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad decides to lock down the Strait of Hormuz, or al-Qaida has a full-scale hit on the Saudi oil fields, or if Venezuela’s Fat Fidel Hugo Chavez chooses to sell his oil elsewhere, the U.S. would be in real trouble. Whether you like it or not energy is our most vital national-security interest. Before bemoaning “oil wars” stop driving your SUV, BMW,MB, etc., and switch to something economical; turn off the lights, four televisions, video game, air conditioners and heaters and … well, you get the picture.

Is $3-plus fun? Hell no, but it’s reality, and only the deployment of nuclear energy, wind and, possibly, tidal energy systems is going to change it. Just don’t do any of it where I live.