As summer winds down, kids are heading out for a last day of fishing at their favorite fishing hole. I took my 8-year old nephew fishing for the first time at Lake Keesus, and the bluegills were biting. They were hungry for the squirming worm on the hook and oblivious to the deception of the concealed hook.
With each passing day, Wisconsinites are being squeezed by high energy prices. We, too, are hungry; our appetites are growing for a platter of energy policies that will reduce the cost of heating our homes in the coming winter and fueling our cars. Oil companies are taking advantage of our hunger and dangling a platter with their long-term drilling agenda. They are betting that we will take the bait - hook, line and sinker.
But who will drilling really benefit? A recent national energy poll indicates that 83 percent of Americans support a plan to end our addiction to oil through investments in clean energy - some 20 percent more than those who support increased offshore drilling. For decades, the oil companies have demanded access to the oil off our coasts and buried beneath our public, protected wildlands. Now, in the waning days of the Bush administration, they are making a last-chance land grab. But the demands for drilling should not drown out the fact that the beneficiary of increased offshore and domestic drilling will be the oil companies, not us.
The government's own research shows that drilling our coasts won't do anything to ease pain at the pump or create energy independence. The U.S. holds less than 3 percent of the world's oil, but we use 25 percent of it.
But we know who drilling would benefit - big oil. The oil companies are raking in billions in profits. Last quarter, ExxonMobil made more money in one three-month period than any other corporation in U.S. history - while we were paying $4 a gallon for gas.
An analysis of the record-breaking 2007 profits of just the five biggest oil companies - ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Shell, and ConocoPhillips - shows they made an astonishing $2,440,000,000 in profits from Wisconsin's four million drivers - about $610 for each driver in Wisconsin. (Profits per driver were calculated using 2006 figures (the most recent available) for the number of licensed drivers in each state and the 2007 profit figures for the five largest oil companies: ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell.)
We know more drilling doesn't mean lower gas prices - because we've already tried. The number of new offshore drilling permits has tripled since 2001 - and yet we're also paying triple what we were in 2001.
Increased drilling won't solve the problem - but it will increase oil industry profits. Swallowing the same hook won't solve our problem - embracing clean energy options and efficiency will.
The honest answer to our oil problem is to use less of it, and that means better fuel efficiency and renewable energy. By simply making our homes, offices, cars and trucks more efficient, we will save energy and money today and far into the future.
It's time to draw a line in the sand. Handing over more of our shared coasts to Big Oil won't help us, it will only help them. The same national energy poll (released Aug. 11 by the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund) reported that 80 percent of Americans believe we should end Big Oil's subsidies and use the money to invest in clean, renewable energy sources. A serious national commitment to renewable energy will put our economy back on the path to prosperity by bringing energy costs under control, creating new "green" jobs, and making us more energy independent.
For Wisconsinites, some of our fondest childhood memories are building sandcastles, wading, fishing and canoeing. We shouldn't allow Big Oil to rob our children and grandchildren of these opportunities, and we shouldn't let drilling supporters bait us about drilling's effect on gas prices.
- Rosemary Wehnes is a
Sierra Club Midwest associate representative in Wauwatosa.
With each passing day, Wisconsinites are being squeezed by high energy prices. We, too, are hungry; our appetites are growing for a platter of energy policies that will reduce the cost of heating our homes in the coming winter and fueling our cars. Oil companies are taking advantage of our hunger and dangling a platter with their long-term drilling agenda. They are betting that we will take the bait - hook, line and sinker.
But who will drilling really benefit? A recent national energy poll indicates that 83 percent of Americans support a plan to end our addiction to oil through investments in clean energy - some 20 percent more than those who support increased offshore drilling. For decades, the oil companies have demanded access to the oil off our coasts and buried beneath our public, protected wildlands. Now, in the waning days of the Bush administration, they are making a last-chance land grab. But the demands for drilling should not drown out the fact that the beneficiary of increased offshore and domestic drilling will be the oil companies, not us.
The government's own research shows that drilling our coasts won't do anything to ease pain at the pump or create energy independence. The U.S. holds less than 3 percent of the world's oil, but we use 25 percent of it.
But we know who drilling would benefit - big oil. The oil companies are raking in billions in profits. Last quarter, ExxonMobil made more money in one three-month period than any other corporation in U.S. history - while we were paying $4 a gallon for gas.
An analysis of the record-breaking 2007 profits of just the five biggest oil companies - ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Shell, and ConocoPhillips - shows they made an astonishing $2,440,000,000 in profits from Wisconsin's four million drivers - about $610 for each driver in Wisconsin. (Profits per driver were calculated using 2006 figures (the most recent available) for the number of licensed drivers in each state and the 2007 profit figures for the five largest oil companies: ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell.)
We know more drilling doesn't mean lower gas prices - because we've already tried. The number of new offshore drilling permits has tripled since 2001 - and yet we're also paying triple what we were in 2001.
Increased drilling won't solve the problem - but it will increase oil industry profits. Swallowing the same hook won't solve our problem - embracing clean energy options and efficiency will.
The honest answer to our oil problem is to use less of it, and that means better fuel efficiency and renewable energy. By simply making our homes, offices, cars and trucks more efficient, we will save energy and money today and far into the future.
It's time to draw a line in the sand. Handing over more of our shared coasts to Big Oil won't help us, it will only help them. The same national energy poll (released Aug. 11 by the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund) reported that 80 percent of Americans believe we should end Big Oil's subsidies and use the money to invest in clean, renewable energy sources. A serious national commitment to renewable energy will put our economy back on the path to prosperity by bringing energy costs under control, creating new "green" jobs, and making us more energy independent.
For Wisconsinites, some of our fondest childhood memories are building sandcastles, wading, fishing and canoeing. We shouldn't allow Big Oil to rob our children and grandchildren of these opportunities, and we shouldn't let drilling supporters bait us about drilling's effect on gas prices.
- Rosemary Wehnes is a
Sierra Club Midwest associate representative in Wauwatosa.
