The Democrats' ethanol policy has been a debacle for thirty years — what will they subsidize next?

Lost amidst the many speeches delivered at the Democrat Convention was one by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. He is the Senate Majority Leader and, as such, controls the legislative agenda in that upper house of Congress. Harry Reid hates oil, but then, so does the Democrat Party.

The reason this nation is held hostage to other oil-producing nations is that the Democrats, going back to President Jimmy Carter, have waged war on the American oil industry. This is especially important insofar as nations ruled by monarchies, corrupt, and communist governments, control 75% of the world’s oil.

Seldon B. Graham, Jr., the author of Why Your Gasoline Prices Are High, a petroleum engineer and attorney, recently noted that, “It is no secret that Democrats are for renewable energy and are against U.S. oil and drilling for U.S. oil.  But, Democrats conceal the fact that they have held this position for three decades.  Democrats are not about to change their thirty year-old energy agenda.”

“Thirty years ago, Democrats selected ethanol as their renewable energy of choice.  Their ethanol agenda has proven to be a total disaster.  But, it is a well hidden disaster.  Democrats continue to push ethanol as the renewable biofuel which will eliminate our dependence on foreign oil and our necessity to drill for US oil.  It is surprising that Democrats have been able to fool so many Americans about ethanol for so long.”

Not only has the Democrat Party left us vulnerable to other oil producing nations, but its ethanol agenda has created vast imbalances in the world’s food supplies as corn is diverted from domestic use and as a factor in our agricultural exports.

If you had heard Senator Reid, a man who has said, “Oil makes us sick. Coal makes us sick. Global warming makes us sick,” you would have heard him attack oil as the reason for all the woes of the world. “President Carter warned us about it in the 1970s when he proposed real solutions — conservation, fuel efficiency, and alternative fuels — to what he correctly named the ‘moral equivalent of war.’” President Carter, whose weak response to the taking of U.S. diplomats hostage by the Iranian Revolution led to the election of Ronald Reagan, was wrong then and he is wrong now.

So-called “clean energy,” wind and solar, provides barely one percent of the nation’s need for electrical power. It does so only because of the massive subsidies, like those for ethanol, the federal government provides, but Harry Reid could not resist characterizing the Bush administration as rife with “oil industry cronies.”

He made no reference, however, to the Democrats’ agriculture cronies. As Graham points out, “Democrats gave ethanol a 40¢ per gallon government subsidy in 1978.  In 1980, Democrats gave insured loans to build ethanol plants.”

“Currently, the government subsidy is 51¢ per gallon through 2010.  Last year, the government subsidy payout for ethanol was $3.3 Billion.  The government subsidy will increase to $18.4 Billion in 2022.  Ethanol is causing severe economic harm to the American economy, not even considering the increase in the cost of all food products made from corn.”

This is occurring as Americans struggle to find the money to fill their gas tanks and many worry about the price of oil to heat their homes this winter.

Senator Reid praised the Democrat candidate for President, Barack Obama, saying, “He articulates a vision of energy independence that is comprehensive and based on sound science and sound policies . . .” This is a lie. No nation on Earth can be or is energy independent. Even Iran has to import gasoline because it lacks the refining capacity to provide it despite its own vast oil reserves.

America, too, needs more refineries, but the threat of “windfall profits” taxes has kept our oil industry from making the vast, billion-dollar investments necessary to build them and a matrix of environmental regulations has made it even more costly and difficult.

The Democrats and their choice for the next President have resisted permitting our own oil companies to drill for millions of barrels of known oil reserves in Alaska’s ANWR and have resisted lifting restrictions on exploration and extraction of oil on 85% of our nation’s continental shelf.

Instead Senator Reid called for more wind power, geothermal, and solar power generation. He called for “smarter vehicles, more efficient and accessible mass transit, energy-efficient building codes . . .” These are the illusions the Democrats offer in contrast to realistic, pragmatic and vitally needed responses to our need for increased oil and natural gas production.

The Democrats offer the lie that such production would not impact the current price of oil or our needs for “ten years.” The mere mention of off-shore production caused the price of oil to drop when offered by Senator McCain. The end of the ethanol debacle would lower the price of gas at the pump. Drill now. Drill here. That’s the answer.