Rep. Kristi Noem, Senator John Thune, and other Republicans argue that we aren't producing enough oil. They say boosting our oil stocks requires continuing handouts to oil corporations and erasing environmental safeguards.
But we already have more oil than we can use:
Many Oklahoma oil producers agree that [TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline] is a good thing for Oklahoma. Right now, there's an oversupply of oil in Cushing. Millions of barrels of oil are sitting in storage tanks there. We're told there's no easy way out for oil, from Cushing, to the Gulf Coast refineries.
"We've got a real problem in Cushing with oversupply of crude oil. We really need to get a pipeline going from Cushing down to Port Arthur, Texas," said Mike McDonald, President of Triad Energy.
This glut in Cushing means local producers receive $10 less per barrel of oil, when compared to other producers in the world. McDonald says it's only fair for local producers to receive the world price, not a discounted price [Amy Lester, "Can a Company Based in Canada Use Eminent Domain in Oklahoma?" Newson6.com, 2011.05.10].
This isn't the national Strategic Oil Reserve. This is millions of barrels of oil that the oil companies are sitting on because they can't make top dollar on it. They want a new pipeline not to increase domestic supply and lower our prices, as the Republicans pretend, but to lower our supply and raise our prices while they ship that oil overseas.
Yes, this has been true for a long time but needs to be pounded in to the Public who have been brainwashed to believe we have a shortage. They thus are ready to trash our lands and permanently ruin our ecosystem for something that is an illusion. If we could just get them to read about what is going on instead of spending all their time on "Dancing with the Stars" and American Idol". We are doomed.