Get The Environmentalists Out Of The Energy Industry’s Way

To the Editor:

Mr Duffy’s “The Devil In The Details” piece last week [Letter Hive, 3/30/12] was quite instructive and accurate from a financial perspective on how monetizing our debt affects the price of oil. I do hope Mr Sandler paid attention. I, too, would like to enlighten Mr Sandler from an economic viewpoint. He states that “no president has the power to increase or lower gas prices.” Not true. President Reagan did lower gas prices immediately in the 1980s when he deregulated the oil industry. But that aside, let’s start with economics 101. If, hypothetically, there were only one diamond on earth, it would be worth billions of dollars. If there were 100 million diamonds on earth, they would be worth substantially less than the aforementioned single diamond. If there were 100 trillion diamonds on earth, men could get engaged at an incredible discount. Oil is no different than the diamond example. None! Increasing supply always brings down the price of that commodity, providing you have a strong dollar.

If our beloved Mr Obama would announce tomorrow that he would open all productive federal lands to drilling, lift his moratorium on Gulf Coast and East Coast drilling, rescind all EPA obstructive regulations, fast track nuclear energy permits, open up the north slope of Alaska, stop the EPA from filing law suits on natural gas fracking, and basically get the government out of the way of energy production, gas prices would plummet.

The long speculators of oil futures would sell tomorrow, and I would be shorting. It’s all supply and demand. We currently have six times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. We have enough oil to last over 200 years and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. We are blessed with endless riches right under our feet that most countries would die for. And what does Obama do? He restricts our right to harvest these treasures at every opportunity. Why? As I mention before, he is a feckless ideologue that bows to the environmental extremists. There is not a wind mill or solar panel that will lift a plane off the ground, air condition a New York skyscraper on a July day, power a tractor trailer across the country, fuel a ship across our oceans, or light up your curlicue light bulb for that matter.

By the way Mr Sandler, did you catch the news on FIXed news (whatever that is) last Tuesday. Obama’s EPA thugs set new CO2 regulations effectively banishing all new electric coal plants from being built. Did you know the air you breathe out of your mouth is now a pollutant under EPA regs? That’s how Obama can eliminate coal plant construction. So when you get an electric bill that makes you want to cry, or you flip your light switch on and are left in the dark, you Mr Sandler and your misinformed ilk will be to blame. Unfortunately we all share the same grid.

Nick Barzetti

55 Swamp Road, Newtown                                               April 1, 2012