Page 3 -cont'd. themselves of US currency and shift to other investments, particularly the Euro. This effort strengthens our competitors ’ economies while weakening our own. 3. Control of energy costs are driven by artificial market forces created by aggressive environmental activism.“Today natural gas and oil drilling is prohibited in all offshore regions along the North Atlantic coast, most of the Pacific coast, parts of the Alaska coast and most of the eastern Gulf of Mexico.”12 Environmental restrictions on exploration and drilling offshore and on Federal lands (including the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve) largely created our dependence on foreign oil. Potential enemies, such as China, have taken advantage of the void created by activist laws and regulations, and are drilling within zones that we have restricted ourselves from drilling. China has made a deal with Cuba to explore and drill in the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles from American shores, possibly “slant ” drilling near the Florida Straits, where there are an estimated 4.6 to 9.3 billion barrels of crude. China has also opened a former Russian refinery in Cuba to produce gasoline. Position: The current energy crisis highlights American dependency of foreign sources of energy while large domestic reserves remain untapped. Critics contend that accessing domestic sources of energy will place our environment at risk, that technology does not exist to recover oil from oil shale,and that efforts to recover fossil fuels detract from efforts to expand renewable energy resources. Apparently, it is acceptable for other nations with much less stringent environmental concerns to exploit their energy for commercial production at much greater environmental risk than can be achieved in America. The United States is the world ’s leader in technological development to overcome seemingly impossible challenges,and no doubt, given the opportunity, will be able to access domestic energy sources while conserving our natural resources. For example, the complex process of excavating and heating oil shale to produce kerogen, from which crude oil is developed is being overtaken by breakthrough developments in drilling into the deposits, inserting superheating elements and allowing the kerogen to rise to the surface similar to how crude is normally drilled - significantly reducing the cost of recovery and associated environmental impact. Deliberately placing ourselves at the mercy of nationally owned, foreign energy corporations makes no sense when this does not have to be the case. Governmental policies prohibiting drilling on Federal land and offshore must be lifted or modified,or we will continue to observe our resources removed by competing governments for their own economic development. The following steps must be taken immediately: 1. Release Federal land for oil and natural gas exploration and drilling to American companies (allowing nationalized foreign companies on to Federal land would be highly counterproductive).Currently more than 300 million acres of Federal land are not available for oil exploration or drilling, areas which include 67% of our crude oil reserves and 40% of natural gas our reserves. 2. Allow exploration and drilling at any point in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Gulf of Mexico beyond 50 miles by American companies.Only a relatively narrow strip of offshore land in the Gulf of Mexico produces most of the oil and gas that comes from our offshore wells while China prepares to fill the vacuum created by Congress. Next>> ______________________________________________ entitled “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11 ”, updated June 23,2008. 12 “Overview of U.S.Legislation and Regulations Affecting Offshore Natural Gas and Oil Activity”, EIS, September, 2005.