The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
As humiliating as it is for the United States to be put in a position where its economy is held hostage to foreign oil producers who can make or break the nation simply by limiting their petroleum production, it is even more shameful that America has allowed the so-called environmental movement to escape the blame for this predicament. Make no mistake about it, Americans are paying exorbitant prices at the gas pump solely because the environmental terrorists and their Democrat allies have all but shut down AmericaÕs domestic oil production while refusing to allow the exploration and creation of new sources of this resource. Last month, President Bush, left with few alternatives, sought help from the Saudis. But instead of demanding that Saudi Arabia act on the AmericaÕs behalf by beefing up oil production, Bush asked them politely to do what they should do without being asked. Bush should point the finger of blame at the Democratic leadership and their environmentalist co-conspirators for refusing to enact an energy policy that dictates drilling in AlaskaÕs Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Florida Gulf Ð where the Chinese and Cubans are drilling for the plentiful supply of oil beneath the seas to their heartÕs content. America should also be harnessing nuclear power, and mining clean coal now locked up for alleged environmental reasons in well over a million acres of land in southwest Utah in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which contains at least seven billion tons of coal. To get an idea of just what using nuclear power can do for America, look at the USS Ronald Reagan. During the life of the two nuclear reactors on that aircraft carrier, American taxpayers will be saved $579 billion in fuel costs. Nobody has died on nuclear-powered aircraft carriers or submarines, and nobody has died in the U.S. because of a nuclear accident. America canÕt exploit nuclear power or drill for oil in ANWR or the Gulf because Democratic members of congress have been bought and paid for by the most dangerous of terrorists, the radical environmentalists. They make al Qaeda look like Mother Teresa. They have wreaked such havoc in the U.S. with their terrorist tactics that the president of the United States is reduced to begging for oil, a plentiful domestic resource but, thanks to them, off-limits to the American people. This is an edited version of an editorial by Michael Reagan, political pundit and radio talk show host.
