Sen. Feingold is not listening

I recently e-mailed Sen. Kohl about the price of gas and this is the response I received from him:

Thank you for contacting me in support of expanding domestic oil drilling. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

I am working to increase domestic oil production. At a May 21, 2008, hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on "Exploring the Skyrocketing Price of Oil," I asked oil executives to explain why their companies are only developing 12 of the 42 million acres of federal lands that they are leasing. The executives could not come up with a good explanation. In addition, oil companies are only developing 8 of the 38 million acres of offshore leased areas. With over 100 billion barrels of oil and gas resources under federal lands and waters that are being leased or are available for leasing, Congress must properly encourage their development. This is why I have introduced the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act, which says that if oil and gas companies want to lease additional federal lands, they must either be producing oil on or diligently developing their existing federal leases, or they have to give up those leases. This is a responsible way to increase production and keep the private sector accountable for production.

I agree with you that with fuel prices soaring to record highs and many Americans struggling to pay for these costs, Congress needs to act. There are things we can do to provide some short-term relief, such as no longer filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and preventing market manipulation. We recently made some progress in both of these areas. I am pleased that H.R. 6022, which would stop the government from taking oil off the market to fill the SPR this year, was signed into law on May 19, 2008. In addition, I cosponsored the Oil and Gas Traders Oversight Act (S. 577), which would help ensure that the trading of oil and other energy commodities is subject to federal oversight by requiring the reporting of all trades. This legislation was included in the recently enacted version of the Farm Bill.

These are positive steps, but much more needs to be done. On July 22, 2008, the Senate voted, with my support, to begin consideration of S. 3268, the Stop Excessive Speculation Act of 2008. This bill takes steps to increase transparency and oversight of the energy futures market. Unfortunately, a minority of Senators blocked an effort to actually vote on this legislation.

We need to make long-term changes to our energy policy too, because the facts show that even if we drilled every corner of the country, and offshore too, that wouldn't significantly reduce gas prices. Given ever-increasing global demand and predictions of continued skyrocketing oil prices, we need to transition to renewable energy and alternative fuels, while encouraging energy efficiency and conservation. I am pleased that Congress enacted an energy bill last year that starts us down this path. I will continue to support both short-term and long-term solutions to our nation's energy needs that protect American consumers while working to break our addiction to oil.

Thanks again for contacting me. Please feel free to do so in the future on this, or any other issue of concern to you.

To which I replied to him this on July 25th:

Dear. Sen. Feingold,

It is obvious you and the Senate Democrats are not serious about actually lowering the price of gasoline for hard-working Americans. You are continuing to propel myths about drilling, so you can hide behind those myths and not take any action.

Point 1:
The estimates on the amount of oil available in the million acres leased to oil companies have been derived by assuming that the unused acres can produce the same amount as those acres being used. However, much of the land leased to oil companies has already been explored and determined not to carry enough recoverable oil to justify drilling. This is in stark contrast to the other 97% of currently banned offshore resources and areas with shale oil, where enormous quantities are known to exist.

Do you believe you understand better than petroleum engineers how we obtain oil from drilling?

Point 2:
The SPR contains approx. 3 days of oil supply. How will that effectively reduce prices at the pump?

Point 3:
When analyzing the effect of speculators on the price of oil it is important to distinguish between the activity of a healthy commodity futures market and “over-speculation.”

A healthy commodities futures market responds to the supply and demand realities of actual commodity suppliers and consumers. As Robert Murphy from the Institute for Energy Research explains, a healthy futures market can be a stabilizing influence on oil. By buying when prices are low and selling when prices are high, speculators actually push up the low prices and push down the high prices. America wants a healthy futures market on the price of oil.

So oil speculation does play a role in the price of oil. Single-day price spikes from supply disruption fears, for example, are often the work of speculation, but the price typically readjusts. The key question, then, is if “over-speculation” is occurring. “Over-speculation” in a futures market is when activity in the speculative markets themselves cause an artificial, higher demand for a commodity that does not reflect the demand of actual consumers. This causes an artificial, real-world price increase.

So have oil speculators distorted the global demand for oil, leading to the sharp price rise?

The data suggest not. If the price of oil truly was above the natural level dictated by supply and demand, we would see an increase in global inventory of oil. This is because when prices rise, production increases and consumer demand falls. If the speculative markets were adding extra demand to the market, all that oil purchased would have to be stockpiled somewhere. However, there is no evidence of any such hoarding, meaning that commercial consumers are purchasing every barrel produced. By definition, that means that the price is in line with real-world supply and demand. Despite the rise in prices, consumers continue to buy, meaning supply and demand fundamentals are in line. This means the speculative markets are functioning as they should and are not having a distorting effect on the price of oil.

Furthermore, long-term bets that the price of oil will rise rather than fall on the New York Mercantile Exchange have dropped over four fold since the price of a barrel went above $100. Traders are now shorting oil almost as much as they are betting on its price increase in the long term. Again, this data suggests that the speculative markets are functioning as they should.

So if the energy futures markets are operating as they should, passing new laws outlawing or more heavily regulating these markets will do nothing to lower the price of oil in the intermediate or long term. In fact, it would likely have two effects that could actually drive up the price of oil.

First, new regulations would reduce the stabilizing impact futures markets play on the price of oil described above. Second, they would likely drive energy futures markets outside of the United States, where they would be even less regulated than before. The loss of this financial activity would hurt America’s already sluggish economy, weakening the dollar even more. Considering that the decline of the value of the dollar has been estimated to account for as much as 30% of the recent surge in oil prices, the long run effect of would be to raise the price of oil even more.

So if you want the price of oil to be more volatile and ensure that Dubai and Singapore become the future centers of commodities trading, passing new laws heavily regulating the energy futures trading is a great idea. However, it will not lower gas prices.

Point 4:
In oil shale alone, found in the Green River Formation in parts of Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, the U.S. has approximately 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil, or over three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. This comes from a midpoint estimate in a 2005 RAND study done at the request of the Department of Energy, and a higher end estimate puts the number at over one trillion barrels.

Furthermore, there are vast areas of the United States and its outer continental shelf where it is illegal to even look for oil. Exploration routinely yields additional resources far larger than initial estimates.

Resources from oil shale and additional oil resources that are likely to be discovered are not included in the estimates of American oil supplies.

Point 6:
When President Bush lifted the Executive Ban on drilling, prices dropped over 25 cents in less than a week. Don't tell me drilling wouldn't reduce the price of gas, because this lift on the ban proves exactly the opposite.

Point 7:
Nobody is suggesting that our nation’s energy strategy should be solely dependent on domestic production of oil. We all recognize that alternative energy sources – such as wind and solar - need to be developed. But more American oil must be a part of an American energy solution. As Rep. Paul Ryan and other Republican members of Congress have suggested, use the profits from domestic drilling to pay down the national debt and fund research and development of new alternative energy sources. But partisan Democrats such as yourself refuse to listen to ideas such as Rep. Ryan's because you can't stand that a Republican may have and idea to get us out of debt and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

I'm tired of all the Democrat lies about this subject. It is time elected officials listen to the MAJORITY of the citizens of the United States, instead of the special interest groups that fund your campaigns. If Democrats don't listen to the citizens, they will hear their cry on Nov. 4th when they are elected out of office.
DRILL HERE. DRILL NOW. PAY LESS.

This is the response I received from Sen. Feingold on July 28th:

I recently e-mailed Sen. Feingold about drilling for our own oil. This is the response I received on July 25th:

Thank you for contacting me regarding high fuel prices. I appreciate hearing from you, and I share your concerns. With fuel prices soaring to record highs and many Americans struggling to pay for these costs, Congress needs to act.

There are things we can do to provide some short-term relief, such as no longer filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and preventing market manipulation. We recently made some progress in both of these areas. I am pleased that H.R. 6022, which would stop the government from taking oil off the market to fill the SPR this year, was signed into law on May 19, 2008. In addition, I cosponsored the Oil and Gas Traders Oversight Act (S. 577), which would help ensure that the trading of oil and other energy commodities is subject to federal oversight by requiring the reporting of all trades. This legislation was included in the recently enacted version of the Farm Bill.

These are positive steps, but much more needs to be done. On July 22, 2008, the Senate voted, with my support, to begin consideration of S. 3268, the Stop Excessive Speculation Act of 2008. This bill takes steps to increase transparency and oversight of the energy futures market. Unfortunately, a minority of Senators blocked an effort to actually vote on this legislation.

I am working to increase domestic oil production. At a May 21, 2008, hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on "Exploring the Skyrocketing Price of Oil," I asked oil executives to explain why their companies are only developing 12 of the 42 million acres of federal lands that they are leasing. The executives could not come up with a good explanation. In addition, oil companies are only developing 8 of the 38 million acres of offshore leased areas. With over 100 billion barrels of oil under federal lands and waters that are being leased or are available for leasing, Congress must properly encourage their development. This is why I have introduced the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act, which says that if oil and gas companies want to lease additional federal lands, they must either be producing oil on or diligently developing their existing federal leases, or they have to give up those leases. This is a responsible way to increase production and keep the private sector accountable for production.

We need to make long-term changes to our energy policy too, because the facts show that even if we drilled every corner of the country, and offshore too, that would not significantly reduce gas prices. Given ever-increasing global demand and predictions of continued skyrocketing oil prices, we need to transition to renewable energy and alternative fuels, while encouraging energy efficiency and conservation. I am pleased that Congress enacted an energy bill last year that starts us down this path. I will continue to support both short-term and long-term solutions to our nation's energy needs that protect American consumers while working to break our addiction to oil.

Thank you again for contacting me. I encourage you to do so in the future.

He obviously cared about my concerns enough to e-mail me the same response twice. It's obvious Democrats -- controlled by special interests -- are NOT listening to their constituents and are just spewing the mantra told to them by the DNC and special interest groups.

This is the guy representing Wisconsin's working class in Washington?

While he drives around in a car paid for by the hard working taxpayers, and fueled with money coming out of my paycheck, he had the nerve to tell me all this CRAP and not accept blame (the Democrat controlled congress) for the price of gas.

Thanks for nothing Russ.