We're hearing a lot from Big Oil and their politicians. Heck, they've got a lot of our money to buy swanky lobbyists and slick TV ads. Click a topic below to find out what they don't want you to know.
Myth: The oil companies and their politicians say that no one will let them drill here at home. They say if they would just be allowed to put up more oil wells on our land and in our waterways, then everyone's prices would drop.
Truth: We are actually drilling a lot here at home—more than any time since 2003 – while Big Oil is sending 15-20% of American gasoline overseas! Valero Energy, the largest independent oil refiner in the US said recently, "We send diesel fuel to South America. We've been sending gasoline to Latin American countries." Besides, new wells won't produce gas for several years and are unlikely to reduce our prices anyway. So what's really behind the "drill, baby, drill" argument? The oil companies know we're mad (and they know they've got a lot to do with it), so they and their cronies are desperate to blame somebody—anybody—else.
Myth: The oil companies and their friends insist that our energy should be produced in a free market that doesn't favor one source or technology over another. "The federal government by no stretch of the imagination subsidizes the oil industry," says the chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute.
Truth: The only thing that's "free" in Big Oil's definition of "free market" is the $4 billion in welfare payments that they receive from us every year as government subsidies. While the Big Oil insists that their special treatment and those payments will keep our prices low, they just keep going up and up and up. When we pull up to the gas pump, where's that free market we hear so much about? Paying $4.05 here or $4.06 across the street doesn't count.
Myth: Changing the way we use energy in the US will cost us lots of jobs. As a top oil lobbyist said on the radio in April, ""We are supporting the economic recovery."
Truth: Do you feel like Big Oil is supporting your economic recovery? This has all happened before, of course. The horse-and-buggy crowd was also hollering pretty loudly about lost jobs when Henry Ford started selling cars. They were behind the times just like Big Oil is now. Our homegrown clean energy industry – solar, wind, nuclear, and new ways to be energy efficient -- has been one of the only parts of the economy that has created jobs recently, in every state.
Myth: The oil companies want to keep prices down, and messing with their special market status and subsidies will mean higher prices.
Truth: Isn't it funny that Big Oil takes huge amounts of money from us at the pump and from the government and then spends on TV ads to blame someone else? The 2010 fatal BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico reminded Americans of the enormous human and economic costs of our oil dependence. Now, oil companies like Exxon & Shell are raking in record profits while exporting gasoline to foreign countries and producing less than normal here in the US.
Myth:This whole gas price fight is about a bunch of hippie environmentalists against true, blue American capitalism.
Truth: It's not the hippies' fault that Big Oil doesn't want competition for your money. If you were running the oil companies, wouldn't you do everything to stop the growing clean energy economy – one that is already creating jobs across the country two-and-a-half times faster than the overall economy. Yes, while the oil and coal industries employ about 1 million Americans, the much newer clean tech industry employs already 750,000. Pretty good!
Myth: American has proven that it can control what other countries do to us – how much oil they decide to sell and when, which terrorist groups some of them give a wink to, how much they charge us. If begging and economic sanctions don't work, that's what we have a military for!
Truth: Spending all our money and stretching American soldiers too thinly across the globe isn't an energy plan, is it? Prices are going up and we're paying for both sides of the war against terror -- with our gas money that ends up in the hands of the bad guys and with our tax dollars then pay for the US military to stop them.
Myth:The Environmental Protection Agency imposes unnecessary rules on Big Oil that raise the cost of gasoline but have no benefit to regular folks.
Truth: The oil boys sometimes get cocky and think they we will believe anything. Did you know that the EPA was created by Republican President Richard Nixon? He pushed it in 1970 during a recession and an unpopular war to keep our air clean enough to breathe and our water pure enough to drink. As Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State George Shultz says, "Clean air and clean water! What's not to like?"
Myth:There are no myths here. The damage that the 2010 Gulf oil spill did is almost immeasurable. To add insult to injury, did you know that Transocean, the deep-sea driller that worked with BP and is responsible for the disaster actually awarded its executives safety bonuses this year, citing an "exemplary" safety record. These guys just don't get it!
Truth: There are better, cleaner, and safer ways to produce the energy we need in the US. All it takes is our will as Americans – and a policy based in truth and reality, not a silly chant.