America can never drill its way to energy independence

In this election year, conservatives are promising “energy independence” if oil companies are only allowed to drill for more oil on public lands; but there is no requirement that hydrocarbons pulled out from under our public lands would stay in the United States and lower gas prices here.

Very few people know that for the past six years, the United States has produced more crude oil than any nation at any time in history. There is such an abundance of oil from American producers that we are currently exporting about 40% of the oil we produce.

The conservative policy of maximizing oil production in a time when almost half gets exported does nothing for U.S. energy independence and it only serves the short-term financial interests of the oil companies. This is a “Drain America First” proposal that foolishly takes our most precious natural resources and sends them across the seas to the highest bidder. If you understand basic economics, you know that America can never drill its way to energy independence.

On the other hand, the energy sources that conservatives are trying to throttle, renewables, are the only way to truly achieve energy independence for America. Electricity created by renewable sources is not only environmentally clean, it cannot be exported and more electricity production means lower prices. From a local perspective, our hard-right Legislature is missing a profound opportunity by not promoting renewables within Utah.

Utah is to renewables as Saudi Arabia is to oil.

The Legislature’s religious attachment to fossil fuels is irrational from any perspective, but especially economically. Companies like Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft are all paying a premium to purchase renewable energy for their new A.I. data centers and Utah could receive well-paying jobs for our citizens if only our leadership would promote clean energy.

Rod Perry, Ogden

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