Should Congress raise drilling fees for developing oil and gas on public lands?

No

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by Megan O'Brian

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Congress should not consider raising drilling fees for developing oil and gas on public land but rather declare a moratorium on future drilling for oil and gas. There are exisrting oil fields that we can get by on while more attention is spent on developing alternative energy sources.

The public land that has been targeted for drilling can be found in Alaska and in many of our National Parks. These areas are the home and refuge to wildlife and their very existence is put in danger if these "public lands" are destroyed by non-essential drilling for oil.

Congress says that "we need to drill for more oil in our own country because we are dependent on foreign oil and increasing oil production in our country will loosen the grip those countries have on us". This argument that Congress gives so they can continue to destroy open land and kill off more wildlife holds no water and should be dismissed as nonsense.

While it is true that Americans are dependent on oil, whether foreign or from oil fields in America there is a very good reason for this.

The words "alternative energy" have been heard for years and years, yet there has been no effort on the part of automobile makers to develop cars that run on alternative energy sources and while we have some solar energy panels that do well in heating homes, no large scale efforts have been made to reduce our need for oil in any way.

As Americans and taxpayers we should be putting more pressure on Congress to pursue alternative energy sources. We have seen the price of home heating oil skyrocket when foreign countries raise the price of their oil indisciminately. We have all struggled to pay for the oil we need to heat our homes as well as for the gasoline to run our cars.

This scenario has played out for years yet nothing has been done to make strides in making alternative energy sources available as well as affordable to the American people.

Americans have been made dependent on oil by those who profit in oil. The "oil barons" who have oil wells here and make millions in oil do not want to see the source of their wealth "dry up" with the advent of alternative energy and Congress is obviously standing behind them. This has to stop.

Before any more land is destroyed along with the wildlife who depend on that land for refuge, solely for the purpose of feeding the greed of the "oil barons", American taxpayers need to aggressively pursue change and change will only happen when enough pressure is put upon our lawmakers to do so.

The time for alternative energy is now - not later as "later" may be just around the corner and we will have run out of time.

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