The energy industry is getting record high prices for energy – why should we allow more development, which depletes our resources faster?
Domestic oil and gas resources take years to find and develop; it is not a matter of turning on a faucet. The potentially vast resources of the Rockies represent our future and efforts to restrict exploring for and developing those resources will limit future economic growth, resulting in higher consumer costs. While fuel prices are high this year, oil and natural gas industry profit margins are very much in line with those of other industries – and often they are lower. In 2007, the average profit margins of the oil industry were 8.3 cents on the dollar, one cent higher than that of all U.S. industry.
