Glenn Beck: Why gas is so expensive
June 12, 2008 - 13:08 ET

GLENN: You know, you might be asking yourself every time you go into a gas station, "Gee, why are gas prices so high. That's really weird." Now, Bob says there's enough oil, and there is enough oil. There's currently not enough oil for the demand but there's enough oil out there and if you want to know why there's not enough oil out on the market, let's just look back for a second.

Do you remember when Bill Clinton pulled the plug on leasing the outer continental shelf? Yeah. Me, either. I have a life. But it was back in 1998. Maybe, you know, maybe you weren't paying attention to what intern he was stooping and rolling around on the presidential carpet with. But you remember the argument back then. Clinton's affairs with fatties isn't affecting his job performance. He's still getting things done. And you're right. All of these areas were subject to a 1998 presidential withdrawal oh, that's so loaded a presidential withdrawal from leasing in 2012, okay? So in 1998 President Clinton said you can't lease anything here for oil until 2012, and there are just a few places here: Washington, the entire state; Oregon, the entire state; Northern California, Central California and Southern California. The eastern Gulf of Mexico except for a portion of land. The South Atlantic, the Mid Atlantic, the North Atlantic, all national marine sanctuaries. All of these are indefinite. The Olympic Coast, Cordell Bank, California, Monterey Bay, California, the Gulf of the Farallones, California, the Channel Islands of California; the Flower Bank Gardens Gulf of Mexico, Straits of Florida and the Florida Keys, Gray's Reef South and Atlantic, Monitor Mid Atlantic, Stellwagen Bank, North Atlantic. Gee, I wonder why prices are so high for gas. That's weird, isn't it? This isn't to excuse congress from their responsibility because they started their moratoriums back in 1982, stopping the leasing in 1982 of Central and Northern California. Then in 1984 it was Southern California. Then in 1990 the North Aleutian Basin in Alaska. Then in 1991 Washington, Oregon and the Florida Panhandle. Gee, I wonder why gas prices are so high. It's weird, isn't it? And this isn't to excuse the Republicans. The administration says they're for all of these things, with the exception of the Alaskan Aleutian Basin which hasn't been included in the ban since 2004. Gee, I wonder why gas prices are so high. But it's not like the outer continental shelf is important to our energy needs. That's what the Democrats yesterday said in a subcommittee when they killed going to the outer continental shelf. It's not that important, it's really not that much, we've got other things we can do. And actually with all of the bans, it still provides 30% of outline domestic oil production, which is more than we import from any other nation on the planet. Do you have that? The part that we have opened, it provides 30% of all domestic oil production, more than we import from any other nation.

By the way, the Government estimates that the outer continental shelf, the one they said no to yesterday, has 76 billion barrels of oil in it that are recoverable and that's with today's technology. Let me put that into perspective. 76 billion barrels is enough to replace every single barrel of oil that we import from everywhere outside of North America for the next 34 years at our current pace. That's in the one place, one, that congress said we couldn't go into yesterday.

But what about the environment. This is from the Government again. This have been no spills over 1,000 barrels in 15 years of the outer continental shelf drilling. The National Academy of Sciences found that the offshore industry is among the safest industrial activities in the United States. Outer continental shelf operations are more than five times less likely to cause a spill than oil tankers who are importing oil. You listen to this next time one of these environmental pinheads talk to you about the risks of drilling. You remember these words. Imports present an environmental risk of spills 13 times greater than domestic production. Let me say it again. Imports present an environmental risk of spills 13 times greater than domestic production. And, natural seeps account for 150 to 175 times more oil in the ocean than outer continental shelf oil and gas operations. Natural seeps? Natural seeps? Now we know who the real polluter is, that evil wench mother nature. Yet it's the environmentalists who continue to dictate our energy policy. Gee, I wondering why gas prices are so high. It's weird, isn't it?

Obama yesterday said the price of gasoline isn't the problem. $4 a gallon for gasoline isn't the problem. The high price of oil is not the problem. The problem is it's just risen too quickly. Oh, okay. Now I want to vote for you. How fast has oil risen? Grab onto your seat. On 9/11 oil was $27 a barrel. Do you remember how everybody was freaking out after Katrina? "Oh, Katrina, that spike is going to kill us." Oil was $70 a barrel in that spike. We're now almost double that. And from the same government that tells us we don't need more oil, that we don't need to go in and drill in the outer continental shelf, we don't need to go in and get the shale, we don't need to go in to ANWR. We don't need any of this oil. We don't need to build nuclear power plants. We don't need to take our coal and turn it into oil. We don't need any more refineries. From that government, the same government, the Energy Information Administration in its annual energy outlook in 2005 projected that oil prices would reach as high as $52 a barrel in the year 2025. I'm sure those cap and trade estimates that John McCain and Barack Obama, I'm sure cap and trade that they are all in love with, those estimates from the EPA of only $1.50 per gallon increase, I'm sure those are totally accurate, just like the idea of paying $52 a barrel for oil in 2025 is.

By the way, in today's newsletter we're going to give you the highlights of this monologue and we're also giving you the name of the weasels in Washington yesterday that said no to the drilling in the outer continental shelf. We have the names. It was, what a surprise, it always amazes me how the Democrats and the Republicans are split evenly. All the Democrats see it one way. All the Republicans see it another way. Is there an honest soul in America that's actually serving in our capitol. Time to let them know. We'll give you the names on our free e mail newsletter today at GlennBeck.com.

By the way, you know, I can't get past the fact, there's a couple of things. The writings of Thomas Jefferson and the writings of James Madison, all of these things, they are so fresh today and we've been working on something with Fusion Magazine. Please, please, we worked on this issue of Fusion Magazine longer than we've ever worked on any other Fusion Magazine. We worked on this one for six months doing research on it. We've had the best professors, the best American historians in the country help us put this together. Compare the views of Barack Obama, John McCain with the views of Karl Marx and our founding fathers. On the issues of today. Find out how far we've drifted. Go to GlennBeck.com and sign up for Fusion Magazine. It's next month's issue of Fusion Magazine. It is totally devoid of opinion. This is just a voter's guide to see, where do you stand on the issues and where do our politicians stand.