Would Allowing Offshore Drilling Lead to Oil Prices Being $13 Per Barrel?

Peter Ferrara says blame “liberals and regulation” and trust the supply-side cure:

Over the past thirty years, extreme-left liberals have successfully shut down new energy production in the United States … The liberals also have stoked “Not in My Backyard” concerns in order to stop the building of new oil refineries … Finally, we now hear liberals screaming loudly about oil-company profits. But according to the Tax Foundation, the government takes about three-times as much in taxes from what you pay at the pump than the oil companies take in profits. Federal, state, and local gas taxes alone total about 46 cents per gallon, on average. Corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and other taxes tack on much more. Liberals, in fact, have been saying for years that American gas prices are too cheap, and that we should have to pay $4 to $5 a gallon, as is the case in Europe. That would lead to so much wonderful conservation, they say. But now we have just what they wished for. How do you like it? … Finally, we now hear liberals screaming loudly about oil-company profits. But according to the Tax Foundation, the government takes about three-times as much in taxes from what you pay at the pump than the oil companies take in profits. Federal, state, and local gas taxes alone total about 46 cents per gallon, on average. Corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and other taxes tack on much more. Liberals, in fact, have been saying for years that American gas prices are too cheap, and that we should have to pay $4 to $5 a gallon, as is the case in Europe. That would lead to so much wonderful conservation, they say. But now we have just what they wished for. How do you like it? … Of course, we also need to allow drilling in the far-north Alaska tundra. Current estimates (and these pre-drilling estimates always end up being too conservative) reveal that this effectively would add another Saudi Arabia to the world oil supply. More, there is no significant environmental threat attached to the drilling planned in Alaska.

I wonder if Peter is partying with Rush this weekend.

Incidentally, one of Max’s readers pointed out this story regarding ANWR:

Big oil has stated that they are simply not interested in drilling in ANWR.

Even if Exxon et al. were interested in drilling in ANWR – I seriously doubt we would get nearly as much oil from there as from Saudi Arabia.