Backyard Fuels Policy

    A century ago, when Henry Ford was mass-producing automobiles, most of the fuel for America’s cars came from places like Oklahoma and Texas.   Today, oil for our cars and other things that use petroleum comes from places like Venezuela and Iran.   In fact, our country is now dependent on a group of nations called the Oil and Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).   They have the power to set the price of the oil we import and the price is inflating rapidly.   In 1997, the cost of oil was $14 per barrel.   Now, it is more than $60 per barrel.  

    An even greater problem is that many of the OPEC nations have a strong hatred towards the United States.   We now depend on the unstable governments of Hugo Chávez (Venezuela) and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran) who have made many threats to America and our way of life.   Our national debt has increased and security has been threatened because of our relationship with OPEC nations.   In fact, because of our oil payments, some countries have enough money to create large nuclear arsenals that they could point toward us.  

    An oil crisis would hurt everyone in the United States.   Our transportation system, manufacturing companies and some power plants use petroleum.   Many products we use everyday, like plastics, nylon and rubber come from petroleum.   Without oil, we might have to go back to the days of the horse and carriage.

    It is clear that Americans want a change in US energy policy.   A study by Yale University found that more than 90% of Americans think America\'s dependence on foreign oil is a serious problem.   They want their government to show leadership by finding ways to get away from this dependence.

    One alternative to depending on foreign oil is to use petroleum produced in the United States.   Geologists say there are still large reserves of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico, off the California coast and in Alaska.   However, due to environmental laws we cannot drill these large...