by Shawn Parker
Energy prices are spinning out of control and we are facing a crisis of the working people like we haven’t seen since 2009. Energy prices have risen 30 percent on average and the winter has not yet arrived. Families will be faced with the hard decision of choosing between gas to get to work or paying for rent, healthcare, food, or other basic necessities. The economists at Texas A&M University pointed to the tipping point of the “housing recession” of 2010 as being fully caused by gas prices at the pump reaching $3.30 a gallon for a sustained period of 60 days.
President Biden in the past week has reached out to the leaders of every friendly country who has the ability to store reserve oil and asked them to release part of their emergency stockpile to drive the price of energy down as a push against OPEC. Economically speaking, this would not have any long-term positive effect. Such a move would create even more demand in the long run while placing some countries in peril should a natural disaster occur, or a destabilizing world event happen. This is a rookie move and a dangerous and risk-filled option.
The United States is the world’s leading oil producer thanks mainly to the shale revolution of which eastern and southern Ohio is a key player. Producers in the shale states can bring new supply chain online as fast as six weeks. If you want to do so with middle eastern oil that timeframe is six months!! Also of note is that American shale production has a lower carbon production footprint than oil production in the rest of the world.
While I applaud our efforts to move to leading-edge renewable energies, we simply are not there yet and the time it will take to get there will leave working people and families headed toward a lower standard of living and a new route to poverty. Delaware and Franklin County are doing admirable things to help people with public transportation access, bike lanes and other behavior-changing incentives.
The shale states need to be responsible for ensuring that the best standards and cleanest possible production standards are utilized, but unless we return to the many of the energy policies of the previous administration, President Biden is rolling the dice in a game that will irreparably damage the middle and working classes of people, as well as those among us who are most at risk.
America needs to look at ALL energy options for our future, and the Biden Administration should not allow any producer to come offline until a replacement energy producer has been placed into production. Sodium fission nuclear should be explored as well in the midwestern states where water is plentiful and the risk of disaster is extremely low.
We need to understand that OPEC has no interest in making sure you have $2.00 a gallon gas. Economies are delicate, but also resilient. This economy is on the tipping point of losing its resilience and falling off the cliff into energy driven full-on recession.
President Biden and his administration need to face reality and incorporate a realistic responsible plan that doesn’t empty the savings of hard-working Americans and drive them toward bankruptcy and homelessness.
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Shawn Parker is a graduate of The Ohio State University and serves as President of the Ohio Council of Republican Clubs as well as the President of the Dublin Republican club. Shawn is a member of the Delaware County Republican Central Committee and is also on the board of the Ohio Neighborhood Preservation Association which is dedicated to fighting blighted housing and urban decay.
