Big things have been happening on the energy issue during the past few months. In response to four dollar per gallon gas prices and large increases in our other energy costs, majority public opinion is swinging toward unlocking our domestic energy resources.

(UPDATE, 8/14/08: Beware of the Senate's "gang of 10," bipartisan, compromise energy plan. As a recent article in the Wall Street Journal points out, this plan has been carefully designed to fool voters into believing that Congress would be permitting extensive offshore drilling when in reality the bill only offers token offshore drilling, and no ANWR drilling, while increasing taxes on oil companies by tens of billions of dollars to subsidize development of alternative energy sources.)

Here's an example of the strikingly unified American attitude toward the threat that high gas prices pose for the U.S. economy:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 72% of adults believe rising fuel prices are the biggest short-term problem for the U.S. economy, and nearly as many (68%) rank it as the most serious long-term threat as well.

In the same survey the following question was asked:

John McCain favors drilling in offshore oil wells to help reduce the price of gas. Barack Obama opposes offshore oil wells and says it would not reduce the price of gas. Should drilling be allowed in offshore oil wells off the coasts of California, Florida, and other states?

Allowing offshore oil drilling along the coasts of the United States was favored by 67% of the respondents, while only 25% were against it.

Another Rasmussen Reports survey conducted on June 26 gave this somewhat surprising and very encouraging result: "Forty-nine percent (49%) favor building nuclear power plants while 31% are opposed."

As a result of the increasing public outcry over high energy costs, a fiercely partisan battle over energy policy was raging in both houses of Congress in the weeks leading up to the August recess. House Republicans have even resorted to holding rallies and giving speeches regarding energy legislation in the officially-shutdown House chamber during the recess. Hopefully, sufficient numbers of Democrats, including "Blue Dog" Democrats, will join with the majority of Republicans after the recess to start passing legislation to begin freeing up our energy resources.

Since this congressional battle over energy policy will erupt again as soon as Congress reconvenes after Labor Day, now is a good time to formulate what we should be asking Congress to do to help lower gas and other energy prices. Here are some examples of what Congress should do:

• Lift the legislative ban on oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS);
• Repeal legislation blocking oil shale leasing on federal lands;
• Permit drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR);
• Expedite the refinery permitting process to allow construction of more oil refineries;
• Eliminate the regulatory barriers to the building of nuclear power plants; and
• Encourage the utilization of coal by reversing legislation and executive orders that prevent the mining of clean-burning coal deposits.

Now is a also a good time to assess what needs to be done on a grassroots basis to support the pro energy-freedom members of Congress.

• First, we need a convenient-to-use pre-written message along the lines of "Congress, lower our energy costs by unlocking our energy resources," which citizens can use to email and phone their representatives and senators to demand the unlocking of our energy resources. That pre-written message can be found here.
• Second, we at JBS and other organizations and individuals need to spread this pre-written message far and wide through email to alert lists and Meetup groups, by posting on websites and forums, and through additional online networking of all sorts. We should try to generate significant pressure before Congress reconvenes in early September and then keep the pressure on until Congress recesses again before the November elections. The combination of high gas prices, rapidly changing public opinion, and the approaching election should make congressional candidates especially attentive to our message.

Getting Congress to unlock our energy resources is a vital step in the restoration of freedom and prosperity for America.

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