Glenn Beck: Dems argue against drilling

Audio Available:

July 15, 2008 - 13:00 ET

GLENN: We're in the perfect storm that I've been warning coming, we're in the perfect storm and if we don't act very, very soon, we're in trouble. The President is going to speak today on energy and the economy. Mr. President, you need to give an Oval Office speech, and a moon shot speech needs to happen right now. You need to give an Oval Office speech and you need to say we're doing it.

I don't understand -- can you find out, Stu, get Joe to talk to some constitutional scholar for me and find out why the President can't not only pull back his executive order but issue an executive order to start on coal-to-oil, to start the drilling, et cetera, et cetera. Can't the President do that? If they can pardon Mark Rich, they can't start drilling for oil and digging out coal? Can you find that out for me?

STU: Sure.

GLENN: You know what we need? We need just somebody -- we just need somebody, President of the United States that just doesn't give a flying crap. That's what we need, somebody who doesn't -- just cares about the country, doesn't give a flying crap about anybody else, just wants to do the right thing for the country. Yeah, politics, hmmm, sucks to be you on Capitol Hill, doesn't it? I think that person who is well spoken and doesn't care about special interests or quite honestly getting reelected would just say, I'm going to do four years. Come on, I'm only going to do four years because I don't want to owe anybody anything. I'm not going to try to get re-elected. I'm going to do the right thing in the first four years, period. I think that person would -- I think they would be wildly popular. Somebody that could come out and articulate: Hey, you know, the Democrats -- how come I'm not hearing this. The Democrats are saying, "Well, these oil companies are failing to drill on their own federally leased lands. They've got thousands of acres." You've heard this, right? This is the Harry Reid attack.

Okay. Let me give you a story. 1981 secretary of interior proposed opening almost the entire Outer Continental Shelf to drilling. The environmentalists, surprise, surprise back in 1981 went crazy. California congressional delegation slipped in a provision into a bill the same year that placed a moratorium on drilling off of the California shores. Congress enacted separate moratoriums for Cal Florida, California, New Jersey, North Carolina. None of these bans covered what is called the Destin Dome. Destin Dome is a formation in the Gulf of Mexico. It's about 25 miles off of Pensacola, Florida. Experts say it has enough natural gas to supply a million homes for 30 years, this one place.

Well, under Reagan, 1981, Chevron leased this dome. It's federal land. They have the lease for the dome, 1981. They drilled three wells to explore, one in 1987, one in '89 and one in '95. They found an estimated 2.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. So story ends. We're pumping the gas, right? No, no. The lease only gave Chevron the right to drill, not to produce the gas. They could drill. They just can't take it out. The lease that they had on the Destin Dome, they could find it but they had to go back and get federal approval to actually take it out. In 1996 Chevron submitted a developed plan to the state and interior department. They proposed drilling 21 different wells. They said as few as 12 but maybe as much as 21. Florida officials took their time dragging their feet deciding whether or not to grant Florida's -- grant Chevron's request. Eventually two years went by and they were denied. Chevron appealed the decision to the department of congress. Congress sat on the appeal. Eventually in 2000 -- remember this started in 1981. In 2000 the commerce department, doing nothing on the appeal, Chevron said, okay, what are you guys doing to us. They sued the federal government in order to compel it to act. While the lawsuit was pending, Bush met with his brother Jeb, who was the Florida governor if you remember right. They agreed to have the federal government buy back the leases for $115 million and place a moratorium on the drilling in this dome until 2011. Now, why did that happen?

There are over 140 actual leased tracks right now that these oil companies have that they cannot drill in. They have the leases. They can drill in some of them but they can't produce. In others they can look but they can't drill. So when people come out and say, these oil companies already have these giant tracts of land, ask yourself and ask them, do they have the right to drill and produce on those lands. By the way, what did Chevron do? It took the refund from the government, it took the $115 million. Instead of the 2.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough, for 30 years of natural gas, they took the $115 million refund and they invested it in a project in Angola where they're currently producing liquefied natural gas that has to be shipped from Angola to us.

By the way, earlier in the program I also told you a story that I said I didn't have confirmation on. I just got a note from somebody in the refinery business and also from one of my researchers who said he verified this story as well today. And this, I think, proves that these gas companies, these oil companies are not trying to screw you. Here's -- and this was presented to me as a concern, not as, "Hey, the oil companies, this was presented to me as a concern: Glenn, you don't know how bad things really are. And it came from an airline executive and what the story is is we were talking about how airlines are just not going to be able to survive. You will not recognize -- if oil stays at this price or above, you won't recognize the airlines in a year.