By Gary Reichert
Dear Readers and Advertisers,
We are forced to become political, as we did during COVID. This is in response to the war in Ukraine and the general direction of domestic energy and economic policy. We are not pro conservative or pro progressive. We are not pro Republican or Democrat. We are unashamedly, unapologetically and enthusiastically pro common sense, practical solutions and pro America.
We need to increase US domestic oil production. Current policy including but not limited to the Keystone pipeline is problematic. The arguments regarding the number of leases and current production levels are intentionally misleading. For your own business to succeed, you plan years in advance. The current changes and instability of policy make long term investment in domestic oil production risky and unpredictable. This discourages exploration and the development necessary to keep growing production.
Many of the oil producing countries are our direct adversaries. Increasing domestic oil production will damage our enemies economically and make it more difficult for them to wage physical war in Ukraine and economic war globally. It makes no sense to weaken our economy and limit our ability to help our allies while enriching bad actors and regimes that would do us harm.
The recent talks between Saudi Arabia and China about a settlement system for oil in a currency other than US Dollars is extremely concerning. That would weaken our influence globally and compound inflation domestically.
Producing a larger share of global production will help us maintain the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency. As long as our country operates at a deficit, that is a requirement.
Restricting our energy production, as we have done, is misguided in any context. Arguing to reduce global demand for energy or specifically petroleum products may be valid. Until global demand actually decreases, reducing production in the United States only means production shifts elsewhere, to jurisdictions and locations we cannot regulate or even adequately monitor. If the oil must be produced, the only sensible course is to control the production here, so it is produced as safely, cleanly and efficiently as possible.
If we do think globally, pollution does not just disappear when it is in a different country. Limiting domestic production shifts the environmental damage to a place Americans won’t notice. It does not reduce or eliminate it. Not seeing does not correlate to not occurring.
The key to reducing demand is developing energy sources to replace oil. That only happens with investment in technology. Privately funded R&D occurs when our economy is strong and risk capital is available. Restoring our energy independence is critical to a strong US economy. Restoring energy production will help provide the funding needed for the research to eventually decrease global demand for petroleum products.
We must make it clear that politicians not acting in the strategic and economic interest of the United States will be opposed by every legal means at our disposal.
We have a resource of pre-written letters and links available on every website. It will take you less than 5 minutes to send one of these letters to your Representative, Senator and Governor.
There are detailed instructions on the websites, and printed versions of the letters are included in this issue as well.
You have our permission to share these resources everywhere and by any means.
It is our responsibility to help where we can.
Gary Reichert, Publisher & CEO
[email protected]
Easily contact your government reps
If you would like to reach out to your government representatives about US energy production but are at a loss for words, here are two sample letters for your convenience.
The “Contact Your Representatives” page on the Rural Builder Magazine website: https://ruralbuildermagazine.com/contact-your-representative/ is home to a searchable list of State Representatives, Senators and Governors. Each listing has buttons allowing you to easily send a message. (They are available digitally on the website so you can easily copy and paste the entire message, or passages that you choose.)
If you would like to snail-mail your representatives, we’ve formatted the letters on the opposite page so you can scan or photocopy the letter you would like to send. All of the postal mailing addresses are also available at the “Contact Your Representative” page on ruralbuilder.com.
Letter Expressing Your Support
Dear
Thank you for supporting American energy independence.
Current foreign events clearly demonstrate an item that seems to be common sense. The world is safer when the United States has a strong economy and energy independence.
Please fight to make the USA resume being a net exporter of petroleum products.
To that end I urge you to:
• Allow exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off-shore in US territorial waters.
• Resume the Keystone Pipeline
• Encourage and assist domestic energy companies (both petroleum and renewable) in any reasonable manner. This includes reallocation of stimulus funds to energy production and independence where possible.
These should be done safely and in an environmentally responsible manner, but they are critical to the future of our country. They need to be done now.
Increasing the availability of energy would allow our economy to grow, mitigate inflation, reduce operating expenses and disrupt the cash flow of our enemies on the world stage.
In combination with sanctions against Russian Energy, it would benefit our strategic allies and the people of Ukraine.
But action must be taken now.
I have taken valuable time from running my business to express my opinion. Like most entrepreneurs, I would prefer to allocate this time and effort to growing my business and providing a better life for my employees and my family.
On behalf of the small business people that provide over 60% of private sector jobs, please restore US energy independence, grow our economy and undermine our enemies.
It is the right thing to do for us and the struggling, innocent people in Ukraine.
Sincerely,
Letter Expressing Your Disapproval
Dear
I urge you in the strongest terms within my capability to pursue American Energy independence.
The current foreign events have clearly demonstrated the world is safer when the United States has a strong economy and energy independence.
Please fight to make the USA resume being a net exporter of petroleum products.
To that end I urge you to
• Allow exploration in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge and off-shore in US territorial waters.
• Resume the Keystone Pipeline
• Encourage and assist domestic energy companies (both petroleum and renewable) in any reasonable manner. This includes reallocation of stimulus funds to energy production and independence where possible.
These should be done safely and in an environmentally responsible manner, but they are critical to the future of our country.
World oil consumption had continued to increase until 2019 when the COVID Pandemic began. Until renewable energy is viable, oil usage will continue to increase. Energy that is produced domestically is produced more cleanly and with less negative environmental impact than the same products from Russia or the Middle East.
Producing domestically would be cleaner, reduce transportation costs and allow our economy to grow.
The United States consumes approximately 20% of the world’s petroleum products. Until we can reduce the petroleum requirements of the other 80% the only responsible course it to control as much of the production as possible. Then we know it will be as clean, efficient and environmentally responsible as possible.
Increasing the availability of energy would allow our economy to grow, mitigate inflation, reduce operating expenses and disrupt the cash flow of our enemies on the world stage.
Please take the strategically, environmentally and economically sensible action. We cannot control the safety of foreign production. Data shows that our production or lack does not effect global demand. That makes the only responsible action controlling as much petroleum production as possible and do it responsibly.
In combination with stronger sanctions against Russian Energy it would benefit our strategic allies and the people of Ukraine and the ecosystem of the entire world
It is the right thing to do for the entire world and innocent people in Ukraine.
Sincerely,
