Supplemental Materials to:
Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less:
A Handbook for Slashing Gas Prices and Solving Our Energy Crisis
By Newt Gingrich
(This set of supplemental materials will soon be available at AmericanSolutions.com/EnergyHandbook and newt.org/EnergyHandbook. Once this set of materials has been finalized, you will receive an electronic and hard copy. This version is still in draft format; it is intended to give you an idea of the additional resources you will have to help dominate the energy debate.)
Table of Contents
The Human Impact of High Gas Prices
1...Personal Stories of How High Gas Prices are Impacting Americans
This section offers stories from average Americans concerning how high fuel prices have affected their everyday lives.
2...“We Can Lower Oil Prices Now” By Martin Feldstein
Opinion Editorial in the Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2008.
3...Economic Journal Rejects a Study Showing Positive Impact from Drilling
A study by two economists, showing the immediate price impact from opening up oil resources, was rejected by the journal “ “ because the editors considered the study’s conclusion as obvious. This section shares with you the original study and the rejection letter from the journal.
Communicating with the Public about Energy
4...Memo: “The New Language of Smart Energy”
This memo by pollster Frank Luntz offers words and principles that are most useful in explaining our values in winning the debate for more American energy now.
5...Public Opinion Research Data on Offshore Drilling
This collection of public opinion data shows that large tripartisan majorities Americans support increased American energy production, including strong support for offshore drilling to be successful.
ANWR
6...Memo: “Small Area of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Could Hold Over 10 Billion Barrels of Oil”
Offshore Oil & Gas
7...Memo: “Well Established Economic Analysis Shows that We Can LOWER OIL PRICES IMMEDIATELY By Opening up New Areas to Oil Development”
This section outlines the firmly established economic relationship between increases in long term supply -- which would be made possible by opening up offshore and ANWR to oil development – leading to lower oil prices immediately, and thus lower fuel prices.
8...Working Paper: “The Environmental Effects of Offshore Drilling”
This working paper examines the environmental impact of offshore oil drilling on marine life. The research surveyed in this paper strongly supports the conclusion that the environmental impact of offshore oil drilling on marine life is generally not significant and that offshore drilling takes place without causing serious harm to the environment.
9...Memo: “Active Oil Rigs Support Fish Habitats”
This memo explains how active oil rigs serve as fish habitats, actually helping to restore declining marine populations.
10...Economic Rewards for States from Offshore Development: The Virginia Example
This memo describes the anticipated benefits to the Virginia economy that will follow opening up offshore Virginia to oil and gas exploration, the Virginia tax revenues that will be generated, and how those tax revenues could be used to improve Virginia’s transportation infrastructure.
11...Rebutting the Arguments of Those Opposed to Offshore Drilling
This memo shows how you can respond to some of the most frequent arguments against opening up new areas to drilling offshore and in Alaska by outlining the most common critiques followed by rebuttals to them.
Oil Shale
12...Memo: “RAND: U.S. Oil Shale Resources Are Three Times Larger than the Current Proven Oil Reserves in Saudi Arabia”
This memo explains how the amount of oil shale that the United States possesses exceeds by three times the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.
13...Memo: “The Technological Reality of Oil Shale Drilling”
This memo offers a technical explanation of the process of extracting shale oil.
Nuclear Power
14...Memo: “Nuclear Power: An Abundant, Safe, Affordable, and Clean Source of Energy”
This brief memo describes the capabilities of nuclear energy, the nuclear industry’s safety record, and how excessive regulation substantially increases the cost to produce nuclear power.
Clean Coal
15...Keynote Address: “Clean Coal: Powerful Implications For An Energy Short World” & Powerpoint: “Coal and Our Energy Future”
This address (delivered by Peabody Chairman and CEO Gregory H. Boyce) and Powerpoint illustrate how clean coal can be a partial solution for America’s energy needs, after the era of fossil fuel dominance.
16...IPPC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage
This “Summary for Policymakers” describes the technology of carbon sequestration and how long carbon can be stored in various types of underground repositories.
Methane Hydrates
17...Fact sheets: “Location of Natural Gas Hydrates”
& “Natural Gas Hydrates—Vast Resource, Uncertain Future”
The first fact sheet tells of the distribution of methane hydrates in the United States both onshore and offshore. The second fact sheet defines methane hydrates and assesses their potential as an energy resource.
Energy & the Environment
18...Materials Rebutting Boxer Warner Lieberman
Job Losses from Boxer Warner Lieberman by State
This section includes a briefing package on the Boxer-Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade legislation, which describes the enormous cost of enacting a “tax-and-trade” system on the American economy. This includes evidence that such legislation will kill American jobs as companies take their businesses to China or India.
19...Speaker Gingrich on Sulfur Dioxide/Cap & Trade
This partial transcript is of Speaker Gingrich on C-SPAN explaining the difference between the cap-and-trade legislation to reduce sulfur dioxide in the 1990s, which he supported, and the economy-wide cap and trade proposals that attempt to regulate the entire economy, which he opposes.
Understanding the Anti-Energy Left
20...Outrageous Quotes of the Anti-Energy Left
This compilation of quotes from leaders of the anti-energy Left illustrates their general opposition to greater energy development, especially of American energy resources.
21...Assessing the anti-energy policies of Al Gore
What Does the Future Hold?
22...Transforming Energy Solutions: “Benchmarks” and “Glimmerings” of More Energy at Lower Cost
This section provides descriptions of new technologies & processes under development by various companies and scientists that might help to break American dependence on foreign oil.
23...Speaker Gingrich on Prizes and Incentives
This partial transcript is of Speaker Gingrich when he spoke with Jeffrey Sachs at the New York Public Library to address some of the issues surrounding a global shift away from a carbon-based energy system.