Oil companies want these new oil leases offshore because they claim it will drive down the price of gas. Great.
Offer them oil leases, but bar them from selling oil for the duration of the lease at more than the price of oil when the lease begins.
Now I don't believe any oil company would go for it. And I don't believe the environmental damage is worth it. But its a gamble to get the TRUTH out of the oil companies.
If the price of gas and oil will go down because you are given these leases, as you claim, why wouldn't you want them? Please testify.
So why wouldn't you agree to this lease?
We can't guarantee the price of oil.
But you said gas prices will go down if we let you have these leases and do all that environmental damage.
Well, we can't sign away our right to charge more if, you know, things don't pan out as we predict they will.
So what you're saying is there is no guarantee the price of gas will go down if we do this?
No guarantee.
And at what price OVER what oil is selling for now would you be willing to agree to be your price limit?
We can't guarantee to a limit because the oil supplies we tap with this drilling may not lower prices all that much, and world supply could still be interrupted by natural disaster or war.
So why would we risk all this damage and give you leases without any guarantee. Seems like we are taking all the risk and you are taking none.
We take a risk everytime we drill for oil. It takes a lot of work and time to extract the amounts of oil that will make a difference.
But we thought you claimed gas prices would fall nearly immediately?
Well not exactly immediately. Within 5 - 10 years. But speculators could view our actions positively and temporarily lower prices.
So we are designing our energy policy to please international oil spectators?
Well... uhhhh... no.... I mean....
And so you can't really guarantee a thing if we let you have these oil leases...
