Reasons for Higher Gas Prices Are Not Related to Domestic Production
 
        WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today delivered a speech on the Senate floor today highlighting the fact that U.S. oil production is increasing, and pointing out that gasoline prices are influenced by a host of world factors unrelated to our own oil supplies. (Watch a video of the speech here.)
 
        In recent weeks, there has been much discussion about what can be done in the near term to lower gas prices. In his speech, Bingaman pointed out that if increasing domestic oil production could solve the problem, we'd already be seeing results.
 
        The United States has increased domestic oil production significantly between 2008 and 2011. As a result of an increase in production and a decrease in use, we have reduced our dependence on imported oil to 49 percent now from 60 percent in 2005. Estimates show that percentage will continue to fall; by 2020 we'll import about 38 percent of the oil we consume.
       
Experts in the industry have referred to this time as a “great revival of U.S. oil production.” Our rate of increase in production between 2008-2011 made the U.S. a world leader.  
 
Further evidence of our extremely robust domestic oil and gas production is the fact that the number of oil and gas drilling rigs active in the United States exceeds that of most of the rest of the world. As of last week, there were 1981 rigs actively exploring for or developing oil and natural gas in the United States. The best comparable figure we have for rigs operating internationally is 1871. This does not include Russia or China. Bingaman pointed out that it is probably safe to say, though, that more oil and gas drilling is occurring here in the United States than in any other country in the world. Yet, this is not having an effect on gasoline prices.
 
        “While domestic oil production plays an important role in the energy security and economy of our country, its contribution to the world oil balance is not sufficient to bring global oil prices down.   And, for this reason, increased domestic production unfortunately will not bring down gasoline prices in our country,” Bingaman said.
 
        Bingaman also pointed out that the Obama administration has done much to increase domestic production, and lessen our dependence on imports. It has offered up millions of acres of federally-owned oil and gas resources for drilling over the past few years; the oil and gas industry has chosen to lease only a portion of the area offered. And, unfortunately, the oil and gas industry has 7,000 onshore drilling permits that it is not using.
 
        “The bottom line is that an increased amount of federal acres and resources onshore and offshore are being made available to industry. Production of federally-owned resources continues to increase. The increase in this production can be even greater if industry would lease, explore and produce on a greater percentage of the lands that are offered to them for lease - the lands that are believed to have some of the highest oil and gas resource potential,” Bingaman said.
 
        The only way to become immune from fluctuating gas prices is to reduce our consumption - something Bingaman has been advocating for years. He cited the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which Bingaman helped write and which passed the Senate with a strong bipartisan vote. That law required us to make our vehicles more efficient, and to shift toward relying more on renewable fuel.  
 
“The long-term solution to the challenge of high and volatile oil prices is to continue to reduce our dependence on oil, period. This is a strategic vision that President George W. Bush, who previously had worked in the oil industry, clearly articulated in his State of the Union speech in 2006. We subsequently proved in Congress in 2007, the year after that State of the Union speech, that we have the ability to make significant changes in our energy consumption, and that it is possible to mobilize a bipartisan consensus to do that,” Bingaman said.
 
“The bipartisan path that the Senate embraced in 2007 is still the right approach today. As part of whatever approach we take to energy and transportation in the weeks and months ahead, we need to be honest with our constituents about what works, keep moving in that direction, and allow the facts, and not myths, to be our best guide,” he concluded.