The high price of gasoline is not too far from the minds of Missourians these days … and they’re reminded of it every time they fill up their tanks. With this as a backdrop, American Petroleum Institute Chief Economist John Felmy visited Kansas City to speak on America’s energy future.
Felmy says a major part of the reason for the high cost of gasoline is the high demand for oil – not just in the United States but throughout the world. Felmy says America’s oil companies are forced to import black gold from oil producing countries outside the United States – because we are prohibited from drilling for our own oil in America.
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has argued there is no need to give oil companies access to Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – ANWR – because there are many leases and permits for regions of the country not being drilled by oil companies. Felmy says there is a simple reason those areas are not being drilled – because there is no oil in those areas. There is plenty of oil in ANWR – perhaps a million barrels of oil a day could be produced.
