Letter: Measure part of anti-petroleum effort

Measure J on the current November ballot will prohibit “enhanced oil production” in San Benito County. In effect it will essentially stop oil production and future oil exploration in San Benito County. The impact will be marginal to most residents – a marginal, albeit very marginal, price increase in gasoline – but significant impact on those that currently own and operate oil production facilities since they will be out of business. However, San Benito County Taxpayers might have to reimburse them for their losses if Measure J does pass. The real intent of Measure J is to ban oil by outlawing the use of hydraulic fracturing or “Fracking” here as well as the rest of California. A win here by the anti-fracking, anti-oil group, is part of their strategy to eliminate petroleum as an energy source. The best way to do that is to make oil so expensive that no one other than the major backers of Measure J can afford to drive from their homes in Silicon Valley to their ranches in South County. To accomplish this, they have to ban fracking. The simple reason is that without fracking, gasoline would be probably double what we are paying today. Measure J states that banning fracking will protect their way of life-which is exactly opposite of the truth. How would residents of San Benito County “protect their way of life” who essentially rely 100% on the automobile for transportation with gasoline at $8.00/gallon?
How can I make these comments-very easily? The four charts below show the rapid increase in US oil and gas production since the start of wide spread fracking in 2007. 10,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of gas annually and a minimum of 2 million barrels of oil per day are being produced through the use of fracking. On oil, the number is probably larger since without fracking the production trend was dropping rapidly. This oil and gas would have to have been imported if it had not been produced in the US–from Venezuela, Iraq, Saudi Arabia or other countries that think highly of the US, like Russia. With fracking, the US has reduced energy imports by 60% since 2005.
If you think importing more oil and double-digit gasoline is a great idea, then vote for Measure J-protecting your way of life in abject poverty and supporting global terror. If you have a car or truck and you use it-VOTE NO ON J.
Greg Swett, Paicines