It didn’t take long for American politicians to try to capitalize on the crisis in Egypt. While there may be no partisan gain in gaming the chaos, the political class is using the turmoil to advance issues like oil drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico and higher taxes in California.
Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) called on the leaders of the Armed Services Committee to convene a hearing on the potential impact of oil production disruption on the armed forces and American interests in the Middle East.
“As a senator from one of America’s leading energy-producing states, I believe the instability in Egypt underscores our need to expand our domestic energy production,” Begich wrote. “The situation in Egypt is a strong reminder of America’s vulnerability to our energy and national security by continued reliance on foreign sources of oil.”
His position is shared across the Capitol and the partisan divide by Rep. Candice Miller (R.-Mich.), the chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security.
“The recent unrest in Egypt underscores the need for our nation to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy, particularly oil,” Miller said in a statement Tuesday. “Egypt controls the Suez Canal through which a large amount of the world’s supply of oil is shipped. If the Suez Canal were to shut down or if the unrest in Egypt were to spread to oil producing nations in the region, then we would see a drastic jump in the price of oil around the world.”
“Our nation has vast energy resources that have been declared off limits by the federal government, but the fact remains that our nation needs oil. To put it very simply, energy security equals national and economic security.”
The Economic Times reported Tuesday that several major energy companies are suspending their operations in the nation because of political turbulence, and world oil prices have been rising during the popular uprising against President Hosni Mubarak. But Egypt’s not a top producer of oil used by American consumers, and, according to data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the International Energy Agency, the country actually consumes a little bit more than it produces these days.
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