Illinois manufacturers seek passage of resolution urging White House to expand domestic oil exploration

[March 24, 2022]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The high cost of crude oil isn’t just costing drivers filling up at the pump more, it’s also impacting the availability of everyday goods. Manufacturers are looking for solutions.

Illinois Manufacturers’ Association President and CEO Mark Denzler said the U.S. has plenty of resources to tap into.

“We have to use our domestic supplies,” Denzler told WMAY. “We shouldn't have to go rushing to OPEC, which is what the Biden administration has done to ask them to increase output. We have these resources right here at home.”

Denzler said it’s not just crude oil that’s needed. Manufacturers use other fossil fuels in producing all kinds of consumer goods.

“Natural gas is the feed stock in a lot of things, plastics, and chemicals and fertilizer,” Denzler said. “So again, it’s very important that we don’t turn off these resources and stop using them.”

Greg Kozera with the nonprofit economic research group Shale Crescent USA agreed that there’s plenty of resources domestically and restrictions need to be lifted.

“There’s natural gas, natural gas liquids and oils, that we don’t need to be paying these kinds of gasoline prices because we can fuel ourselves,” Kozera told The Center Square. “We just need to be able to drill more wells and expand production.”

Some farmers have said there could be relief found by fostering more biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. But Kozera said that would take away from feed for livestock and humans, and it require lots more energy to produce such ethanol and biodiesel.

“You gotta grow something and when we look at the amount, the large volumes of diesel and gasoline that we use in this country, it’s really not feasible,” Kozera said.

IMA and others are pushing for passage of a House resolution urging the president of the United States to resume consistent, credible federal lease sales and the construction of natural gas and new oil and gas pipelines. The resolution is in an Illinois House committee.

Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of Springfield.