World oil prices might decline if there were more spare oil production capacity. But the control of world oil prices is not in the hands of investor-owned oil companies in the United States, which control just 6% of worldwide oil reserves (national oil companies of foreign governments own 80% of the world's oil reserves).

Even if the control of oil prices were in American hands, which it is not, Congress refuses to allow access to plentiful oil and natural gas deposits beneath federal lands and U.S. coastal waters. It's hard for our government to ask the main oil-producing foreign countries to increase their production when 85 percent of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are closed to domestic energy production. All too forgotten is that these areas hold billions of barrels of oil, enough to strengthen U.S. energy security and support our economic growth for many years.

Opening oil exploration in areas that are off-limits would be an encouraging sign that our elected lawmakers are acting in the best long-run interests of our national security and our continued economic prosperity.