Superficially, it would seem that the nation is successfully pursuing the Obama Administration’s stated energy goals of “increasing domestic oil production” and “reducing our dependence on foreign oil.” Domestic oil production has increased, but in spite of and not because of Administration policies. And while our overall oil import demand has declined, our imports from the Persian Gulf states, and Saudi Arabia in particular, have | Read More »
Voters in the November election will be acutely aware of two key economic variables above all others: the national unemployment rate, and the price they pay for a gallon of gasoline. President Obama senses his vulnerability on gasoline prices, and is busy erecting a defense against charges that his actions (or inactions) have contributed to high prices. His weekly radio address focused on the problem | Read More »
In 2011, Gulf of Mexico oil production will under-perform the government’s pre-Macondo forecasts by 355,000 barrels per day — almost 130 million barrels for the year. In 2012, the shortfall rises to 550,000 barrels per day — 200 million barrels. That’s fully one-third of the Gulf’s oil producing capability, and over 10% of total domestic oil production. These are staggering numbers. Alaska, our #1 oil | Read More »
President Obama’s callous indifference to his drilling moratorium’s negative impact on Louisiana is worthy of the “Let Them Eat Cake” Hall of Shame. When pressed by Gov. Bobby Jindal to reconsider the drilling ban and corresponding shallow water permit foot-dragging on the state’s economy, the President responded by suggesting that laid off workers might apply for BP funds, or failing that, unemployment compensation. The President | Read More »
In spite of a vote by its committee on the environment to ban all deep sea drilling in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the European Parliament has rejected a moratorium on deep sea drilling for oil and gas. By doing so, the EU finds itself in a rather unfamiliar position: being farther to the right on an issue, more pragmatic and more firmly | Read More »
With the backing of the Obama Administration, the U.S. Export-Import Bank intends to guarantee $1 billion in loans to PEMEX, the Mexican government’s national monopoly oil company. The reason for the loans is to encourage PEMEX to buy supplies and services from American providers. Despite President Obama’s moratorium on U.S. deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Export-Import Bank intends to guarantee $1 | Read More »
The Obama Administration has filed some 27,000 pages of documents in Federal court which disclose the process by which it decided to forge ahead with a deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, in spite of expert advice, public opinion and a Federal judge’s ruling. The documents also show that the Administration stonewalled a U.S. Senator’s request for information, a point apparently lost on | Read More »
On one hand, Mr. Obama’s “Worst Oil Spill in History” theme serves as pretext for eviscerating the offshore petroleum industry, an industry that, until this spring, was relatively healthy despite the recession. By doing so, he may suck the economic life out of four very red Gulf States. On the other hand, Energy Czar Carol Browner has joined the “Where has the oil gone?” chorus, | Read More »
Peer-review, schmeer-review. If Obama and Salazar wanted to cripple the domestic oil and gas industry and the very-red Gulf Coast states that depend on offshore drilling, they couldn’t find a better way to do it than to impose a six-month (at least) moratorium on all deepwater drilling, including the unprecedented step of shutting down operations on wells that were already underway. But they couldn’t just | Read More »
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