This week the Department of the Interior grandly announced plans for its March oil and gas lease sale in the Central Gulf of Mexico, off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The announcement might have been more fitting for Groundhog Day.
Read More »Executive summary: a bunch of people in Marin County, California made a serious mistake, forty years ago. To wit, they trusted the federal government to honor an agreement by which the Drakes Bay Oyster Company transferred ownership of their land (in order to protect the wetlands from development) in exchange for 40 year leases on that land in perpetuity. Several years ago, the folks who | Read More »
An official Hatch Act complaint has been filed over U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar’s recent campaign trip to Colorado, The Colorado Observer reported.
Read More »Former White House counsel associate Scott Coffina accused U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar of violating the Hatch Act during a recent campaign trip to Colorado. The Colorado Observer broke the story of the possible Hatch Act violation today. Salazar, along with Sen. Udall, Sen. Bennet, and Gov. Hickenlooper participated in an RV tour of Colorado in support of President Obama’s reelection.
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During my company’s eight-year run as an operator in the Gulf of Mexico, we found and produced about one day’s worth of U.S. natural gas consumption and a few hours worth of oil production. That may not sound like much, but the economic activity of independent oil and gas companies sustains much of the Gulf Coast region and provides thousands of jobs. All that is | Read More »
In an effort to deflect blame for high gasoline prices away from the Obama Administration, the Department of the Interior today released a report which purports to show that the oil and gas industry, not DOI or BOEMRE, is guilty of dragging its feet on offshore energy exploration and development. This, in spite of a 10 month regulatory moratorium/permitorium that has brought new well drilling | 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 »
On Wednesday, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour spoke to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on energy policy: Barbour says Obama cheers for higher gas price “This administration’s policies have been designed to drive up the cost of energy in the name of reducing pollution, in the name of making very expensive alternative fuels more economically competitive,” Barbour said… Barbour cited a statement by Nobel laureate Steven | Read More »
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wants the Obama administration to provide Congress with data on the federal government’s offshore drilling revenue — information that would show just how much President Obama’s anti-drilling policies are impacting the budget. Based on recent projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, production in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to drop this year by 220,000 barrels per day. With oil | Read More »
The President’s post-election remarks contained something of an “olive branch” to Congressional Republicans. It came in the form of a broad hint that the Administration might backpedal on its opposition to natural gas development. Obama’s Enthusiasm for Gas Drilling Raises Eyebrows “We’ve got, I think, broad agreement that we’ve got terrific natural gas resources in this country,” Obama said when he was pressed for issues | Read More »
Basically, what happened was that Salazar added language to a report on the Gulf oil spill, and that said language called for a drilling moratorium. That’s not the lie: the Interior Secretary is allowed to make his own recommendations, even when they’re dunderheaded recommendations. No, this is the lie: Salazar’s report to Obama said a panel of seven experts “peer reviewed” his recommendations, which included | Read More »
Conservatives argue that government usually makes a situation worse when it tries to help. A great example of this is the decision by President Obama to impose a drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the spill. From the LA Times, “Interior Secretary Ken Salazar also reassured congressional representatives from the beleaguered gulf states that a six-month moratorium on drilling that | Read More »
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