Gas prices are nearly 40 cents per gallon higher than what they were last year and show no sign of falling any time soon. Although there are plenty of ideas that could help lower prices, the Obama Administration is doing much more harm than good. We’ve written in great detail about the Obama Administration’s attack on offshore drilling. They announced that the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts will not be part of the government’s 2012–2017 Outer Continental Shelf program, effectively banning drilling in those areas …
President Obama’s seven-person Oil Spill Commission released its long-awaited final report this morning and includes details on the “before, during and after” of the Macondo well explosion that occurred on April 20 last year. The commission’s site also has a “Recommendation for Decision Makers” section that has drawn much of the media attention. This post will largely draw from that section as well. The bipartisan report predictably calls for tougher regulations and more government control with regard to offshore drilling and continually refers to systemic flaws of the oil and …
This week’s announcement that 13 oil companies can resume activity in the Gulf of Mexico provided some hope the Obama administration might finally begin to approve drilling new permits. It couldn’t come soon enough. Since the administration’s drilling moratorium was lifted in October, deep-water permit issuance is down 88 percent with only two new permits in that time. It’s only slightly better for shallow-water permits, which weren’t subjected to the moratorium, but are still down 11 percent.
The Wall Street Journal reports: “The global oil industry, far from chastened by the catastrophic spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, is planning record spending next year, including a large amount for deep-water development. … Barclays estimates spending on new wells, producing platforms and other energy infrastructure will total $490 billion next year, up 11% from 2010. The figure is based on a survey of 402 companies. In part, the planned spending increases reflect the higher costs for finding and extracting oil in harder-to-access areas.” And where are these …
Just one day after meeting with the oil and gas industry in Houma, La., last week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled the Obama administration’s “Smart from the Start” initiative to speed up the permitting process. Only this wasn’t permitting for offshore oil drilling, but wind farms off of the East Coast. “To fully harness the economic and energy benefits of our nation’s vast Atlantic wind potential,” Salazar said, “we need to implement a smart permitting process that is efficient, thorough, and unburdened by needless red tape.” If only Salazar would …
Although Congress lifted the ban on deepwater drilling in October and drillers are eager to return to work, the government still has not issued any permits. And the news is unlikely to improve much next year. CNNMoney reports: Even if a few permits come through, analysts say it will be a far cry from the amount issued pre-spill. “We’re not holding our breath for a return to business as usual,” Whitney Stanco, and energy analyst at the Washington Research Group, wrote in a recent research note. “Despite pressure from Gulf …
Last week we reported on numbers showing that despite supposedly lifting his offshore oil drilling moratorium, the Obama administration is maintaining a de facto drilling ban by slowing and sometimes stopping permit issuance all together. GNO Inc., an economic development agency serving the 10-parish New Orleans region, found that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement is issuing 3.8 fewer shallow-water drilling permits per month since August than it was the year leading up to the oil spill. Worse, no new deepwater permits have been issued since May. …
The Washington Post reports today that the Obama administration is entering “the politically sensitive debate” on sex education by spending $110 million on 115 programs in 38 states and the District of Columbia that “teach about the risks of specific sexual activities and the benefits of contraception and others that focus primarily on encouraging teens to delay sex.” But as the Post later reports, only five of these 110 programs are “authentic” abstinence programs and they will receive less than $5 million. So how did the Obama administration choose which …
The White House got the headlines they wanted today. The Washington Post: U.S Lifts Ban on Deep-Water Drilling. The Los Angeles Times: U.S. Lifts Moratorium on Deep-Water Drilling in Gulf of Mexico. The New York Times: White House Lifts Ban on Deepwater Drilling. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters on a conference call yesterday: “We are open for business.” Don’t believe the White House or Salazar for a second. While yesterday’s announcement does remove one legal barrier to the resumption of energy investment in the Gulf, the Obama administration still …
Shallow-water rig workers and those in industries unrelated to oil drilling are losing their jobs and being denied access to relief funds because of what Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) calls a “de facto shallow-water drilling ban.” Nearly $1 billion is going to Gulf Coast industries that are suffering in the aftermath of the BP oil spill, but many workers losing their jobs due to the drilling ban, imposed by the Obama administrations’ Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, are not eligible. BP’s $20 billion relief fund for those affected by the Gulf …
