At the press conference accompanying the political hara-kiri by his director of the Minerals and Management Service, President Obama changed topics and said, “Now let me make one broader point, though, about energy. The fact that oil companies now have to go a mile underwater and then drill another three miles below that in order to hit oil tells us something about the direction of the oil industry. Extraction is more expensive, and it is going to be inherently more risky. … The easily accessible oil has already been sucked …
The drill, baby, drill crowd was quick to discover that the President’s offshore drilling announcement does very little to increase access to domestic supplies and in fact puts 13 billion barrels of oil and 49 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off limits, respectively. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been much more supportive of offshore wind energy, but should he be? A new Institute for Energy Research video compares a natural gas platform to an offshore wind platform and in terms of surface area and cost, natural gas …
President Obama announced today that the administration will open access to waters for offshore drilling in the Atlantic and eastern Gulf of Mexico. While the president should be commended for allowing oil and natural gas exploration and development in untouched water, the devil is in the details. Part of the administration’s proposal is regressive in that it cancels some lease sales that were already pending: “But it is unlikely to win strong support from the fiercest drilling advocates in Congress and the energy industry, who have accused the administration of …
Chris Horner from the Competitive Enterprise Institute is at it again, doing his best Sherlock Holmes imitation. After a Spanish study warned that renewable energy policies destroy more jobs than they aim to create, the Department of Energy released a strong rebuttal, claiming the report lacked rigor. A CEI-submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request shows how the DOE’s critique of the foreign study came to fruition. What transpired is difficult to discern with precision, as DOE continues to withhold numerous responsive documents. But it is clear that senior staff …
There’s a plan out there that will create jobs, collect revenue for state and federal governments and improve the environment. And it won’t come at any cost to the taxpayer but if the administration doesn’t act, it will be a net drain on the economy. 1.) What is it? 2.) Why haven’t Congress and the administration acted? The answers are increased oil and natural gas production in the United States and we have no idea. The costs of the ban: A new study commissioned by the National Association of Regulatory …
If Energy Freedom Day seems like a long time ago, it was. It’s been since September of 2008 since the Congressional restrictions on energy leasing in 85 percent of America’s territorial waters, which have been renewed annually since 1982, were allowed to lapse. Along with the White House restrictions rescinded by President Bush, it opened nearly all of our federally controlled waters for energy leasing. A lot has happened since, but there’s been no real movement forward on drilling. The leasing process began with a comment period – extended six …
One year ago today, a bipartisan Congress voted to lift the ban on oil and gas drilling off America’s coasts and cleared the way for our Nation to responsibly develop more of our own energy resources, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and create new jobs. Next, the Bush Administration put forward a robust plan that would open up additional areas to drilling on the United States Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). However, immediately after taking office, the Obama Administration threw up a giant roadblock on the path to new American …
Ten Senate Democrats recently expressed their concern over cap and trade legislation that would dramatically increase energy prices and particularly hurt the country’s manufacturing base. In a letter sent to the White House, Senators from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and West Virginia wrote: As Congress considers energy and climate legislation, it is important that such a bill include provisions to maintain a level playing field for American manufacturing. Manufacturing accounts for more than 10 percent of our economy and nearly three-fourths of the nation’s industrial research and development. …
It’s summer and that means gas prices are creeping up and although projections indicate we’re not headed toward $4-a-gallon gas; last summer was a fresh reminder of just how quickly gas prices can skyrocket. Despite America’s overwhelming public support for more drilling, the White House has put many drilling projects on hold. While the oil wouldn’t be commercially available for years, the time to get started is now, and there may be far more oil in Alaska and immediately off its shore than previously thought. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDDO_w3DtsU [/youtube]
Although not necessarily what you think of when it comes to big oil, suppliers to extract and produce oil come in all sizes – including family run businesses. Take William Whitefield, for instance, who runs “a family-owned company that now serves a host of national and international oil field, pipeline and industrial clients.” He was one of about 60,000 attending last week’s Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. The mood was one of uncertainty but that had nothing to do with the swine flu or anything else in Texas. It …
