HANSON: Drilling is a win, win choice for U.S. - Washington Times

HANSON: Drilling is a win, win choice for U.S. - Washington Times

When the summer driving season starts soon, and tension heats up about Iran, gas may reach $5 a gallon. Nothing bothers voters more than paying an extra $20 or $30 every time they fill up. In times like these, they soon might prefer even an oilman in the White House to an ideologue whose opposition to new oil development seems more religious than empirically based.

All presidents, of course, usually get the blame when the price of gas skyrockets and praise when it plummets, just like they own a bad or good economy, or a successful or failed war.

Presidents can affect gas prices, at least in the long term, by exercising budgetary discipline resulting in a currency that buys more oil per dollar, by approving or rejecting federal oil leases, and by adding or curbing regulations that affect oil exploration and development. In all of these cases, Mr. Obama has supported policies that contribute to higher gas prices.

Jobs-Drill-Jobs-Drill-Jobs-Drill

Heritage Morning Bell
Obama's Anti-Energy Policies Are Bankrupting America

Randall Stilley has witnessed firsthand the Obama administration's job-killing agenda. As the president and chief executive of Seahawk Drilling, he had to lay off 632 employees before filing for bankruptcy -- a direct result of President Barack Obama's anti-energy policies.Stilley's company owned and operated 20 shallow-water rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The lack of energy production -- a consequence of Obama's drilling moratorium and subsequent "permitorium" -- led to Seahawk’s demise. Now he's speaking out, sharing Seahawk's story in a new video from Heritage and the Institute for Energy Research. (Click to watch.)

It's an unfortunate example of how policies in Washington are harming American jobs and also squelching energy production at a time when consumers are paying $4-per-gallon for gasoline.Fortunately, not everyone in the nation's capital is content with higher prices and fewer jobs. Today the U.S. House considers the first of several bills that directly addresses energy and jobs. Lawmakers will vote today on legislation that requires the Obama administration to conduct oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and in the waters offshore Virginia.

It's a welcome change from the anti-drilling policies first imposed by the Obama administration one year ago. On May 6, 2010, the first moratorium on Gulf drilling took effect, followed by a longer ban that lasted until October. But even after it was lifted, few deepwater permits have been issued.

The long-term implications are disastrous for America. That prompted House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) to pursue a remedy through legislation. Today's vote would ensure that companies continue energy development by requiring lease sales. Two other bills would speed up the permitting process and craft a long-term plan for offshore lease sales."What we're proposing is to lower gas prices, create American jobs, which ironically will help drive up government revenues, and ultimately, in the wake of all the turmoil we've seen in the world, create an environment in which we are energy independent or on a path to energy independence," Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) explained yesterday.

Even without the president's signature, the legislation has already had a positive impact. After it passed in committee, the Obama administration promised to hold one lease sale in 2011. (Ever since 1958, there has been at least one lease sale every year.) But while one lease sale is better than none, Hastings isn’t satisfied. He wants the Obama administration to hold four lease sales before June 2012 -- including one off the coast of Virginia.

Aside from creating new jobs and discovering new sources of energy, the lease sales contribute a substantial sum of revenue for the federal treasury. In 2008, the offshore industry paid $9.4 billion for bids on new leases. Last year, that figure dropped to $979 million in lease bids.

The drop in revenue is a reflection of the Obama administration's anti-energy policies. And lease sales are only part of the equation. According to the government's own Energy Information Administration, production in the Gulf of Mexico will drop by 190,000 barrels per day. That means less money from royalty payments on offshore rigs as well.

Faced with mounting criticism, the Obama administration has defended its policies as a safety precaution following last year's oil spill. But one year later, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement is issuing drilling permits at such a slow pace that it's hard to swallow the explanation.

At the same time, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are seeking new ways to penalize energy businesses. As Curtis Dubay and Nick Loris write on The Foundry, a proposal from Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) would significantly increase taxes paid by U.S. oil and gas companies competing abroad -- exactly the wrong approach with gas prices on the rise.

Meanwhile, job creators like Leslie Bertucci and Randall Stilley continue to bear the brunt of the Obama administration's misguided policies. Bertucci, who told us last month about her company's struggle to survive, has dipped into personal savings to avoid layoffs.

Stilley didn't have that option at Seahawk. And he's not optimistic about what the future holds under this administration."As an American," he told us, "you never want to look at your own government and say they’re hurting you personally, they're hurting your business and they're doing it in a way that's irresponsible. I'm not very proud of our government right now and the way they handled this."

Unfortunately, thats exactly what this administration is doing.

If Something Isn't Done Soon....

...we'll be working to drive instead of driving to work. I have come to the conclusion that the government is deliberatly attempting to break the working middle class. Eliminate our disposable income by jacking up the cost of making a living.


Block, Delay, & Tax: Hastings Outlines the White House Approach to Stop American Energy Production
by Don Seymour

With gas prices on the rise and job creators plagued with uncertainty, Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) writes in Roll Call that “House Republicans have heard the American people’s demand for increased American energy production and we’re ready to act.”

The Obama Administration, on the other hand, “has never missed an opportunity to block access to our American energy resources,” says Hastings. He says the White House approach to stopping American energy production is to “block, delay, and tax” – and the result has been higher prices and fewer jobs:

BLOCK: “When President Obama was elected,” Hastings says, “nearly all of our offshore areas were open to offshore drilling. Since then, President Obama has systematically locked-up the entire Atlantic Coast, the Pacific Coast and much of Alaska — preventing the creation of over 1.2 million jobs.” CNN released a survey showing seven in 10 Americans back expanded offshore energy production.

DELAY: “The Obama administration has delayed permits for renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar, on public lands,” and “first delayed and then significantly altered the oil shale research, demonstration and development (RD&D) lease program.” It is also “slow-walking permits for production in Alaska’s north slope.” A recent Congressional hearing showed job losses continue to mount due to this de facto moratorium on energy production.

TAX: The Administration “was out front and center pushing for a job-destroying cap-and-trade national energy tax” (which, he notes, even the president said would make energy prices “necessarily skyrocket”) and is “advocating for increasing taxes on American energy producers.” Hastings notes that “the White House has admitted this will do nothing to lower gasoline prices.” (emphsis mine)

Read the whole op-ed by Chairman Hastings here.

Click to learn more about the American Energy Initiative and here for legislation on the House floor this week that will help address rising gas prices, increase energy production, and create new jobs.

Is It Deliberate?

Understanding the liberal mind and playbook as I do, I would have to say "Yes"; because the solution to this is drilling and it's the 800-pound gorilla in the room and they refuse to acknowledge it.

Government & Politics
Obama Indigestion Causing Gas Pains

The national average for gas is approaching $4 per gallon, once again causing pain at the pump. According to the U.S. Energy Department, the average yearly cost for an American family to fill up the car with gas will rise 28 percent from last year, or about $700. A family can't lose that much money without also losing the ability to buy other goods or services. The price of gasoline has skyrocketed by 67 percent since Barack Obama took office, but, needless to say, he isn't letting this crisis go to waste.

The fact is that Obama's energy policy is working exactly the way it was designed to work. His intent is to drive up the price of fossil fuels in order to make alternative energy sources seem more appealing. Alternative sources have been heavily subsidized for years and yet still can't rival fossil fuels, so, Obama reasons, prices on the latter must be driven higher.

In 2008, now-Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." Obama began work on that less than one month after taking office in 2009 by reversing George W. Bush's expansion of offshore oil drilling. When the BP Deepwater Horizon spill occurred in April 2010, the administration took this as a golden opportunity to enact a moratorium on offshore drilling. Despite multiple court rulings against that moratorium and even being ruled in contempt, however, the administration persists with its policy.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar put up the Left's favorite straw man, saying, "[W]e don't believe that the 'drill, baby, drill' program is the way that's going to get us to the energy independence that we need for America." No one says that domestic drilling on its own would achieve energy independence, but putting so much of our own oil off limits or underutilized -- offshore, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the Bakken Formation to name but a few examples -- certainly doesn't help.

The White House has countered by floating a proposal to release some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to bring down prices. This is a bad idea for two reasons. First, it doesn't replace domestic production, and, second, it would need to be replaced as expediently as possible, thus merely kicking the can down the road. In essence, the administration is admitting that supply must increase to offset price hikes, but in every other way, it's working against supply increases. Such rank indifference to the plight of ordinary Americans has become a White House hallmark.

A Hard Backhand Return

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News Alert: Administration intends new moratorium on drilling after judge strikes down existing one
08:43 PM EDT Tuesday, June 22, 2010
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Hours after a federal judge blocked a moratorium on deepwater drilling from taking effect, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday night that he will issue a new order against such drilling.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:

Federal Judge Protects the Oil Workers

Word just came down that a Federal judge has blocked the 6-month moratorium on off-shore drilling. White House will appeal the decision.