Of pipelines and pipedreams: Obama’s drilling deception
He was against it:
Before he was for it:
The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.
The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.
If this were a sincere change of heart and an honest, stand-alone effort to wean America off foreign oil, it would be worth heralding.
But as always with this administration, there’s a catch, via the American Energy Alliance:
“One major flashpoint in the negotiations has been whether to share drilling revenue with states and to allow states to opt in or out of drilling along their coastlines. It was unclear late Tuesday whether Obama endorses revenue-sharing for states. “It appears the Northern Atlantic and entire Pacific Coast will now be under a de facto ban” for drilling, said Patrick Creighton, a spokesman for the Institute for Energy Research. Even if drilling is ultimately allowed in part of the Atlantic, Creighton said, revenue sharing is an essential incentive for states. The administration’s plans could meet resistance from at least 10 Senate Democrats representing coastal and Great Lakes states who last week raised concerns about “unfettered access to oil and gas drilling” that could jeopardize fishing, tourism and military exercises. The Interior Department retooled the current schedule of offshore leases governing 2007 through 2012 after a federal appeals court last April ruled that the second Bush administration had not done a sufficient environmental review of expanded drilling off the Alaskan coast.
GOP Rep. Mike Pence adds:
“As usual the devil is in the details. Only in Washington, D.C., can you ban more areas to oil and gas exploration than you open up, delay the date of your new leases and claim you’re going to increase production.
“The President’s announcement today is a smokescreen. It will almost certainly delay any new offshore exploration until at least 2012 and include only a fraction of the offshore resources that the previous Administration included in its plan.
“Unfortunately, this is yet another feeble attempt to gain votes for the President’s national energy tax bill that is languishing in the Senate. At the end of the day this Administration’s energy plan is simple: increase the cost of energy on every family in America and trade American jobs oversees at a time when millions of Americans are looking for work.”
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Flashback: Obama, Soros, Petrobras, Brazil & offshore drilling double standards
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Categories: Enviro-nitwits
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What leases aren’t being exploited?
Leases on land that does not have enough oil to support the costs involved have no value. Too simple.
See this analysis. The have a cool map showing % of unproductive leases. Upper Weather.com
Here is an excerpt:
Oil companies have already leased 38 million acres in the U.S. and they are not drilling on them.
There is absolutely no way that this is the whole story. Does anyone actually believe that any smart business would go around buying these leases, for a minimum of $26,700 for 670 acres (which is the minimum size), and then never using them? The AP put this out to support this retarded argument.
When the environmentalists get going, expect the elites to back off, and continue to allow OPEC to run this country’s energy.
This is also no doubt a freebie to his trial layer buds for full steam ahead. Everything with Obama is about Power, Controll and Money.
Well, on the bright side, the announcement DID give a small boost to the price of oil, and being a directional driller, that’s money in my pocket. But I agree with everyone else. When Obummer makes these promises, watch his other hand very carefully because you can be assured he’s up to something.
Never forget, these are the people who won’t let us drill for our own oil:
The base of the democrat party, if you will.
Let me clear this up.
1. It’s expensive to drill deep holes in the ground. It’s a big waste of money to drill dry holes.
2. It’s stupid to drill deep holes in the ground prior to developing a geological model of possible hydrocarbon reservoirs.
3. A company might not decide to drill if the geological models don’t seem promising. That doesn’t mean they’re wasting the leased acres, and it certainly doesn’t mean that the government should refuse to lease new acreage.
4. Some geological models will seem more promising than others. Companies don’t have unlimited capital or management bandwidth so it’s smart to prioritize the wells to be drilled.
5. If a geological model is promising, one well will likely be drilled to “prove” the model. This one well will only be drilled on one acre. If the hole is a dry well, then it’s likely no other wells will be drilled in surrounding acreage. That doesn’t mean they’re wasting the leased acres, and it certainly doesn’t mean that the government should refuse to lease new acreage.
6. If the well log seems promising, then it’s likely other wells will be drilled in the area. However, not every acre will get a well. There are regulatory and geological reasons to space wells modestly. That doesn’t mean they’re wasting the leased acres, and it certainly doesn’t mean that the government should refuse to lease new acreage.
7. Different companies have different areas of expertise. Not all companies want to drill in the same areas or into the same types of geological formations. Offering companies more lease options definitely helps keeps exploration robust.
Wrong.
How many Republican congressmen will “Stupak” with this little fig leaf of cover for Cap & Tax? Calling AlGore!
Say for the sake of argument that looking at Fearless leaders one hand – which is waving frantically – and looking at the other, the other is not going ahead with cap and hose but letting the EPA take over with their completely insane ruling on CO2 and further let them enforce it. Just sayin.
I’m a former Alaskan, having had lived there for 32 years. On the topic of energy, I recently read a story n the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer, on line, about a plan to bring natural gas to that city…….. by TRUCK. Geez! Build a gas pipeline already. The corridor is there and as far as I know the proposed line would not veer off toward Canada before it went to Fairbanks.
O’bambi himself is a lie, everything that he says is a lie, and the moronic Dems are in it all the way. Please voters, throw them out before its too late.