A new nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) report quantifies the Obama
administration’s hostility towards America’s oil and natural gas industry.
While oil and natural gas production has surged on non-federal lands, President
Obama has overseen a decline in production on federal lands.
There are four entities that own land
in the United States: the federal government, states, private landowners, and
Native Americans. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the Department of the
Interior is charged with leasing, selling, and generally managing oil and
natural gas reserves on federal land.
Although the federal government heavily
regulates the exploration and production process through laws like the Clean
Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, etc, the federal government
doesn’t control land owned by states or individuals. The point being, a fair
way to judge the Obama administration’s stance towards oil and natural gas is
to compare federal production to state and private land production.
According to the CRS report, oil
production on federal lands actually fell 6 percent between 2009 and 2013. Over
the same period of time, oil production increased by an astounding 61 percent
on state and private lands. The decrease in federal production is not
insubstantial but requires context in the form of state and private production
numbers. As a result of these massive gains, crude oil production on state and
private lands has risen by 2.1 million barrels per day. That increase alone is more than Algeria, Libya, Qatar,
and Norway produce– all countries with storied oil reputations – and explains why the U.S. is
on track to be the world’s largest oil producer.
Touting natural gas during this year’s
State of the Union, President Obama said, “America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in
decades. One of the reasons why is natural gas – if extracted safely, it’s the
bridge fuel that can power our economy.” Speaking at Georgetown University, the president again reaffirmed his
supposed support for natural gas, “And today, we produce more natural gas than
anybody else. So we’re producing energy. And these advances have
grown our economy, they’ve created new jobs, they can’t be shipped overseas.”
Unfortunately, these words amount to
nothing more than lip service. Natural gas production on federal lands
decreased by an astounding 28 percent from 2009 to 2013 while natural gas
production on non-federal lands increased by 33 percent from 2009 to 2013.
Actions speak louder than words.
Commenting on the administration’s
shuttering of federal lands, Energy and Power Subcommittee Vice Chairman Steve
Scalise (R-LA) said:
The shale gas revolution on non-federal
lands has transformed our economy and propelled America into the position of a
global energy superpower. But we cannot become complacent with this progress.
America can secure energy independence by developing all of our energy
resources on both federal and non-federal lands. Unfortunately the Obama
administration has turned its back on energy exploration on federal lands,
costing us hundreds of thousands of good jobs and billions in potential federal
revenue.
One way the Obama administration
hamstrings energy production on federal lands is by elongating the permitting
process. According to the CRS report, it took 41 percent longer to process an
application for permit to drill (APD) in 2011 than it did in 2006, from 218
days to 307 days. If a company can’t get permits, they can’t drill. If they
can’t drill, production declines.
Much of the new 2.1 million barrels of
oil produced every day comes from horizontal drilling, and no one knows more
about horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing than Harold Hamm, founder and CEO of Continental Resources CLR +0.6%. Continental Resources defined itself by developing
overlooked oil plays in North Dakota. Continental now employs around a thousand
people, contracts with many more, and supports thousands more with its enormous
capital expenditures. None of these gains would have been possible if the
federal government controlled most of the land in North Dakota. The state’s
unemployment rate would not be 2.6
percent if the federal
government controlled land in North Dakota.
Nearby western states, like Utah and
Wyoming, that have the misfortune of substantial oil and natural gas reserves
on federal land can only look at North Dakota and wonder, “what if?”
Starting from nothing and now one of
the world’s richest people, Hamm personifies the American dream. This week’s Forbes magazine cover story, a great read, is about Hamm and
captures his enthusiasm:
To him [Hamm] America is still a place
where anyone can be born with nothing and become a billionaire. “I see these
people who spring out of nowhere with a new app that they’re selling for a
billion dollars,” he marvels. “How good is that! That’s fantastic! That’s what
it should all be about. There shouldn’t be any limits.”
America needs more Harold Hamms. You
would think our federal government would support this ambition and the
entrepreneurial spirit behind it, not suppress it.
Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisprandoni/2014/04/17/obama-stymies-oil-and-natural-gas-production-on-federal-lands/
Comments
If oil drillers could take their time to set
up wells and drill oil and send it through a pipeline, oil drilling would be
safer and cheaper. If oil drillers had
their permits approved earlier, they would be able to get access to oil that
could be pumped up at rates based on demand.
Government withholding permits and delaying pipeline construction is
unhelpful. Government insisting that “climate change” is a big problem cannot
be trusted to tell the truth. Government taking every action imaginable to
crash our economy must be replaced.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment