red states rule
04-25-2011, 06:33 AM
Why would anyone blame "Big Oil" for the high prices, when the root cause for the spike in prices is Obama's economic and "green" policies?
This month, one year since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the Noble Clyde Boudreaux—an ultra-deepwater semi-submersible drilling rig—will start operations off the coast of Brazil. Until a few weeks ago it was stationed in the Gulf.
The two events are not unrelated. Moving the Noble out of U.S. waters is one of the adverse consequences of the Obama administration's overreaction to last year's Gulf spill.
Despite the president's repeated claims that he's been "encouraging" domestic oil production, administration policies have been driving drilling rigs out of the Gulf (six deepwater rigs in addition to the Noble have left the Gulf, with two more possibly on the way out). The overall result has been lower domestic oil production, slower economic growth, job losses and higher energy prices.
In the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill, President Obama announced a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling. According to the administration's estimates, this cost nearly 19,000 jobs in the Gulf states alone—even though federal researchers then cut the figure by an ad hoc factor of 40%-60% to make the results more palatable.
In the months after lifting the ban, the administration slowed drilling permits to a crawl, effectively creating what some have called a "permatorium." Dismayed by the delays, in February U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman tried to force the administration to act on seven pending permits, calling the inaction on permits "increasingly inexcusable." Permitting has picked up recently, thanks in part to increasing political pressure, but remains far below pre-spill levels.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576250521930069848.html
This month, one year since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the Noble Clyde Boudreaux—an ultra-deepwater semi-submersible drilling rig—will start operations off the coast of Brazil. Until a few weeks ago it was stationed in the Gulf.
The two events are not unrelated. Moving the Noble out of U.S. waters is one of the adverse consequences of the Obama administration's overreaction to last year's Gulf spill.
Despite the president's repeated claims that he's been "encouraging" domestic oil production, administration policies have been driving drilling rigs out of the Gulf (six deepwater rigs in addition to the Noble have left the Gulf, with two more possibly on the way out). The overall result has been lower domestic oil production, slower economic growth, job losses and higher energy prices.
In the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill, President Obama announced a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling. According to the administration's estimates, this cost nearly 19,000 jobs in the Gulf states alone—even though federal researchers then cut the figure by an ad hoc factor of 40%-60% to make the results more palatable.
In the months after lifting the ban, the administration slowed drilling permits to a crawl, effectively creating what some have called a "permatorium." Dismayed by the delays, in February U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman tried to force the administration to act on seven pending permits, calling the inaction on permits "increasingly inexcusable." Permitting has picked up recently, thanks in part to increasing political pressure, but remains far below pre-spill levels.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576250521930069848.html