Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune used an op-ed in POLITICO on Monday to criticize Obama’s policies as impeding domestic energy production on federal lands and waters."Impeding"...? From USA Today:
The U.S. exported more oil-based fuels than it imported in the first nine months of this year, making it likely that 2011 will be the first time since 1949 that the nation is a net exporter of such goods, primarily diesel.I don't think this line of Republican attack is going to work.
That's not all. The U.S. has reversed another decades-long trend. It began producing more crude oil in 2008 than the year before and accelerated that upswing 3% in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period in 2010. That production has helped reduce U.S. imports of crude oil by about 10% since 2006.
And yet...if domestic production is up, why are gas prices so high?
6 comments:
I suspect you know the answer to high gas prices as well as I but suffice to say that 64% of all futures oil contracts are held by those who can never take delivery. In other words, the speculators are back and trying for an oil price bubble. Let's hope it fails.
Agree entirely Jotman. Same goes for gas. Whats the rush to tap a resource that cos its cheap is being wasted? How does that make sense.
Harry
You nailed it. We need to view oil strategically, why exhaust our own supplies when the world has plenty of relatively cheap oil to use. I wonder why no one is concerned the US is exporting oil?
Interesting how Americans have been snookered into believing it's a "good thing" for the U.S. to be tapping its own oil reserves today. Weirder still is any enthusiasm for the export of domestic oil.
Oil in the ground is like having money in the bank. It's one aspect of national security. Would the public be cheering if the U.S. was selling off its gold reserves? Of course not. The difference is you can't use gold to power a battleship.
When you think about it, consuming domestic oil reserves is not all that different than SPENDING. Absolutely this is the case if the oil in the ground will be worth a lot more in the future -- as seems likely.
The U.S. simply doesn't have a lot of oil. Seems crazy to be in such a hurry to finish off what's left, especially when other countries with plentiful supplies are still willing to sell you theirs--and even pay for it with your dollar!
What ralph said...
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