Further Comments On President Obama's 'New' Drilling Policy

This article is based on a Washington Times commentary by Dave Harbour, commissioner emeritus of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners,a retired member of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, and publisher of northerngaspipelines.com; and a National Review article by Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE and a visting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.  Both articles provide an explanation of what the changes in offshore drilling policy made by President Obama will do.

Mr. Harbour points out in the Washington Times commentary:

"At this time of domestic travail, it makes imminent sense to develop domestic energy wealth using American workers. To minimize our resource potential is suicidal econ- omically. The Obama-Salazar announcement last week further weakens our country as environmental groups feign outrage. Why? First, the administration has, in effect, reinstated much of the moratoria area that Congress and the president released following the great oil price rise in August 2008. It has effectively renewed moratoria by canceling the lease-sale programs of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) and giving lip service to opening up other areas by planning to study them, not develop them. Second, what federal lands are available are only somewhat available. Just as a goose thinks it is being fed when the farmer is fattening it for slaughter, the administration talks about a balanced energy program while calculating destruction of the golden egg."

Similar thoughts are echoed by Jonah Goldberg in the National Review article:

"Back when oil cost $140 per barrel, Pres. George W. Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore oil drilling. Once elected, Obama quietly reinstated it. Since then, Obama's Interior Department has been doing just about everything it can to slow, hamper, and prevent oil and gas exploration in the U.S. and offshore. There's no reason to believe the administration won't keep doing that. Besides, Obama's announcement actually bans more oil and gas reserves from exploration than it opens up: nothing in the Pacific, nothing in the western Gulf of Mexico, nothing in southern Alaska -- all promising areas."

Expanding ethanol made from corn is not the answer--it drives up food prices around the world and is generally not efficient.  What America needs right now is an intelligent domestic energy policy.  Unfortunately, as long as President Obama is in the White House and Ken Salazar is Secretary of the Interior, that is highly unlikely.  Please remember as you pay your taxes this month and watch unemployment lines grow (the boost in jobs this month was census workers, government workers and temporary jobs), that America has the resources to come out of this recession.  We also have a President, his administration, and Congress preventing us from using those resources.