Today's American Thinker reported that despite the fact that President Obama seemed to lift the deep-water drilling ban back in October, no new projects have been approved. Even those already approved have been halted by the president's interior secretary, Ken Salazar.
The article reports:
"Once again, Obama is playing "Mother, May I?" with the energy industry. It's good politics to appear conciliatory at a moment when gas prices are rising. But Obama never seems to follow through. Oil and gas production in the U.S. continues to lag. Instead of streamlining energy production, the president has created an entirely new agency to regulate offshore drilling (the ponderously titled "Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement," or BOEMRE) and staffed it with a former Clinton Justice Department lawyer. This new layer of federal bureaucracy, like all government bureaucracy, has done nothing but delay and forestall production. Obviously, Obama is in no hurry to increase offshore drilling."
"The irony is that countries like Brazil, China, Russia, Norway, and even Israel are pressing ahead with ambitious offshore drilling projects. In Brazil, the state petroleum company Petrobras is moving ahead with deep-water drilling in eight major offshore areas, promising to make Brazil the Saudi Arabia of the Americas. Not only will these projects render Brazil energy-independent, but the effort will make Brazil a major oil exporter by 2020. The result will be prosperity for the citizens of that South American country and a lower standard of living for those -- like citizens of the United States -- who are forced to import oil from them."
As the economy sputters, gas prices are climbing. As gasoline prices rise above $3 a gallon, there is a real possibility that any recovery in progress will be slowed or stopped.
"With gas prices at the pump moving up, closing in on $4 a gallon in some places, Americans have reason to be concerned. Higher gas prices will crimp consumer spending, possibly forestalling the economic recovery now underway. The simplest way to lower gas prices is to increase supply worldwide. With what amounts to a complete ban on deep-water drilling in the U.S., a significant portion of that supply has been placed off bounds."
Hopefully the Republican Congress can find a way to undo some of the damage President Obama is continuing to do to the economy.
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