Obama Oil Reversal Spikes Fuel Prices 27%
Two months after the Obama Administration closed the door on offshore oil and natural gas exploration, prices of both oil and natural gas have spiked.
Is anyone surprised?
Fuel prices up 27%. Natural Gas prices up over 20%.
Prices had been dropping since last summer, but Obama sure fixed that. Obama has been all over the place on the energy issue, opposing offshore drilling in 2008, supporting it when his re-election drew near, and then opposing it now, closing the Atlantic to energy exploration.
Abigail Ross Hopper, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management got in Twitter trouble as Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Lisa Murkowski.
Seems BOEM tweets photos of groups opposed to drilling. Tweets of photos of supporters? Not much of a priority.
Sen. Bill Cassidy noted the shutdown of Atlantic exploration was done because of “local opposition.”
“When I look at this, all 4 Governors of the affected states, all 8 Senators, majority of the Congressional delegation, the majority of the public comments received by the agency, and by polling the majority of the folks polled in these states. So does it just take a vocal minority showing up to derail that which Governors, Congresswomen and Congressmen, Senators, majorities of folks polled, etc. would otherwise want.”
Her response? “I can’t answer that question”
You sure can’t!
“I have a sense that BOEM decided what they wanted and worked backwards for rationale,” Cassidy added.
Bingo!
Sen. Cassidy argued that BOEM’s arguments that oil rigs disrupt recreation (the 50 mile buffer eliminated that), and that windfarms are not disruptive but oil rigs are (silly. Hopper admitted the only difference is that oil can spill.
But oil can spill as easily in the locations that BOEM supports lease sales as it can where BOEM opposes.
I agree with the Senator. BOEM’s arguments against drilling in the Atlantic are weak. If BOEM opposed windmills in the Atlantic, the agency would have the value of consistency. But its endorsement of offshore wind narrows the opposition to “fear of an oil spill.”
“None of the individual arguments are strong but cumulatively they become strong,” added Cassidy, making Hopper fumble by admitting that they came to different conclusions elsewhere, with the same reasons being used to squash Atlantic lease sales but not elsewhere.
So 1+2+3 equals 6 in Alaska and the Gulf, but it equals -20 in the Atlantic.
Bottom Line – if we’re going to ever be free of foreign oil, we’ll need a President who will support domestic energy.