White House Deceptive Maneuver on Oil Drilling

EIN News says, "U.S. Grants First Deepwater Drill Permit Since Gulf Spill The U.S. has granted the first new permit for deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico since last year's spill at a BP-owned oil well there. (bbc.co.uk)".

This is a political stunt on the part of President Obama and DOE Secretary Chu.

Their policy has been to convert the US automotive and truck fleet to electric vehicles, and thereby eliminate the need for gasoline and diesel. The increased use of electricity would foster development of wind and solar and also gain federal revenue through a tax on carbon dioxide from coal-fired electricity plants.

To foster this policy, they have withheld issuance of deepwater drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico using the BP oil spill as an excuse. Since the federal government has control of the Gulf deepwater area and since there were no practical private areas for oil drilling in the contiguous US, Obama and Chu had a lock on all significant domestic oil production.
That lock has been broken by a rise in the price of crude oil and the development of new drilling/cracking technology, which makes new geographical areas available for oil production. Obama and Chu wanted an increase in the price of crude oil, in order to foster development of wind and solar, which are more expensive energy sources than crude oil, but it has worked against them.
The increased price of crude oil has fostered deeper drilling in Texas for reserves which were previously known, but were uneconomical to harvest when crude oil prices were low.

Another significant development involves Bakken oil shale. Technology has been developed, for an insitu cracking process, which allows the oil to be pumped to the surface. The Bakken reserve is 60% in Canada, 30% in North Dakota, and 10% in Montana. The federal government landownership in North Dakota is only 3% and none of it is in the Bakken area. This means North Dakota Bakken oil and gas can be harvested without federal drilling permits.

Since Obama and Chu now recognize that they have lost their monopolistic control, they are going with the flow for the next best movement to retain power. To make a show about how cooperative they are for oil production, they are granting a drilling permit in the Gulf. They expect that the public will review this favorably and help to extend to them a second term in office. Beware of the Trojan horse!