EIN News says, "Obama Administration to Extend Deep-water Leases Expiring Before 2015 The Obama administration will give oil and gas companies an extra year to develop their deep-water leases to make up for delays caused by last year's Gulf spill and the subsequent moratorium on some offshore drilling. (chron.com)".
Finally, a concession by the Obama Administration to a capitalistic enterprise?
Pres. Obama wants to be reelected so badly that he can taste it. His socialistic programs are not going well in the third year of his Administration. He is likely starting to worry about the 2012 election.
Perhaps with a little concession to capitalism here and there, he might be able to improve the economy slightly or at least give the appearance he is trying to help. This might get him some votes.
Somewhat as a side issue, I heard in the last two days of a proposal to put a 1 $ tax at the consumer level on each gallon of gasoline purchased. The stated justification is that such tax will discourage use of fossil fuel vehicles and accelerate the switch to electric powered vehicles. This is crazy! Why would anybody want to switch to an inefficient electrically powered vehicle, when the present gasoline powered vehicle does a very acceptable job? Perhaps the answer lies in another misconception. That is, we lose money on each item, but make it up on volume.
There's no question that we have for many years been victims of OPEC on availability and price of crude oil. It is also agreed by all that this is an unsatisfactory situation, and we should make every effort to change it. The Obama Administration had previously decided that we needed alternate forms of energy, particularly wind and solar. The problem with that is wind and solar are unable to compete economically with crude oil, even at prices controlled by OPEC.
In addition, the situation has changed radically on a worldwide basis, OPEC no longer has a continued lock on petroleum production. Crude oil is now available from many other countries other than the Middle East, and more importantly major oil companies have found within the continental US additional large reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and West Texas. The technology of handling tar sands has also improved radically, which gives another convenient source of crude. Lastly, the fracturing process in Montana and North Dakota has promise of giving very large quantities of natural gas, which further adds to the US energy reserves, without further development of inefficient wind and solar energy.
The only remaining problem is how to get the Obama Administration on a turnaround to recognize these new conditions and give up their now silly program of alternate energy sources.
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