Posted on 08/19/2012 9:44:13 AM PDT by lowbridge
It has been confirmed in a new report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that the benefits of opening up and leasing protected federal landsforthe development of oil and natural gas are next to nothing. The estimated profit would be as little as $500 million a year which is only 0.7% of the total gross take of revenue of $150 billion that is expected to be generated over the next decade from leases already in place.
A favorite cheer of the Republican party has been "drill baby drill." Some would now say that talking point has been proven impotent.
The analyzed issue was the opening of ANWR, The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and off-shore drilling sites between 5 and 200 miles away from both coasts. Certain parts of the Outer Continental Shelf were also included in the analysis.
The United States allows individual corporations and private businesses to bid on leases for resource development already, with 70% of these areas already in use.
Once operational, which in some areas may take as long as 25 years, the report finds a revenue of $2 billion a year may be possible but not sustainable.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Is this the same CBO that told us that Obamacare would save us money? Yeah, I guess once they say something, it is proven, case closed. What a putz.
Absolute Financial and Economic Sub-Moronic Idiots.
CBO needs to take one of those chartered government planes to North Dakota and see how the real world actually works.
That’s why ND has 3% unemployment? Riiiiight.
Just sick to death of the idiocy?
And the ability to eliminate ALL property taxes if desired!
The Feds have usurped both lands and fees from the states.
Government Bureacrat B: There is no way we could have known Solyndra would not make a profit...
Somebody should tell that to the State of North Dakota. They are suffering under the delusion that they’re in a boom.
The most important thing us how it effects the US Government, not jobs, or the oil that’s pumped out.
At least there, when you lease mineral rights, the owner doesn't yank your permits to drill.
When you tell people they can't drill somewhere every time there is a Democrat in the White House, they are going to look elsewhere to make a living.
The CBO is about as non partisan as the Justice Department, the State Department, ATF , ICE, and the IRS.
Who are they kidding?
If you define “benefits” as only what the Government collects in royalty taxes, and forget about the 150 billion in GDP and the high paying jobs that go with it.
Also don't forget that they are only scoring the Alaska national wildlife refuge.
Add in a stable domestic oil supply and any honest person can find more benefits that what they claim here.
Certainly, some members of congress resent that Alaska gets 90% when their state gets only 50% and that plays a part into the question of opening ANWR up to drilling.
As for offshore, any new drilling will include royalty sharing with the state.
In GOMESA 2006, TX, LA, MS, and AL were given royalty sharing. Offshore drilling Virginia will be predicated on royalty sharing. Likewise N Carolina, Maryland, and Florida if and when those states get drilled offshore
As those lands and resources were sold, the area then fell within the state domain.
As you may have noticed, people didn't buy an awful lot of it!
Every now and then someone will claim that many Western states that were brought into the union didn't get the same deal as the older Eastern states.
Actually, Virginia and other states relinquished their Western land claims to their new federal government. It organized and surveyed those lands ~ then awarded them to Revolutionary War patent holders and to private individuals who bought vast tracts with the idea of developing them with roads and trails, and then selling them to new settlers.
The same thing was done with much of the Louisiana Territory, and it's at that point they discovered there's some stuff that you just can't get people to buy!
In fact, some of the later territories acquired directly from Spain and their successor, Mexico, and Russia, were of little use beyond testing nuclear warheads ~ not exactly one of your more regular civilian pursuits eh!
So, no, the new states were treated the same as the original states, and by the ones organized in the 1800s. It's just nobody bought stuff.
Currently were in a situation where technology is allowing us to make use of a lot of the more desolate areas ~ but even then the folks who want the oil aren't buying it ~ they want to rent it!
Not likely folks in the Eastern states would be happy with the federales just giving that land away to those Western states ~ not only wouldn't be prudent, I'd like my money back first ~ just give me a piece of the Bakken Formation ~ I'll be happy!
One of the things I’ve learned since Barack the Kenyan rose to power is that the CBO is made up of a bunch of incompetent buffoons.
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