Half-truth #1: Oil production is the highest it has been in eight years.
Increased oil and gas production in the U.S. is a great development, but this is a result of increased production on private lands in North Dakota, Texas, and Alaska. On federal lands and offshore, the story is much grimmer. Production on federal lands and offshore could have yielded more output, increasing supply and therefore putting downward pressure on oil prices. Poor administrative decisions—such as refusing to open areas to exploration and production, cancelling or delaying lease sales, and the offshore drilling moratorium and subsequent “permitorium”—significantly reduced oil production, destroying jobs and reducing economic activity in the process.
If there is an economic interest to produce this oil, Washington should allow companies to do so. In North Dakota, oil production is booming and unemployment is low. There should be more stories like this.
Half-truth #2: Increasing oil production takes too long and would not impact the market for at least a decade.
This has been the mantra of the anti-drilling crowd for years, and the longer politicians listen to the message, the longer the nation’s oil resources will remain undeveloped. If access to areas that are currently off limits is increased, it will take time to explore and extract that oil. But that does not change the fact that the nation needs it today and also in the future. Furthermore, some of this oil can reach the market in much less than a decade if the permitting process is streamlined and the Keystone XL pipeline—which could bring up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to the Gulf Coast refineries—is built.
Great points, kabar. The pundits on each of the morning shows did take obama on (through Plouffe) on his stance on energy/gas prices. I was surprised.
Truth is oil production is up due to Bush’s polices of pro drilling during his term. Nothing at all that zero has done.
THERE SHOULDN'T BE SUCH A THING!
This is almost a classic description of the Communist "government ownership of the means of production" that I've ever seen.