Free Republic

Buried in Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report on the country’s unemployment situation was this disheartening fact: 9,000 employees of the mining and resource extraction sector lost their jobs in October. That brings total job losses in that sector to 17,000 since May, according to BLS.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry outlined plans Friday to dramatically increase U.S. energy production and create 1.2 million jobs, taking aim at federal regulations he said are strangling the economy. Perry's announcement at a U.S. Steel plant in a suburb near Pittsburgh came as the Texas governor seeks to shore up his campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination after a series of shaky debate performances and distractions knocked him out of the front-runner position. Perry said if elected in 2012 he would sign a series of executive orders in the first 100 days of his administration to roll back...

How much money is the US losing by maintaining its de facto drilling ban on the coasts and the explicit ban on drilling in ANWR? The SAIC Corporation studied the question, in part funded by the oil industry, and claims that the American economy will lose over $2.3 trillion dollars in opportunity costs over the next two decades: Restrictions on oil and gas drilling will cost the U.S. economy $2.36 trillion through 2029, according to a study requested by state utility regulators and paid for in part by industry-sponsored groups. Drilling restrictions in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off...

One of the most disappointing aspects of the Obama Administration’s domestic policy has been the way it has dealt with domestic energy production – in particular new offshore energy production. It took oil prices reaching $147 a barrel for President Bush to tear up the moratorium on offshore energy production, but at least when he did, he quickly moved forward with the regulatory process to give Americans access to these energy sources—and the jobs this development would create. The Obama Administration, on the other hand, would be hard pressed to move any slower than they already have, never mind what...