Posted on 01/14/2009 9:39:41 PM PST by JavaJumpy
How does $8-a-gallon gas sound? Few Americans would want to see that happen. Unfortunately, President-elect Barack Obama’s choices for the government’s two highest energy posts have expressed a surprising level of comfort with sky-high gas prices.
As if that weren’t bad enough, the incoming Obama administration and new Congress have suggested that they might reverse the pro-domestic oil drilling measures enacted since last summer. It is starting to look as though the change coming to Washington will bring bad news at the pump in the years ahead. As gas prices topped $4 a gallon last July, President George W. Bush revoked the longstanding executive order that outlawed oil exploration and drilling in 85 percent of America’s territorial waters - nearly everywhere off the "lower 48" except Texas and Louisiana.
Congress followed up by allowing its own 27-year-old offshore moratorium to lapse on Oct. 1. These outdated restrictions should never have stayed on the books for so long - the risk of oil spills has been dramatically minimized with the latest technologies. But at least Washington did the right thing by belatedly getting rid of them. Thus, the leasing process can commence in areas estimated to contain 19 billion barrels of untapped oil - about 30 years of current imports from Saudi Arabia. And, it should be noted, these initial estimates tend to be on the low side. We might find much more oil.
Earlier in the year, then-candidate Obama and leading Democrats in Congress had opposed this expansion of domestic oil drilling. However, both relented in the face of the summer’s public outrage over $4-a-gallon gas, as well as polls showing 2-to-1 support for more drilling. But, as they say, that was then. Since the election, both the incoming administration and Congress have signaled that they might reverse position and undo this policy. And two key Obama appointments might want to go further.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., Obama’s nominee for secretary of the interior, was on record as opposing lifting the offshore moratorium even if gasoline were to reach $10 a gallon. The Department of the Interior runs the federal energy-leasing programs. As secretary, Salazar would have the power to slow such leasing to a crawl, with or without the help of Congress.
In fairness, Salazar strongly opposed offshore drilling but never said he actually wanted the price of gas to skyrocket. The same cannot be said of secretary of energy nominee Steven Chu.
Last September, he told The Wall Street Journal that "somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe."
European gas taxes are much higher than in the United States and are designed to force people to drive less or not at all. At the time of Chu’s comment, the "levels in Europe" were above $8 a gallon.
Beyond restoring the ban on offshore drilling, the Obama transition team is also considering adding to the restrictions facing onshore drilling, something Salazar has pushed for in the Senate. He has also been instrumental in placing regulatory roadblocks in front of oil shale in Colorado and other states where it exists.
Though the process of extracting oil from shale is still being developed, if successful it could produce hundreds of billions of barrels of oil - enough to supply the United States for many decades. Being so stridently anti-energy might not be the political poison it was last summer now that gas prices have plummeted by more than half.
The main reason for the price decline - a slumping economy that has dampened demand - is one that few expect or want to last forever. If we don’t get serious about expanding oil production, pump prices could go back up as soon as the economy starts to turn around. In all likelihood, we have not seen the last of $4-a-gallon gas.
Imagine if we return to that level - and the consumer anger that accompanies it - perhaps as soon as 2010.
How will the public feel about an administration and a Congress that came in and instituted a sweeping crackdown on domestic oil supplies?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ben Lieberman is a senior policy analyst in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
GEE...Kill the Economy EVEN FASTER!!!! Whoppeee.....
Change that you can believe in....Since that is all you will have left
They are insane. Go ahead and do it and see what the wrath of the U.S. citizens do to you.
Odumbo cannot be that dumb.
These people are so sick.
What do they think led to our current recession! sheesh!
But I’ll make a killing on “When Obama was inaugurated gas was only $1.65” bumper stickers.
The lines of battle are drawn. War is not yet declared, but near.
$8 a gallon? Won’t have change either.
What are American’s going to do? They never get off their duffs and complain, most sit back, say so what and give me another beer.
If Obama thinks he can win re-election with high gas prices..he is nuttier than I think.
High gas prices hurt those most who make the least
Well, he had his Saudi friends lower gas prices right after Sarah’s Drill Baby Drill came along. Now that he’s nearly slithered into the WH, prices are starting to go back up.
The Saudis couldn’t risk having oil being pumped into the lower 48 by Palin.
Is it time yet?
Wow they’re going to raise taxes? How...not surprising at all.
I’ll be interested to see if their blaming of big oil flies or not...
Time to dig in.
Not time to lock & load yet.
How many MPH do you think the average peddler could get on those 3 or 4 wheel bibycles?
I highly doubt Obama will reverse position. First, on the surface, these are badly needed jobs and relatively 'easy' oil that smaller exploration companies need in order to survive. Secondly, and more importantly, American oil means royalties on every barrel of oil pumped, which Obama will desperately want to have, and thirdly, and most important, TAXES! Obama is going to raise taxes on gasoline as high as he can, don't be surprised if those taxes reach levels of taxation seen in Europe.
Obama desperately needs revenues, and oil is a very available source right now, along with cigarettes and alcohol.
Obama will want as much American oil as he can get. If Mid east oil demand increases, opec will try get those prices back up as high as possible, which will reduce the level of taxation Obama may otherwise be able to generate on cheaper world oil prices. Keeping demand on mid-east and Russian oil low is in his best interests.
I don’t think so this time.
This is not business as usual.
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