Posted on 02/13/2013 5:56:43 AM PST by thackney
In his State of the Union address tonight President Obama said:
After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our own energy future. We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years. We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it. We produce more natural gas than ever before and nearly everyones energy bill is lower because of it.
Yes indeed, thanks to fracking, crude oil production in the United States is surging. From a low of 5 million barrels per day in 2008 output has shot up in a hyperbolic curve to 7 million bpd as of last week.
The last time Americas petroleum output was that high was back in 1992 20 years ago.
Whats more, U.S. imports of petroleum have fallen to the lowest level since 1999. (Below 10 million bpd today versus 14 million bpd in 2005.)
Due to a 12% decrease in gasoline consumption during the last four years of recession, were using less petroleum too.
The result is that our exports of petroleum products are up nearly 150% in three years to a record $140 billion. As hyperbolic as the increase in oil production has been, so has the decrease in our petroleum trade deficit, falling from $360 billion a year ago to an annual rate of $224 billion today (less than half the $500 billion annual oil deficity of 2008).
This is an awesome accomplishment. And it is all thanks to fracking. Without the techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, this Great American Oil & Gas Boom would simply not exist.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
And I'm paying twice as much for gas for my car as when Obama took office.
The man has done nothing except waste our money on crap energy projects.
Stop Ethanol now!!
Approve the Keystone Pipeline NOW.
Drill in Alaska NOW.
U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=M
U.S. Net Imports of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTTNTUS2&f=M
They are, of course, slow learners.
The fact is that most of these increases are DESPITE Obama’s best efforts to stop them.
...ongoing efforts, at that!
We love our oil and gas companies in Texas. They’ve leased hundreds of thousands of acres of private land in the past four years, and farmers and ranchers are happy to have them drilling on their land. The federal government has done nothing but try to pass punitive regulations and collected their cut in taxes. The First Marxist has no shame when he takes credit for the energy boom.
Oh No, they're pushing the EPA to stop fracking, coal use and the petroleum industries as fast as they can. Obama used the fact of higher production for his own gain while trying to stop it behind the scenes.
We should pay attention to what HE DOES, NOT WHAT HE SAYS! Liars say one thing and then do the opposite. Obama is a practicing liar.
Obama just knows he cannot stop fracking because Dummycrat politicians in PA, OH and nearby states have already spent those revenues into the next decade, and he’ll have an absolute revolt on his hands if he tries. (not to mention royally cheesing people off in 2 key electoral states)
Do you happen to have a chart reflecting cost per barrel to extract? May be interesting to overlay that on U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil.
And in the meantime....the President has killed every new gas/oil/coal project available.
There are some reports out there with cost, but if you use them, you have to be careful to be sure it includes all cost.
The cost to produce a barrel of oil is not just production cost, it is exploration cost. And that cost needs to include allowances of the dry holes, permitting problems and delays.
The cost for exploration needs to be for the future as well, what does it cost to find a replacement barrel of oil for the one you produce today. An oil company needs to keep finding reserves, either through exploration, or using enhanced recovery methods on the fields they already have. If they don't include those cost, they are not in the oil business, they are going out of business, eventually.
On top of that, each field is different costs. You may have the same company having greatly different costs in different fields. There can be variances like a more expensive well with longer laterals and more perforations producing more barrels of oil than one with less.
Because of all this, I don't find that any number shown in production cost being very accurate to describe an industry, there are just too many variables. Which is why there is such risk in oil/gas, boom and bust cycles, etc.
After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our own energy future." [The potential has been there for literally decades - only the government has kept stopping us (ANWAR, Keystone, Offshore leases sold to foreign countries and not for our own use)]
"We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years." [Others have rightly already pointed out that it happened despite Obama - and this came about strictly by American enterprise]
"We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas" [Since when?? Even if you look at the CAFE standards for cars back to the time they were first introduced, we are just now getting close to the "double" point: 18mpg in 1978 to just over 30mpg now. This simply doesn't stand up to any math test.]
"...and [doubled] the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar" [twice nothing is still nothing]
"...with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it." [how many solar companies - temporarily bolstered with taxpaying monies - have failed in the past 3 years? Any such jobs you're talking about were not the result of your efforts, Barak.]
"We produce more natural gas than ever before and nearly everyones energy bill is lower because of it. [Two points here: yes, he's actually right about the production - but as with domestic oil, he had nothing to do with it. Second, regarding price: even a casual glance at the historical charts show that there is little to correlate our (dramatically increasing) natural gas production to the (volatile) price. Currently, it is lower than usual, but it has been lower still...and up quite a bit since last summer.]
The whole speech should be parsed to consider his Narcissism. Anything good done by the private sector -”We” did this. Anything good by the Government - “I” did this (even if it was against his personal policies). Anything bad - “Congress” did it - even when the “sequester” was Obama’s own idea and the Congress agreed to his proposal.
This. Good point.
#6 The title includes sarcasm.
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