Put the crack pipe down, willya?
I work in the exploration and production end of the industry. We find places to drill, drill wells, and produce crude oil.
I am a consulting Geologist, and my job these last 35 years has been to identify oil bearing strata and indicate where oil may be produced from.
Now, to sort some things out.
First, it isn't MY oil.
I found a lot of it, to be sure, but I don't own it.
The people who own most of it are farmers and ranchers, ordinary landowners who have the mineral rights to their land. Some is under Federal Land, and the royalties paid for that oil go to the Government, who owns those mineral rights.
Second, the owners don't set the price of crude oil. The oil produced is purchased in commodity trading on bid. The buyers set the price, not the sellers.
So, on my end of things, we're not freezing anyone out. While I got paid pretty well over the last five years of 12-14 hour days with very few days off, (average 6 days per week, every week), I'm not rich by any standard.
What I have is modest, but paid for. It is because it is modest that it is paid for. We live within our means.
I have heated through winter here (one of the most brutal of the last century) with wood. I know full well getting up and filling the firebox on the stove every two to three hours. At the time, I had no running water, and an outhouse was the 'facility', with temperatures reaching past fifty below zero (not counting wind chill).
Considering we don't have a forest products industry here, we were thankful people elsewhere had sent that hardwood up in strips between layers of casing and drill pipe--that scrap was what we burned.
During that time period, one friend froze to death on her doorstep. She was found sitting there in the morning, in town, by a neighbor.
It was in a warmer year a friend froze on his way to his ranch when he slid his vehicle into the ditch and got out to check if he could get it out (guessing, we really don't know). What we do know, is that the wind likely blew the door shut and the automatic door locks killed him by locking him out, miles from help (before cell phones, not that there was any signal out there).
I guess people here are better at surviving in winter, because we don't lose so many people here. That isn't because oil is cheap, it isn't because we are rich. People here in North Dakota take winter very seriously.
I'm not sure how the price of crude oil killed your industry, and yes, when crude prices went up, it made ours. We drilled enough wells in 10 years in the Bakken and Three Forks formations to increase production from 100,000 BOPD to 1,100,000 BOPD. I won't go into the paroxysms small towns go into when they triple or more in size in a couple of years, but they are considerable, and only eclipsed by the inevitable contraction when the boom is over.
I'm not complaining, just explaining.
Since you would not have burned crude oil (which wasn't mine, anyway), I am sure you survived without it. Refined oil? Take that up with the refiners and the distributors and local marketers who all get a profit. Shame on them for making a living.
But to vent your little hissy fit on those of us who busted our asses so there was enough supply that the price of crude oil came down and wish us ill is way out of line. I don't know anyone who worked the hours in the conditions we did, anywhere, with the exception of combat troops and commercial fishermen in the Bering Sea who have it worse, but we did this for years on end.
We got paid well for that, but there were damned few who could keep up.
We didn't cause anyone to freeze, we busted our asses to increase supplies for ungrateful wretches who ever bitch if we do well, and then thumb their noses at us when things go downhill.
As for the price of electricity, there are bloody few places where there are oil fired power plants.
Maybe you should google the war on coal for information on that, but it sounds to me like the real greedy people are the ones selling electricity and refined products to you all, and they are your neighbors, not those of us on drilling locations.
“As for the price of electricity, there are bloody few places where there are oil fired power plants.”
Maine is still one of them.
“At the time, I had no running water, and an outhouse was the ‘facility’, with temperatures reaching past fifty below zero (not counting wind chill).”
In the old house we had one too, though only for one winter. Kids burned it down that second Halloween. I didn’t see -50, only a balmy -47 (we were on the coast so had the benefit of such warmth as there was coming off the sea ice) but at least the open face well didn’t freeze. The indoor convenience and running water was put in the next year. One night I started to use it (the convenience) in the dark and guess what splashed back and why!
NY indeed!