Energy Politics

Well, it took $4 gas, $140 oil and related negative effects on the economy, but President Bush has officially lifted the presidential ban on offshore drilling that his father had signed into law 18 years earlier.

This is an incredible turn of events, and one that shows leadership on the part of the president (a president displaying leadership skills? Pull my other leg!) Now, as much as I would love to lay claim for putting the idea in president’s head based on a previous blog of mine, my earlier concern of backlash against the policy remain an issue. Opponents are going to make the “we won’t see immediate benefits” argument. But his address does hit on all the right arguments. We don’t have enough oil to fulfill our needs, we’re too dependent on foreign reserves and our lack of refinery capacity means we have to buy refined fuels from other countries.

There is no reason a country as advanced as the U.S. should lack refineries or squander opportunities at home. Now the question remains what we do when those reserves are tapped, but at least increased domestic production will buy us some time. Would you rather be working on alternative fuels while we’re still running off of hydrocarbons from our own sources or when we’re importing 100% of our energy and have to find time to do so when we’re not also dealing with our economy fluctuating everytime some despot screws up production somewhere? You want to see what the world’s like with zero spare capacity? I know I don’t.

–Stephen Payne, Editor, Oil and Gas Investor This Week; www.OilandGasInvestor.com; spayne@hartenergy.com

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