Vladimir at RedState:
, [W]orld oil demand is expected to increase by 0.8 to 1.5 million barrels a day in 2010, depending on the source of your forecast. That kind of increased demand could lead to a substantial increase in oil prices; when demand exceeds production capability by just a little bit, the price reaction is usually pretty strong.
What has the Obama Administration done to prepare for such an eventuality?
Nothing. Well, nothing positive.
• In February, Interior Secretary Salazar extended the comment period on the 2010-2015 five-year offshore leasing plan by six months and has not taken any additional action.
• Likewise, the Administration has failed to make progress on Lease Sale 220 offshore Virginia that was planned for 2011. It’s estimated that the Sale 220 area could contain 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 130 million barrels of oil.
• Sec. Salazar cancelled oil and natural gas leases on 77 parcels of federal lands in Utah, then announced that 60 of them would be removed from development–eight permanently and 52 indefinitely.
• The administration’s fiscal 2010 budget contains at least $80 billion in tax increases on the U.S. oil and natural gas industry. These increases will depress investment in new domestic oil and natural gas projects, weakening the nation’s energy security and doing nothing to defray the impact of higher world oil energy prices on America.
Plus, no progress on nuclear power, which is also very, very clean energy.
For more information, you might check out “Doing Nothing Is Not an Option,” a provocative blogpost by Jane Van Ryan that Vladimir drew on for his entry.
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Just to be perfectly clear, the idiots in power have zero real-world private sector experience and they see ALL conventional energy as a Capitalist evil. All the stall tactics are part of their rope-a-dope strategy. As are their plans to double and triple conventional energy prices as a start, leaving open the possibility of much higher increases in the future–whatever it takes no matter what the consequences.
They don’t even attempt to hide their strategy when you talk to them away from recording devices. When you tell them the problems inherent in using unreliable equipment/technologies that costs $75-$100,000 per home and would require an expenditure equal to the cost of an automobile every five or less years that getting “off the grid” requires, it doesn’t register one little bit. They say we don’t need power 24/7/365. I tell them to enjoy all that down time when it’s 10 below zero outdoors and warmer SURVIVABLE weather is five months away.
Just remember that young lawyer without a lick of car factory experience (or any private sector experience for that matter) was given the job of overseeing GM because he was the only one among those being considered that actually owned a car for a few years. The Obama brain trust thought it might be damaging if we ever found out that the person they put in charge never drove a car. I assure you that everyone in the Obama administration knows all they think they need to know about energy–you turn that dial on the thermostat/you plug what you want in the wall. What happens after that is beyond their paygrade. Some have visions of those guys in chains shoveling coal in those furnaces that open up every 20 seconds when Flash Gordon is held on the planet Mongo. They want to save us from all that. We need Attila Girl and Mandy to take out the trash.
They really plan on surviving the 2010 elections? These Chicago thug politicians are dumber than a bag of hammers. Americans mostly vote their pocketbooks, the Republicans lost Congress because they were not careful stewards of the economy.
No one elected Democrats to kill the economy. The Donks will find this out next Novermber.