The API on the Obama Administration’s Delay in Implementing Off-Shore Drilling.
February 11, 2009
WASHINGTON – American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard today issued the following statement on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement that he would extend the Outer Continental Shelf Five-Year Plan comment period by 180 days:
“Congress made the American people wait nearly 30 years to address our immediate energy challenges. Secretary Salazar today told the American people they must continue to wait – even though more than two-thirds of them want to tap our vast domestic resources for the benefit of all Americans.
“The accelerated Outer Continental Shelf five-year plan process, which the secretary placed on hold today, was designed to address the critical energy concerns facing Americans. The draft plan already received a record 120,000 comments from states, environmental groups, industry, labor groups and members of the public – with 87,000 of those comments supporting expanded and expeditious development.
Secretary Salazar’s announcement means that development of our offshore resources could be stalled indefinitely. That would delay Americans’ access to nearly 160,000 new, well-paying jobs, $1.7 trillion in revenues to federal, state and local governments and greater energy security.
We share Secretary Salazar’s view that America needs a comprehensive energy policy that includes alternatives. In these tough economic times, Salazar’s delay does a disservice to all Americans. We should be moving as quickly as possible to develop more of our own oil and natural gas to benefit all Americans.”
As if there aren’t enough apple-headed things going on with the economy—but fighting this energy roadblock is just as critical as chopping the stimulus package down to size, and removing the Health Care Commission from the Final Spendulus Package.
Energy is critical to this country, and critical to the financial survival of California; the only practical way to buy time to get methanol, biodiesel, ethanol, flex-fuel, hybrid, and nuclear energy technologies perfected—along with Truly Sexy possibilities such as wind, solar, geothermal, and the harvesting of methane gas—is to keep developing petroleum and natural gas for a few more decades domestically.
This also has the advantage of allowing us to not send a fortune every year to “people who don’t like us very much,” as John McCain puts it.
And it will help the economy directly, without Federal or State funding; all we need is to get out of the way of people who would like to create jobs—a few on the East Coast, many in the Gulf of Mexico, and a tremendous number on the West Coast.
This is what belongs in the “stimulus” bill, but if they want even more public comments on the need for energy independence and jobs, I think we can arrange for more public comments.
ACTION PLAN, ENERGY DEVELOPMENT:
• Write to President Barack Obama about the need to move forward on off-shore drilling, especially on the West Coast (where we have the mad skillz), and in the Gulf (which is ridiculously fecund in terms of petroleum), in order to secure our needs for the next 30 years and create jobs immediately.
• Write to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and explain that we are in a recession that might turn ugly unless new jobs are created as soon as possible. Remind him that time, as his boss likes to point out, is of the essence. That we cannot afford further delays and logjams.
• One of the easiest ways to get your voice heard is through an “activist’s shortcut page,” such as the Partnership for America’s Energy Future (they send updates if you ask ‘em to!) or the Institute for Energy Research, which will send a note to the President (or so they imply) and more importantly, one to the Minerals Management Service, which is officially accepting public comments on this issue once again . . . sigh. But if they want comments, they will get comments; I can promise that.
Anyway, here’s what the IER says about keeping those comments rolling in from the average citizen:
Be the change! Let the Obama Administration know that you support offshore energy production.
The Minerals Management Service (MMS), the government agency in charge of offshore oil and natural gas leasing, revises its plan to lease offshore areas every five years. Because of comments from people like you, MMS has prepared a new five-year plan that opens new areas for expanded oil and natural gas production. This is an important step, but there is more to do.
We must let MMS and President Obama know we support expanding American energy production.
A majority of Americans support increased domestic energy production, but our voices must be heard. President Obama cannot turn his back on increasing our energy resources.
The MMS estimates that offshore areas contain 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This five year plan moves us in the right direction towards accessing those resources.
Access to these domestic resources will create real jobs and lower energy prices for Americans. In these troubled economic times, we need access to affordable American energy now.
Take Action and submit your comments to MMS and President Obama. Below we have drafted a model comment. Feel free to send the model comment or modify it. Once you hit submit, your comments will be automatically sent to MMS.
Easy as that pie they say citizen journalists are so partial to . . .
BOTTOM LINE: The President, Secretary Salazar, and the Minerals Management Service need to hear from you; they need to be reminded that we have to drill off of our coasts (in an environmentally responsible/sensitive manner, of course), to jump-start the economy, make this country more energy-efficient, and pave the way for the energy technologies of the future.
1) President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
(202) 456-1414
2) Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-3100
E-Mail: webteam@ios.doi.gov
3) Mr. Walter D. Cruickshank,
Acting Director, Minerals Management Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-3100
E-Mail: webteam@ios.doi.gov
http://www.mms.gov/offshore/AD.htm
Get your friends together, put together some watercress sandwiches, and tie these up in clean handkerchiefs. Place your lunch snacks in little baskets you can take with you as you head out with your torches and pitchforks. And be sure to pack a bottle of beer, or water, or a thermos full of good black tea—possibly with a bit of whole milk in it.
It is terribly important that one instigate insurrections in the most civilized/ladylike fashion possible.
UPDATE: I added the Partnership for America’s Energy Future; they are another good gateway site for energy activism. As far as updates are concerned, Newt’s group also does a good job. But in this particular case, I would like to avalanche Obama, Salazar, and Cruickshank with good, old-fashioned letters: enough that storage will become a problem.
Posted in Economics, Energy Issues, Energy Policy, Obama Administration
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February 11th, 2009 at 7:07 am
[...] as Miss Attila points out, it is much worse: API speaks truth to power: WASHINGTON – American Petroleum [...]
February 11th, 2009 at 7:27 am
[...] to be hostages to foreign oil and Al Gore for the foreseeable future. Little Miss Attila recommends activism. 10:00 [...]
February 11th, 2009 at 8:22 am
The API is wrong on so many levels. I say kudos to the moratorium and hope its made permanent.
If we continue to drill baby drill then we’ll never break the addiction to fossil fuels. Sooner or later we have to stop the dealer from selling the drug to the people. Supply should be restricted increasing cost and driving use of alternative energy. A better way would be with a minimum $1/gal tax on gasoline directing that money to mass transit, alternative energy programs and programs to mitigate the effect on low income folks who through no fault of their own along with the rest of the American people are victimized by policies that subsidize the oil & transportation industries at the expense of rational transportation policies. Witness the stimulus bill - 4x the amount for roads than for mass transit when it ought to be the other way around.
February 11th, 2009 at 8:44 am
We cannot legislate that the new technology be ready NOW. We need at least another decade before we should be relying on alternative energy sources. Fortunately, we have vast untapped reserves in this country that we should bring on-line.
February 11th, 2009 at 8:52 am
What comes first - the chicken or the egg? In this case the technology for mass transit is there - we will never have a painless transition and postponing it will only make it harder and more expensive. No pain - no gain. What do expect the API to say? They aren’t concerned about all they say they are - the are there to protect oil industry PROFITS.
February 11th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I would take high-speed rail in a minute if it went to SF, Las Vegas, San Diego (without 20 million stops), or Phoenix. The demand is there, but someone has to figure out how to meet it in a cost-effective way.
Frank, how do you feel about gas prices? Is it good when they are high? I’m actually quite curious about that.
February 11th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Frank the Commie is right. “Uneconomic” doesn’t matter anymore. And who care if all the alternative fuels put together couldn’t keep a fraction of the current cars on the road. Now or thirty years from now. The Centrally-Planned-Economy we all voted for after careful debate and long deliberation will solve everything. Those “robber barons” that not only built most of the current public transportation system, but invented it too, all at a nickel or dime a ride, saw the writing on the wall when local governments wrestled away their businesses. To give us rides at 10-20 times the cost while still needing $Billions in taxpayer subsidies, while making us feel lucky to even get to our destination. I never saw a private business that can get people to stand in line for twenty minutes to find out which line they SHOULD be standing in.
Frank, you will have all the pain you are looking for. And I’m not talking about if you ever run into me. Who needs cars anyway when we all will be sending out chain letters in the future when we replace our economy build on consumption. You better send me that dollar, Frank. And send a hundred more around while keeping my name on top. Who know’s what fate can befall you? You thought things were bad when a company like an oil company produced a product which you could buy or not buy.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Frank, email me. I’m curious about your connex to the oil industry; I think it’s so funny that we each strayed so far from the way we were raised.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Frank, have one on me. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5707554.ece
LMA can forward the purchase price to you. With a receipt, of course. Trust, but verify.
If Frank is anywhere near the oil industry, that explains a lot. Unless if it’s in Venezuela.
February 12th, 2009 at 7:57 am
My Dad was an engineer for the Arabian American Oil Company - aka Aramco - its now called Saudi Aramco. He retired in 1986 as the General Manager for all drilling operations in Saudi Arabia, both onshore and offshore. We went there in 1958 and I left for the last time on New Years Day in 1982. My wife’s Dad worked for the same company and we grew up together in the same compound. It’s called Abqaiq and the world largest oil processing plant is located there. Sarah Palin mentioned it by name in her acceptance speech. That’s the only thing that impressed me about her
Check it out on Google Earth - its a speck in the middle of the Arabian desert about 20 clicks from the Gulf and about 80 clicks south of Dhahran, Saudi Aramco’s headquarters.
Dad trained Ali Naimi when he was a young engineer right out of school. Ali went on to become CEO of Saudi Aramco and is now the Saudi Minister of Petroleum. When we arrived in ‘58 - after a three day journey with two overnight stops on a company DC-7 four engine propeller plane named the Flying Camel - there were still beggars and lepers in the streets which were dirt for the most part. Cholera, typhoid and other nasty diseases were endemic. We had to get a string of inoculations every few months. My shotcard looked like a small phone book. It wasn’t until King Faisal deposed his brother King Saud in ‘64 that the government invested any money into health care and education for the people, including for the first time, schools for girls. Most people don’t realize that in 1932 when the first American geologists arrived Arabia was pretty much still as it was in Biblical times. I remember seeing camel caravans passing by our little town as late as the early 70s.
I worked in Arabia as well. First as a driller and then later in the oil services industry and was there during the Iranian revolution and the sympathetic uprisings of Shia in the Eastern Province of Arabia. The Shia have always been oppressed by the Sunni majority in Arabia but ironically the Shia are the majority population in the Eastern Provice where almost all the oil is located. I heard the helicopter gunships at night strafing Shia villages near Dammam where I lived at the time. I also saw, with my own eyes, American troops in a Saudi army column on their way to the oasis of Al-Hasa assisting, advising or perhaps actually taking part in (our guys were in tanks on the back of flatbed trucks - if only I had my camera) putting down an uprising of Shia. Anecdotally we were told 5000 mostly innocent civilians were massacred in that “action.” There was nary a mention of it in the media at the time. Makes one proud to be an American. Later, after learning there was such a thing as private military contractors, I realized they may not have been actual American military. Blackwater is just one of the more recent and notorious ones. Vinnell Corporation is a much older company and has had a presence in Arabia for a long time. In fact the American compound that was attacked near Dhahran some years ago was a Vinnell compound. Things that make you go hmmm…
Check ‘em out here: http://www.vinnellarabia.net Were they Vinnell or military or CIA or what I don’t know for sure I just saw Americans in a mile long column of Saudi military. I was forced off the road by this massive column of troop carriers, APCs and tanks on flatbeds and had to wait while the parade passed. When you’re an expat you learn to spot your fellow citizens. We stand out next to the Arabs. I called out to several of them as they were passing asking them what was going on. They either ignored me or gave me the zipper across the mouth gesture. No wonder.
February 12th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Darrell - what’s a commie?
February 12th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Plural of comma: D. is very passionate about punctuation.
February 12th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Good one - took me a sec - but I got it.
February 12th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Who gave away the body count? Was it the Smoke Monster? Was it Jacob? (Those are Lost references, AG…You’ll know what I’m talking about when you catch up with the DVDs in twenty years.) I just hate it when BlackOps missions get broadcasted like that. And I wish they would take that “Innocent Civilian” check box off those forms. Glad you didn’t get those IDs wrong like those POW sightings in Viet Nam in the late 80’s and early 90’s when Soviets and East Germans were identified by “expats” as “Americans.” Btw, watch it when ex-Stasi give you that “zipper-across-the-mouth” gesture. It means a whole different thing.
As for definitions, ask Bill Ayers, Mr. small “c”. Or maybe it’s people that agree with –”President Obama is “considering” a radical agenda to nationalize the U.S. financial system, the Federal Reserve Bank, and private industries such as energy and other sectors whose future is “problematic” in private hands, claims the leader of the Communist Party USA.
In a major speech focused on Obama titled “Off and running: Opportunity of a lifetime,” CPUSA leader Sam Webb also alleges Obama’s administration is considering turning education, childcare, and health care into “no profit zones;” rerouting investment capital from military infrastructure to “green economy” projects and public infrastructure; and waging a “full scale” assault on global warming.
“We now have not simply a friend, but a people’s advocate in the White House,” declared Webb at a recent speech in Ohio for People’s Weekly World Communist newspaper.
“An era of progressive change is within reach, no longer an idle dream. Just look at the new lay of the land: a friend of labor and its allies sits in the White House,” Webb proclaimed.”
Or–”If we continue to drill baby drill then we’ll never break the addiction to fossil fuels…” Funny words from someone who used to work in the oil industry.
February 13th, 2009 at 12:51 am
I would have said “commae” then, btw.
February 13th, 2009 at 3:28 am
Please, this is the INTERNET can we all get back to name calling. Everybody forgot about four dollar a gallon gas when they started losing their homes, its all sleight of hand. When gas is ten dollars a gallon people will be distracted from the failed stimulus program and the ensuing inflation it caused will be blamed on Exxon’s price gouging. It’ll be another friggin’ emergency and we’ll try price fixing and nationalization but nothing will work very well for very long. By then Frank and the intellectual elite or inner party will have rigged the game so “market forces” will have most of us weened from foreign oil, over the course of five years, at least that’ll be the plan. Giddy with success, people like Frank, because they believe in what they are doing, will lend a hand by shooting any Kulaks that insist on driving, and eventually the last of us will be weened. Of course millions will be harmed by Frank’s draconian “weening” but thats OK because an individual death is a tragedy while a million deaths is a statistic.
Of course I kid.
February 13th, 2009 at 8:21 am
“n a major speech focused on Obama titled “Off and running: Opportunity of a lifetime,” CPUSA leader Sam Webb also alleges Obama’s administration is considering turning education, childcare, and health care into “no profit zones;” rerouting investment capital from military infrastructure to “green economy” projects and public infrastructure; and waging a “full scale” assault on global warming.”
Oh we would *never* want to do that considering what a great job private industry has done in these areas.
Again - the oil industry has millions of acres currently under lease both onshore and offshore that they have yet to develop. Efforts on the part of API and its shills in the corporate media to define the issue as being about future sources of petroleum, energy security, and thousands of jobs from being created is typical right wing prestidigitation obfuscating the real agenda which is a massive land grab for future profit. Its analogous to saying “we need this war or there will be massive layoffs in the arms industries and we won’t be able to hire thousands of more workers - its a jobs issue!”
February 13th, 2009 at 8:28 am
“In a major speech focused on Obama titled “Off and running: Opportunity of a lifetime,” CPUSA leader Sam Webb also alleges Obama’s administration is considering turning education, childcare, and health care into “no profit zones;” rerouting investment capital from military infrastructure to “green economy” projects and public infrastructure; and waging a “full scale” assault on global warming.”
About time I say - regardless of the source - it would be of great benefit to the people of this nation if we were to exactly that. Or at least and more realistically regulate these industries so they don’t make the obscene profits they do now. Of course the right wing and its shills in the corporate media don’t really care about people as much as it does profits.
February 13th, 2009 at 9:18 am
“Commae.” {{{swoon}}}
February 13th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Frank, I’d rather hear from your father. And I already know he retired in 1988 and I can do the other math. I would guess that he’s not a self-hating oilman, in any event, and I would also assume he’d like to work new fields with those “obscene” profits, rather than sticking with current leases than didn’t pass the first cut of exploratory drilling and economic analysis. Not that the “green” arm of the Democratic Party doesn’t have lawsuits banning that work too.
And what the long-term (30 year) rate of return in the oil industry? 8%? 6%?
Ask Mr. Google if that’s obscene. Today’s profits are the drilling, exploration, and development of tomorrow. And refineries and pipelines, too. The government should be clearing the way, not creating obstacles.
Or maybe we should make the government take couple of hundred $Billion of that stimulus money and develop a few of those offshore fields and see what kind of business they run. We could all use a good laugh right about now.
February 13th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Sure he would and so would any other self respecting oil man because that’s what they do but putting more greenhouse gases into atmosphere isn’t going to help the long term.
The only time Americans conserve gasoline is when it gets too expensive. I wish we could edumacate people to buy more fuel efficient cars but it just don’t seem to work very well.
I’m surprised conservatives would misunderestimate the power of pricing to change behavior. Maybe they just don’t believe putting 70 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every day can, over time, have an effect and are more concerned with profits than people.
Fortunately we have a President who believes in science rather than faith based governing and with the help of the pinko Democrats will hopefully put us on a better path.
I wish the righties (notice how I don’t call you a fascist which is the analogue to commie) would come up with something constructive for a change rather than just being obstructionist but I know thats a pipe dream it can’t happen because the very definition of conservative is: “disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.” They left out the bit about preserving corporate profits at the expense of social well being but that’s okay.
So by definition expecting anything new and constructive from conservatives is a futile exercise. Drill baby drill… come ON. Repeating the same behavior over and over expecting a different result is one definition of insanity. Fossil fuels need to become more scarce driving the cost up forcing conservation.
Besides you aren’t keeping up on oil business technology. There are ways to get new oil out of old fields. Just ask PXP. It going to use steam injection to get oil from the Inglewood Oil Field right here in the LA basin. That sucker has been producing since the 20s. New technology can extract plenty of oil from existing leases. It’s not as easy or cheap as in some places (like Arabia) but there is still plenty of oil and believe you me if oil stays around $100-$120 a barrel science & engineering will find ways to get at it.
February 13th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Okay; time out. When you two discuss “existing leases,” please make it clear whether you are discussing land (etc.) that has existing wells, or areas that were considered ripe for exploration but have not “panned out,” and are not productive.
Frank, thanks for not calling us “fascists.” I actually agree with you that higher oil prices might be a very good thing right now, in that they would encourage more of the types of behavior we both want to see (in terms of conservation) and behavior that I want to see (in terms of increased production).
I am conflicted about this idea, however, because I hate to see people suffer. They would adjust, but they would suffer first–and there is no way around that.
So I would rather see the market work that out vs. artificially manipulating prices to get my desired result.
We ARE, in fact, using steam/vapor to get oil out of areas that would not be productive without that technology, but (1) it is a costly way to get petroleum, and (2) it is NOT energy-efficient: having to heat water up to pump it into the ground at high pressures means that we have to electrify entire oil fields and crank gigantic amounts of electricity into them that might be better used elsewhere.
It is a labor-intensive way to go. A capital-intensive way to go. And an energy-intensive way to go.
February 13th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
“notice how I don’t call you a fascist which is the analogue to commie”
Great bit of truth there, Frank. They are both Leftist philosophies. So was my labeling of your views. Good catch, given the amount you had written at the time. If I do say so myself. You can call me a Capitalist–tattoo it on my forehead even–if you wish. As long as visitors know where we really stand.
If Obama trusts in science, not agenda-driven pap, he will surely not waste any money and effort with that CO2 business. As Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan says, “CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another. … Every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so.
The extent to which global warming alarmism is driven by the economic self-interest of alarmists is one of the great untold stories of this scientific scandal.”
In where I live, Chicago, this decade (2001-2009, inclusive) is about to go into the record book at the decade with the LEAST number of temperature records set since 1870. And the thing is, carbon dioxide is becoming less important to global climate (actually enhanced “greenhouse” effect) with each added molecule. You get a lot of bang for your buck (or molecule) going from say 2ppmv to 20ppmv (the same as you got going from 0.2 to 2ppmv or +1.8ppmv) but to repeat that effect requires an order of magnitude more carbon dioxide (not +18 but +180ppmv). To repeat the effect again requires an additional 1,800ppmv.
Now, there’s some contention over just how much cooler the planet would be without any atmospheric carbon dioxide so just call the increase in temperature from 0.2 to 2ppmv “1 unit” (whatever it might be). 1 unit of warming requires +1.8ppmv (to 2.0ppmv); 2 units requires +18ppmv (to 20); 3 units: +180 (to 200ppmv); 4 units +1800 to 2,000ppmv and so on….
Already, at about 380ppmv, a molecule’s warming just ain’t what it used to be (plus 100ppmv from pre-Industrial Revolution is thought to have added about ~0.15 K to global mean temperature) and we now need to add another 136ppmv (to 516ppmv) to do what the last 100 did, then we’d need to get to 700ppmv to add another ~0.15 K and even then that’s allowing for no increase in convective activity or any other negative feedback. How we could increase surface warming without an increase in convective activity is unknown since this is precisely what happens in the real world daily (just watch soaring birds or ask a glider pilot).
With the HUGE wordwide slowdown in worldwide industrial production and motor vehicle use, we would have expected to see a drop in those CO2 numbers if man had been the real culprit. We haven’t. Maybe that slight temperature increases in the last several hundred years are just causing CO2 to come out of soultion in the oceans–just as it does in your diet Coke (or Cow soda in your case) on your kitchen table. Funny how science is consistent that way.
So Frank, unless you live in a computer model from one of your little friends, you have nothing to worry about. Temperature-wise anyway. We’ll handle the 1% temperature increases or decreases of the next centuries the same way we’ve always handled them. By adapting. By slight adjustments(shelter, fans, heaters, clothing, insulation). Just like I handled the weather in Chicago in the last several month where I saw a 60-degree change in a single day. Several times. After that, 1/100/365-degree per day(1 degree/century) change is a walk in the Garden of Eden.