Obama Stymies Oil and Natural Gas Production on Federal Lands
4/17/2014
A new nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) report quantifies the Obama administration’s hostility towards America’s oil and natural gas industry. While oil and natural gas production has surged on non-federal lands, President Obama has overseen a decline in production on federal lands.
There are four entities that own land in the United States: the federal government, states, private landowners, and Native Americans. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the Department of the Interior is charged with leasing, selling, and generally managing oil and natural gas reserves on federal land.
Although the federal government heavily regulates the exploration and production process through laws like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, etc, the federal government doesn’t control land owned by states or individuals. The point being, a fair way to judge the Obama administration’s stance towards oil and natural gas is to compare federal production to state and private land production.
According to the CRS report, oil production on federal lands actually fell 6 percent between 2009 and 2013. Over the same period of time, oil production increased by an astounding 61 percent on state and private lands. The decrease in federal production is not insubstantial but requires context in the form of state and private production numbers. As a result of these massive gains, crude oil production on state and private lands has risen by 2.1 million barrels per day. That increase alone is more than Algeria, Libya, Qatar, and Norway produce– all countries with storied oil reputations – and explains why the U.S. is on track to be the world’s largest oil producer.
Touting natural gas during this year’s State of the Union, President Obama said, “America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades. One of the reasons why is natural gas – if extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy.” Speaking at Georgetown University, the president again reaffirmed his supposed support for natural gas, “And today, we produce more natural gas than anybody else. So we’re producing energy. And these advances have grown our economy, they’ve created new jobs, they can’t be shipped overseas.”
Unfortunately, these words amount to nothing more than lip service. Natural gas production on federal lands decreased by an astounding 28 percent from 2009 to 2013 while natural gas production on non-federal lands increased by 33 percent from 2009 to 2013. Actions speak louder than words.
. This is how Obama sides with the working people right? Shutting down power plants, increasing energy bills for everyone. He won't allow us to exploit our energy reserves or build keystone increasing the costs of fuel for everyone. Anyone been to the grocery store lately? Food prices are though the roof. While Obama and the liberal, nutjob, environmentalist, fascist, shut down our farmers in California and elsewhere. China's economy is still growing. Ours not so much. So while we shut down our coal plants, China builds them at a feverish pace. all this equals the downsizing of the U.S. economy, fewer jobs, less wealth, and a lower standard of living for we working Americans trying to make a decent living...Obama is an impediment to that.
