As a retired oil executive I know too much. Let me tell you a few things I know. There is a place offshore Florida called the Destin Dome. In 1981 Chevron leased the rights to this dome. Three wells were drilled. The first in 1987, the second in 1989 and the third in 1995. These were exploratory wells. They found an estimated 2.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The lease only gave Chevron the right to explore, not produce. They had to go back and get approval to drill wells to extract the gas. They were denied permission. They sued. The government bought back the leases and put a moratorium on drilling until 2011. Chevron took the $115 million dollars to some other spot in the world where some government wanted to drill.
When Obama and Pelosi stand up and say "why aren’t the oil companies drilling on the offshore leases they have now", they know the answer but would rather play the old blame game. See there are 140 leased tracts that cannot be drilled, even exploratory wells. Plus many exploratory wells that have been drilled and proven reserves found, but they cannot drill producing wells.
When Obama says "Why give the oil companies permission to drill, they have lots of leases now and are doing nothing." Or, "It will take ten years to get any production from the offshore opportunities, why bother", he’s either a fool or a liar. If he doesn’t know why wells aren’t being drilled, he’s a fool. If he does and he makes this statement, he’s a bald-faced liar. You make your call, but I don’t think Obama is that uninformed.
Why does it take ten years? Because the government with help from the environmentalist take 5-7 of those years with permits.
If you watched any of the congressional hearings with the Senate Banking committee beating up on the invited guests, it’s the same old abuse. The people who created the problem with Freddie Mac and Frannie Mae are accusing the people who have been trying to fix the problems of being a part of the problem. Schummer single-handedly brought down Indy Mac by putting out the letter that caused the run on the bank. Just a few months ago he wanted to loosen the lending requirements so poor people could get more mortgages. Playing politics is the game in Washington today and we are paying dearly for it. Maybe our form of government with the two party system is running it’s course.
I saw Glenn Beck say we need to have a session with key congressional people where everyday citizens ask the questions with the camera on and see how they like being on defense. Taking those fools to the woodshed would be good sport and might do some good. Nothing else is working.
