Why do liberals give Obama credit for oil drilling on private lands?

[ricard83]

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/oil-production-federal-lands-has-declined-under-obama

Liberals claim that Obama has increased oil/gas production, which is false. Oil production has fell under Obama in federal lands by 14%. Obama's policies have made things worse, not better. President Obama vetoed the Keystone pipeline. He opposes lifting the offshore drilling moratorium. He refuses to allow drilling in Alaska or the Rockies. Obama's policies don't just hurt consumers at the pump, they cost us jobs and make our nation less secure. The right policies in Washington to open up America's vast energy reserves could create 1 million new jobs and ad $803 billion in government revenue. Vote for energy. Vote Republican. Vote for a brighter future. Learn more at vote4energy.org.

[emilek17]

without Obama, we would have no oil

[tai38]

False. http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/08/27/number-of-the-week-how-many-rigs-are-drilling-for-oil/

[blaeey]

The bottom line is drilling has increased not decreased.
The price of oil has increased.

[delron72]

The bottom line is drilling has increased not decreased.
The price of oil has increased.

EPA still needs to approve drilling on private land

Thanks for playing corporate shill

[wynn]

Keystone oil = Canadian oil. So much for you and your outright lies.

[morcan]

You can't drill on any land without a permit.


Here is the real story according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulations and Enforcement,

Shallow water: To date, 55 new shallow water well permits have been issued since the implementation of new safety and environmental standards on June 8, 2010. Permits have averaged 6 per month since October 2010, compared to an average of 8 per month in 2009. Just 6 of these permits are currently pending; with 9 having been returned to the operator for more information.

Deepwater permits requiring subsea containment: Since an applicant first successfully demonstrated containment capabilities in mid-February, we have approved 43 of these permits for 15 unique wells, with 24 permits pending, and 18 permits returned to the operator with requests for additional information, particularly information regarding containment.

Deepwater activities not requiring subsea containment: Since the implementation of new safety and environmental standards, 40 of these permits have been approved, with 1 currently pending. These activities include water injection wells and procedures using surface blowout preventers.

There have been 61 new well permits submitted since June 8th, 2010 in shallow water,which is 500 feet deep or less. Out of those submission 55 have been approved. 112 revised new well permits have also been approved.

Let’s move onto the deep water wells, since the moratorium was lifted in October of 2010 the Obama Administration has received 20 submissions for brand new wells, with 7 approved and 15 pending. The administration has also approved 36 out of the 42 revised new well submissions since October of 2010.

The grand total of all oil related drilling permits from brand new wells, revised, sidetrack, bypass etc in both shallow and deep water is 388 since June of 2010.

These numbers include existing wells that need updating or other safety and maintenance, but the fact remains that this Administration has approved 388 permits in ONE YEAR.

There is quite a discrepancy in the numbers bloggers mention and conservative Congressman like Bachmann mention which is ONE. They lie and misinform but unfortunately the public believes them.

[barend31]

It fell on federal lands but went up on private lands. That is an industry decision. The oil industry has the permits to drill on federal lands but are choosing to develop the permits for private lands. Off shore drilling increased throughout 2011, after Obma lifted the moratorium imposed after the BP disaster.

Obama and Bush's approval of permits are very similar: According to the Bureau of Land Management, the agency tasked with reporting oil drilling permits, etc. on federal lands has reported that in 2001, the Bush administration approved only 3,439 permits increasing slightly to 3,802 by 2003. It wasn’t until 2004 that Bush doubled the permits approved, but they dropped dramatically back down to 4,579 in 2005.

In 2009 under President Obama, there were 4,487 oil drilling permits approved to drill on federal land and in 2010 there were 4,090 permits issued and finally by 2011 there were 4,244.

As to Keystone, approval was given to construct the southern portion. But even if the whole pipeline is constructed, the Canadian company has already said that they will sell the oil on the open market and that prices will not decease significantly if at all.

As to opening up other fields, what is the point since supply is already more than enough? Oil companies will control supply to fetch the greatest price in any case. So why not save our "vast energy reserves" for a time when they are needed? Right now, we also don't have enough refining capacity to handle a huge glut of oil on the market.

Another consideration is the risk involved in opening some of the reserves. Fracking can force toxic waste into ground water. Deep sea drilling poses risks for an even bigger disaster than the BP spill.

As far as security is concerned, developing renewable energy sources is the real route to pursue. Eventually, the oil reserves will be depleted or no longer economically feasible to get to the last drop. What then? Surely it is smarter to develop alternatives now rather than wait until the situation is much more critical?