The Truth About America’s Energy: Big Oil Stockpiles Supplies and Pockets Profits (PDF)
Increased Domestic Drilling Activity Has Not Led To Lower Gasoline Prices
Since the 1990s, the federal government has consistently encouraged the development of its oil and gas resources and the amount of drilling on federal lands has steadily increased during this time. The number of drilling permits has exploded in recent years, going from 3,802 five years ago to 7,561 in 2007.
Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361%, yet gasoline prices have also risen dramatically (Figure 1) contradicting the argument that more drilling means lower gasoline prices. There is simply no correlation between the two.
Energy Companies Not Using Federal Lands Already Open to Energy Development
Even if increased domestic drilling activity could affect the price of gasoline, there is yet no justification to open additional federal lands because oil and gas companies have shown that they cannot keep pace with the rate of drilling permits that the federal government is handing out.
In the last four years, the Bureau of Land Management has issued 28,776 permits to drill on public land; yet, in that same time, 18,954 wells were actually drilled. That means that companies have stockpiled nearly 10,000
The total for Bush's eight years:
The Bush administration did industry’s bidding for eight years: from fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2009,
more than 41,700 drilling permits were approved on federal lands, almost two-and-a-half times as many as during the previous eight years. In 2005, the Government Accountability Office found that the “
dramatic increase” in oil and gas development on federal lands had undercut the BLM’s ability to meet its environmental obligations. The pace of development was such that rural Sublette County, Wyoming – which doesn’t even have a traffic light – recorded ozone levels in February 2008 that were nearly 50 percent higher than federal health standards. But it wasn’t just the numbers, it was also the cherished places the Bush administration wanted to drill: Colorado’s Roan Plateau, New Mexico’s Otero Mesa, Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, the Wyoming Range, and the list goes on.
linkThat's an average of more than 5,200 annually. Since January 2009, the Obama administration has approved
346.
Yet after the BP oil spill, the media immediately launched into spin: Obama's Katrina.
Sure would have been good if the following report (not the teabaggers) had gotten more attention from the concerned media:
An MMS review last year found 41 deaths and 302 injuries out of 1,443 oil-rig accidents from 2001 to 2007. The agency's analysis found a lack of communication between the operator and contractors, a lack of written procedures, a failure to enforce existing procedures and other problems.
"The MMS believes that if OCS (outer continental shelf) oil and gas operations are better planned and organized, then the likelihood of injury to workers and the risk of environmental pollution will be further reduced," the proposed rule said.
The voluntary approach was adopted in 1994 during the Clinton administration.
The
proposed rule (pdf) would have required lessees and operators to have their safety and environmental management system (SEMS) programs audited at least once every three years by either an independent third party or by qualified personnel designated within the company. MMS could evaluate the third parties, meet with lessees and operators to periodically review the results of SEMS program audits, and conduct announced or unannounced evaluations with MMS personnel or third parties.
moreThe Bush administration knew the dangers and ignored implementing new rules while he was approving thousands of permits annually.
Staffers from the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, who traveled to Louisiana this week to sit in on the U.S. Coast Guard-led inquiry into the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig, said they learned from the testimony of Mike Saucier, an MMS regional supervisor for field operations, that new rules had been proposed.
Saucier said the agency prepared but never completed regulations in 2001, the first year of George W. Bush's presidency, that would have required secondary control systems for blowout preventers.
"As far as I know, they're still at headquarters," Saucier said.
The devices have been at the heart of the inquiry into what caused the explosion that killed 11 and continues to spew oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
The House committee also will be examining the agency's ties to the oil industry and whether a cozy relationship kept it from enacting tougher regulations. McClatchy reported last week that nearly 100 standards set by the American Petroleum Institute are included in the MMS' offshore operating regulations.
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W Va., asked the MMS on Thursday to provide all documents related to regulations that it proposed but never finalized. He also asked the agency to turn over inspection reports from the oilrig, and a list that details potential noncompliance with MMS regulations.
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