I’ve already highlighted the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for the need of a budget reduction. My argument at the time was that if they didn’t want to issue any permits for drilling, there wasn’t need for more than one person to be able to answer the phone and say “NO!”
In one of the first acts of the new year, the Obama administration announced that they would now allow 13 companies to resume their deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. While this doesn’t mean that they will be issuing new permits, I take this as a sign that the Administration is concerned that my suggestions are sure to be implemented.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer that despite Obama’s rhetoric about job creation, there is no desire to create jobs in the oil and gas industry. The Energy Information Administration now projects that offshore energy production will be nearly 20% below what they had predicted for the year. That shortfall translates into thousands of lost jobs and the wages associated with them. Not only does the Administration’s war on fossil fuels cause lost jobs, it also causes lost revenues.
According to this spreadsheet (I’ve verified them to the reported revenue) in FY 2008, the Federal Treasury received over $22 Billion in revenue from all oil and gas leasing activity. in FY 2009, that number dropped to to under $9 Billion and in FY 2010 it was about $8 Billion. Now admittedly, there was approximately $10 Billion of “bonuses” received in 2008 which inflates that number a bit. However, even when adjusting for that, revenue to the treasury for oil and gas leasing has dropped by 33% in just two years.
Let’s recap: No new leasing, more drilling area restrictions, lost jobs and wages….Oh, that’s not so bad…..
Former executive predicts gas to hit $5 by 2012
