Obama Administration Blocking 103 Gulf Drilling Permits
Big Government
As oil prices continue to climb, a backlog of more than 100 offshore drilling plans for the Gulf of Mexico are awaiting approval from the Obama administration, according to federal data.
The federal government has not approved a single new exploratory drilling plan in the Gulf of Mexico since lifting its deepwater drilling moratorium on Oct. 12. There are currently 103 plans awaiting review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
The information reveals that the Obama administration — not the oil industry — is the culprit for the slowdown of drilling activity in the Gulf. The Gulf of Mexico accounts for more than 25 percent of domestic oil production.
“These new findings prove that BOEMRE cannot claim it isn’t receiving job-creating plans from oil exploration and production companies,” said Gregory Rusovich, chairman of the Business Council of Greater New Orleans and the River Region. “The plans are there. Until BOEMRE reviews the 103 plans awaiting approval, our economy’s stability remains in jeopardy.”
Every two weeks Greater New Orleans Inc. releases a Gulf Permit Index based on publicly available federal data. Thursday’s index revealed an 88 percent decline in deepwater permits compared to the historical average. Not a single deepwater permit was approved in January.
Even shallow-water permits have taken a hit in the Gulf, despite not being subject to the administration’s moratorium last year. Only two new shallow-water permits were approved by BOEMRE in January. Permit issuance is down 30 percent from the historical average.
The decline in drilling is having an economic impact on the Gulf region and also threatens to exacerbate the problems with rising oil prices.
It also means less money for the federal government. With production in the Gulf of Mexico expected to drop this year by 220,000 barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, that equals about $3.7 million in lost revenue each day (based on the $90/barrel oil and the royalty rate of 18.75 percent).
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Wild Thing’s comment…….
He is soooooo horrible, there is no other word for him except eviil, an evil heart for sure and he needs to be impeached yesterday. Everything he has done has been aimed at the destruction of the economy and our freedom. And he is not stupid, he knows what he does will make well over half of America hate him or at least be ticked off at his agenda. I would be in the poll if taken of those that hate him….yep.
Obama is personally responsible for thousands to remain unemployed, loss of tax and royalty revenue to the US govt and to states such as Louisiana, and the increase in spending by the citizens of this country by increased prices and payments to foreign governments.
Impeach, Incarcerate, Deport!!!
Oil is today , $103 a barrel, at the pump 3.13 a gallon. Obama wants 5-7 dollars a gallon for gasoline so he can push is Green energy down our throats.
Texas has a lot of windmills and they were having rolling blackouts, maybe not enough wind…eeeh?
You don’t understand, the jobs created by resuming drilling will be from the private sector. We can’t have that, after all the Government and the Unions are the only ones who make the Economic engine go.
Then again, this is what you get when you appoint a Sierra Clubber to become Secretary of the Interior. Ken Salazar, who manipulated the facts, and lied outright in the report that Obama is using to back his decision.
Combine this with the rising unrest in the Middle East, which is causing oil to be marketed at $100+ per barrel, and we arer looking at Gasoline prices going to +$5.00 per gallon, in the near future.
It is time for the Government to divorce itself from the influence of the Sierra Club and other enviro groups. We have enough untapped oil reserves in this Country to make a significant dent in our continuing dependence on foreign sources.
Continuing on Sean’s comment that, “They completely ignore the elements that drive an economy are energy related, to a great extent,”:
Our current struggling economic recovery is being stymied by the increasing cost of gasoline (now well over $3 a gallon and climbing) as a result of this manufactured scarcity of our own vital domestic natural resources that we well have untapped as Sean writes.
The left’s transgressions against our own domestic oil and gas exploration and our own coal mining as well are killing good paying jobs in these oil and natural gas producing gulf states and in our coal mining states of Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wyoming where unemployment persists.
We are not going to get out of this recession until we grow the private sector that provides for everything including the bloated public sector which is the only thing growing these days so unsustainably and destructively with a diminishing tax base.
There are physical realities that the dreamy left continue to ignore to the detriment of American industry and our very future as Americans.
We need and consume 20 million barrels of oil just to get through the day. We now produce less than 6, import the rest, and the situation is getting worse.
Half of all our electricity comes from coal fired electric plants.
A single Boeing 737 aircraft (our single biggest workhorse in aviation) burns on average 15,000 pounds of jet fuel on any given two hour one way flight over this great country.
There is not now, nor will there ever be, any green dream of energy production in solar, wind or otherwise that will generate the thrust need to lift these aircraft off the ground and safely back down.
We desperately need to reverse this course to self destruction.
The realities of $4 to $5 a gallon gasoline and continued unemployment extended into 2012 will require and demand much hope and change of entirely a different kind.
The sign above at an idle shipyard in Morgan City, Louisiana is a gem and so emblematic of just where we are.
Yes, Wild Thing, evil indeed.
Mark, glad you mentioned that about the stupid wind mills. I can’t stand those things, they take up a lot of space and are loud and don’t even compare to replace oil and never will.
Sean, well said. Yes God forbid we do anything that lessens the government control on business.
Carlos, ditto all you said.
This has got to happen and happen soon.
“We desperately need to reverse this course to self destruction.”