President Obama, facing voter anger over high gasoline prices and complaints from Republicans and business leaders that his policies are restricting the development of domestic energy resources, announced on Saturday that he was taking several steps to speed oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters.Until I see real evidence of new drilling getting under way, or resumption of drilling in areas that Obama put off limits, I'm going to assume this is all more smoke and mirrors designed to make us think he's doing something about the problem while he is in fact continuing to hamper real exploration.
It was at least a partial concession to his critics, who say he has shackled domestic energy development at a time when consumers are paying near-record prices at the gas pump. The Republican-led House passed three bills in the last 10 days that would significantly expand and accelerate oil development in the United States, saying the administration was driving up gas prices and preventing job creation with anti-drilling policies.
I'm hoping his words might have the desired effect on the mentality of the energy markets and we'll start to see oil prices decline to the $60-$70 dollar a barrel level where they belong. However, the speculators aren't stupid, and one way we can tell whether Obama is serious is how the markets respond. If there's little change or continued upward movement in prices, the market will be assuming Obama is just talking a good game with no concrete action to make things happen.
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2 comments:
I would not expect anything more solid than smoke from he who thinks high gas prices are good. Just not good enough.
We've had drilling off our coast for years....and would love to have it again! Folks around here understand that with industry, there can be danger....just something we live with in order to have the jobs.
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