Curtis Report: The GOD given right to drill.

By Barry Curtis

To drill or not to drill that is the question. Shall a nation jeopardize its economic standing in favor of policies based on an unproven science? When a nation fails to engage in a vigorous drilling energy policy does it automatically relegate its people to a second-class economy?

If a government were to take the position of energy appeasement, does it by de-facto strangle the lifeblood and the financial engine of the people? Energy appeasement is the capitulation of a government policy in favor of a policy that severely restricts drilling and places unreasonable burdens on wells that are drilled by private companies. After all how would we eat? Power our cell phones and farm the land? It’s simple. We do all this and more by the continued use and exploration of oil and gas.

Powered by oil, America was rapidly transformed from the status of a developing nation to become the world’s sole superpower in less than a century. America was built on black gold. From the 1800’s when drake drilled the nation’s first commercial oil well until the late twentieth century this nation’s economic and military dominance is directly related to its ability to produce and regulate America’s energy needs.

We would be hard pressed to imagine a world where we could have built this nation’s massive industrial capacity that enabled Henry Ford to make the average American road worthy. How would we have created the world’s best interstate highway system and the ability to fuel the cars riding on it?

We must not forget the lessons of the past. It was Japan that invaded China and eventually the Philippines solely for its oil and other raw materials. Japan lacked the natural resources to continue its industrial development so she had to spread her “divine” wind across the Pacific. Of course we know this nation would have lost World War II without the ability to fuel our massive campaigns in north Africa, the Pacific, and of course, Europe. It was clearly the nation’s willingness and ability to drill baby drill that won the wars and created in the 1950’s the largest peacetime economic expansion in world history. We must also take note that Russia and China continue to push their influence relentlessly in mineral rich places such as Africa and south East Asia.

We clearly see the link between America’s economic and national security interest to its domestic oil and gas exploration and production.

According to Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), operators will drill 42,156 wells in the US during 2013; down from an OGJ estimated 43,669 wells in 2012.

We must draw a clear distinction between private and public drilling rights and policies. Just two days after President Barack Obama’s re-election, the Interior Department announced a plan to shut down 1.6 million acres of federal land to oil shale development. The land had originally been slated for drilling under President George W. Bush. The point is that recent modest gas and oil-drilling gains in the US came only on private lands in spite of government regulations.

The Obama administration has embarked upon an ill-fated and incoherent energy policy. The Obama policy is driven by political cronyism and political paybacks to extreme environmentalist groups and organizations just to appease their liberal voters.

The last decade has shown a decline in the U S in the importation of foreign oil. According to Wall Street Journal,

“Crude oil imports fell 14.9 percent in March from a year earlier, to 7.46 million barrels a day, as rising domestic output continued to cut the need for foreign oil according to government data.

Imports rose 2.6 percent from February, when they hit a 17-year low of 7.27 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Crude oil imports from Mexico fell 36 percent from a year earlier to the lowest level since December 1990, at 608,000 barrels a day. Mexico, had been the second-biggest oil supplier to the U.S. as recently as January, dropped to fourth place, behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

The U.S. imported 1.284 million barrels a day of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter. That was the most since November, but down 6.4 percent from a year earlier.”

Domestic energy production is up. But that is only on private lands. The U S government has all but stopped new permits to drill on federal lands. This is a clear indication that the Obama administration fails to take seriously the need for energy independence. The Obama administration seems more concerned about throwing federal dollars to its liberal cronies on untested and failing alternative fuels.

I firmly object to any attempt by the left and tree huggers to characterize the use of fossil fuels as evil, wrong or damaging. There is plenty of it and it is just and right to cultivate it. Yes, technology continues to make such exploration and use of these fuels safe and economical. However, it is not technology giving us mastery over nature, it is GOD.