Sunday, April 29, 2012

One WSJ Op-Ed Piece Paid for The Subscripton -- Aubrey McLendon

I don't know if you can get to this article without a password; hopefully you can it.

It reminded me how much I enjoy the Wall Street Journal -- but then I'm reminded of that every day.

In this case, it's an opinion piece by the WSJ editorial staff on CHK's CEO. Actually it's hardly an opinion piece. It's simply a collection of Aubrey's thoughts on energy and politics expressed during a recent visit to the WSJ offices.

This on the Keystone decision is typical of his comments:
...the message the president should have delivered in January when he rejected the pipeline. "What he should have said is: 'OK, so we're not going to build Keystone and you the American people, I just want you to know that this will result in higher gasoline and diesel prices for you for the rest of your lives because I just woke Canada up from a 50-year slumber and I slapped them in the face and they will now build a pipeline to Vancouver. And the Chinese today are celebrating. And as a consequence prices for oil in the U.S. will be higher.'"

Warming to the topic, he relates with more than a little dismay that after the rejection of Keystone XL "then [Mr. Obama] comes to Oklahoma and stands in front of a bunch of pipe—which I don't think he knew what it was—and says, 'I'm going to greenlight southern Keystone.' It didn't need any presidential decisions to be made. I mean the only presidential decision is the 12 inches at the Canadian border. We needed that."
And on fracking:
...I think we're moving beyond the whole fracking controversy as [the Environmental Protection Agency] kind of systematically takes a step back from all their allegations." Several hours after Mr. McClendon's visit, the EPA announced draft fracking rules that were less onerous than expected.

Not that he fears a temporary ban in any case. "You want to go ban fracking for a year? Knock yourself out. It would be marvelous for our share price," because the limit on supply would send gas prices soaring. "Essentially every well in the U.S. is fracked," he continues, and therefore a ban on gas production would eliminate the energy on which utilities and their customers rely. "You'll kill tens of thousands of people, freeze them out. You'll starve them out. It's completely unthinkable."
I hope you can get to the link.

He didn't mention the Bakken. Or least the WSJ didn't mention it.



2 comments:

  1. The quotes show why Reuters is out to destroy Aubrey and CHK. Reuters hs teamed op with the faux environmental extremists and trial lawyers to attack him, and attack they do.

    BTW, the Forum has a column today by a prof from Maryland, claiming that a huge increase in US oil production that eliminated exports and Resulted in a surplus in the US will not reduce gasoline prices. They will say anything, no matter how fraudulent, to justify their policies.


    Anon 1

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    1. I certainly enjoyed McLendon's remarks, and it sounded like the WSJ did, also. I was glad to see his comments. Especially the ones on fracking and the Keystone.

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