Slow-Rolling the Domestic Oil and Gas Industry, Slow-Rolling The American Public

There's a nice op-ed piece in current issue of Investor's Business Daily regarding the administration's war against fossil fuels:

It's true that total domestic oil production was higher in 2011 than in any year since 2002. But the production of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) on federal lands fell to a nine-year low in 2011, and crude oil production on federal lands actually fell by 14% in fiscal year 2011, the largest annual decrease in at least a decade.

In other words, the increases in oil production in recent years were largely from drilling on state and private lands, and happened in spite of Obama's restrictive energy policies, not because of them.

Domestic natural gas production has soared by more than 21% since 2005, but has fallen on federal lands by 24% over that period. Like oil, the increases in natural gas production have taken place on state and private lands and have happened because of the significant technological advances in drilling (hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling), and not because of the Obama administration.

Other actions taken by Obama, including rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, cancelling millions of acres in offshore lease sales, and closing the majority of the Outer Continental Shelf to new energy production for the next five years — demonstrate an administration that is hostile to increasing domestic production of fossil fuels that are critical to America's energy and economic future.

The linked note regarding the Outer Continental Shelf is most interesting: the administration was particularly disingenuous when this "moratorium" was announced. I remember growing up with "Tricky Dick." There is an entirely different approach to political spin in the 21st century, and I think much of it is an outgrowth of lessons learned by urban youth in the 80's and 90's. Cynicism.

The data point regarding the decrease in crude oil production on federal lands is an extremely interesting data point. I do not know "who" first noticed this and first made it known to the American public. It was obviously a government agency that first collected the information (perhaps the EIA) but whether it released a press release or a talking paper on it, I do not know. I do know that I first heard this data point from Newt Gingrich during the GOP presidential nomination race late last year/early this year.