Fossil Fuels Are the Future, Part 2

Following up on the post immediately below, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said today:

Oil production in Canada, the largest supplier to the United States, is forecast to jump 68 percent to 4.7 million barrels per day by 2025….
The rise in production from 2.8 billion barrels in 2010, largely in the Athabasca oil sands of Western Canada, reflects an improved investment climate, more robust commodity prices and increased market demand, the association said.

That’s great: we would much rather be buying our oil from Canada than from the Middle East or Venezuela. But how about our own domestic production? The Institute For Energy Research reports:

Today, Michael Bromwich, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE), testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. As has seemed to become his custom, Mr. Bromwich spent his time desperately attempting to provide cover for the Obama Administration’s anti-energy agenda.
In his written testimony, Mr. Bromwich claims that shallow water drilling permits “have averaged 6 per month since October 2010, compared to an average of 8 per month in 2009.” He is correct. However, he forgets to mention that shallow water permits granted in 2008 averaged 16.8 per month. Mr. Bromwich’s statement highlights the drastic decrease in shallow water permitting since President Obama came into office. …
But the administration’s shallow water permitting record is fantastic when compared to deepwater permits. BOEMRE has only approved two permits to drill a new well in waters deeper than 500 feet since the end of the moratorium.

IER notes that oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is currently 360,000 barrels a day below Energy Information Administration expectations because of the Obama administration’s policies.
The United States is the only country in the world that deliberately, as a matter of perverse policy, refuses to develop its own energy resources. The idea that we can remain a prosperous country, let alone a great power, under an anti-energy policy is a fantasy.

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