Drill, With Tougher Regulations Baby, Drill!
Nicolas Loris /
In what is being labeled as “Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reforms” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced tougher new leasing rules that will inevitably make it more difficult and more expensive to drill for oil in the United States. Despite the recession, gas prices have crept up steadily in the past year – about a $1 increase per gallon from a year ago today. The national average is currently $2.68. Instead of increasing access to supply and creating jobs the administration is doing more to limit opportunities – or at least have it take longer to make use of those opportunities and make them more expensive. The Institute of Energy Research president Thomas J. Pyle weighs in:
“When it comes to paving the way for the responsible development of homegrown, job-creating energy resources, no administration in history has done more to ensure producers do less. It’s a superlative not achieved by accident. Over the course of a single year, we’ve seen the Interior secretary block commonsense exploration through a number of creative means – from executing a pocket veto on a sensible plan to produce offshore, to outright rescinding existing lease contracts in Utah.