HOW THE BIDEN REGIME LIES ABOUT OIL GAS PERMITS

HOW THE BIDEN REGIME LIES ABOUT OIL AND GAS PERMITS

Written by Peter Boykin on March 11, 2022

HOW THE BIDEN REGIME LIES ABOUT OIL/GAS PERMITS

Shared By Peter Boykin – American Political Commentator / Citizen Journalist

During the 2020 Presidential debates, Joe Biden proclaimed: “No more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends.”

So it’s especially loathsome that today, as the price of gas hurdles towards $5 per gallon, the Biden regime is doing all it can to pass the blame on to Putin, to American oil companies – to anyone but themselves.

The latest lie is that the regime IS giving out oil drilling permits, but the companies aren’t using them. Earlier this week, Biden claimed:

“It’s simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production… [Oil companies] have 9,000 permits to drill now. They could be drilling right now, yesterday, last week, last year. They have 9,000 to drill onshore that are already approved.”

Here’s the truth: At the end of 2021, there were 9,173 approved permits to drill on federal land. Those permits came from both the Biden, Trump, and even potentially Obama administrations. Because the leases last 10 years. But Biden’s claim that these permits are ready for drilling is a lie. For several reasons:

1️⃣. Having a permit doesn’t mean you can start drilling. Larry Kudlow, former Director of the National Economic Council under Trump, explains how the Biden regime is putting up roadblocks after the initial lease is granted:
“This leasing thing is a complete red herring… They need permits for actual sales, for actual drilling, and for actual pipelining. And the whole story here is they’re not getting any applications through. The interior department is stopping them, the energy department is stopping them, the EPA is stopping them and of course, they’re under assault from the SEC and the federal reserve not to make loans to oil companies.”

2️⃣. Oil companies are actually drilling more than ever. Mike Sommers, the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, says the industry is using a higher percentage of federal onshore and offshore leases than at any time in the past, and it’s continuing to increase production to meet surging demand.

“Just because you have a lease doesn’t mean there’s actually oil and gas in that lease, and there has to be a lot of development that occurs between the leasing and then ultimately permitting for that acreage to be productive. I think that [the Biden regime is] purposefully misusing the facts here to advantage their position.”

3️⃣. Sometimes there’s nothing to drill: Hugh Daigle, an associate professor at the University of Texas’ Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, said:

“Sometimes there might not really even be producible oil and gas on a lease…. they didn’t properly assess the production potential prior to leasing due to lack of data or that sort of thing.”

4️⃣. It’s a huge financial risk for these oil/gas companies to drill. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist and president of the American Action Forum explained:

“They have to be sure that the costly investment that it takes to turn a lease into a producing well is worth it.”
The Biden regime knows it’s lying. If they really wanted to alleviate the pressure this gas crisis is putting on Americans, they would take the approach that Trump did during the covid pandemic with Operation Warp Speed and cut the red tape: incentivize domestic energy production by removing bureaucratic barriers, fast-track permits and leases, and provide tax incentives for companies that take the financial risk of drilling today.

…but I won’t hold my breath.

[Source: PolitiFact, Fox News, Waking Up Right]
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/mar/09/joe-biden/fact-checking-bidens-claim-there-are-9000-unused-o