Oil, Gas, Jobs and the Election

Glenn Reynolds notes that the Alberta oil sands are a jobs and economic bonanza. Let it also be noted that Texas has produced most of the jobs in the US the last year. Critics of Texas Governor Rick Perry say it's just luck; that that Texas has an economy bouyed by oil. I fail to understand why Perry, as he seeks the Republican nomination for President doesn’t respond by announcing that if he is elected, he will do for the US what he - and oil - did for Texas and what the Alberta oil sands did for Canada: unleash the exploration and production of oil and gas that have recently been discovered in our own country.

Where oil and gas production is allowed by the government in the US, the economy is booming. The problem is that Obama has suppressed the development of our own energy deposits. We are the Saudi Arabia of coal, yet the Obama administration is threatening to bankrupt the users of coal. We have discovered centuries of natural gas in our own country, yet the Obama administration, in concert with radical environmentalists, prevents its development. Drilling permits are still being held up in the Gulf of Mexico and exploration off the East Coast has been halted despite indications of substantial reserves. Further exploration and production in the Arctic has run into a brick wall even as production from the North Slope declines.

Imagine the jobs that could come from large scale development of our own newly discovered energy resources. Then imagine the reduced prices for gasoline and the impact it would have on costs throughout the economy in lower food prices … in fact in lower prices for everything where transportation is a cost.

To get back to Perry, he is given a golden opportunity to appeal to everyone except the radical Greens by explain in a few simple sentences, in a brief sound bite, that oil, gas and coal is not limited to Texas, it is found in New York, Pennsylvania, the Dakotas, off the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas, in the Arctic ocean and in the Gulf or Mexico. And his first action as President is to encourage the development of all of our resources; proven energy for an energy and jobs hungry nation.

President Perry will not bow to Middle East kings and sheiks. Instead, he will see a renaissance of American energy production and we will produce so much of our own energy that they will go back to herding camels.

UPDATE: 

Anon makes an interesting point which is also being made by other Obama supporters. So I did some research on the web. It turns out that the rise in oil production is really Bush’s fault. National Journal makes the point that it takes one to three years for the government’s policy to have any effect on production. At this point, the major Obama initiatives have been to stop, cancel or reduce the permits required to explore or drill for oil on public lands on and offshore. Obama’s own energy information administration numbers show a decline in production in future years.

It’s typical of the Obama administration to take credit for Bush’s successes, claiming it as their own and blaming their failures on Bush or anyone but themselves.