National Journal: Obama Taking Credit For Bush's Boost In Oil Production

"Drilled another one!"

The Senate has recessed until Monday, March 28 when it will continue work on S. 493, the bill reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. Still pending to S. 493 is the McConnell amendment, which would block the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant, a move that would amount to a backdoor national energy tax. Democrats have repeatedly pushed back a vote.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 87-13 to pass H.J. Res.48, the continuing resolution (CR) funding the government through April 8^th that cuts $6 billion in spending. Also yesterday the Senate voted 99-0 to confirm Amy Berman Jackson to be a district judge in the District of Columbia.

In his news conference last Friday, President Obama said something that struck many observers as interesting. He told reporters, “Last year, American oil production reached its highest level since 2003. Let me repeat that. Our oil production reached its highest level in seven years. Oil production from federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico reached an all-time high.” Yesterday, National Journal examined Obama’s claim in an article titled, “Obama’s Fuzzy Oil Production Math.”

National Journal writes, “He doesn’t want to admit it, but President Obama is taking credit for something George W. Bush did. The White House is touting federal data that shows domestic oil production is at its highest level since 2003. In a blog post last week, Obama’s top climate and energy aide, Heather Zichal, points to Energy Information Administration data that shows oil production from the Outer Continental Shelf (which basically means the Gulf of Mexico) has increased by more than a third between 2008 and 2010.

“While Bush was in office from 2001 to 2009, the oil and gas industry saw many new leases and other expanded drilling opportunities. In March 2010, Obama announced plans to expand offshore drilling, but he retreated in the aftermath of the BP oil spill.

“According to EIA’s short-term 2011 outlook, released last week, oil production was significantly higher in 2009 than in the years prior. Obama may have been in office for most of that year, but the oil production numbers are due to action taken before he became president. In 2010, most if not all of the production increase recorded is likely due to action that predates Obama, since Obama didn’t take any major action expanding offshore drilling his first year in office.”

But the Obama administration has taken action since then, as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pointed out on Wednesday. “Over the past two years, the Obama administration has delayed, revoked, suspended, or canceled an enormous range of development opportunities. One month after the President took office, his administration cancelled 77 oil and gas leases in Utah — once the review was complete the administration refused to reinstate a single one. . . . Last January, it announced new restrictions for onshore oil and gas exploration in the Mountain West. Last February, it denied a permit to build a bridge needed to access an oil producing field in Alaska, after the Environmental Protection Agency designated a nearby river an aquatic resource of national importance. Last April, the Administration suspended 61 oil and gas leases in Montana that were issued in 2008 — then announced that all oil and gas leases in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota would be delayed indefinitely. Last May, the President announced a 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling — a moratorium that’s been repeatedly struck down in the courts.”

These actions haven’t been without consequences for energy production. “EIA’s short-term outlook projects a decrease in domestic oil production in 2011 and 2012. [EIA Administrator Richard] Newell sees a few reasons for that,” National Journal reported. Among those reasons, “The predicted decrease in gulf production is due at least partly to the administration’s actions taken after the BP oil spill -- an unfortunate projection for the White House, as it’s trying to stay on offense in the debate over gas prices going into the 2012 election cycle. ‘A portion of that, though, is associated with the [BP] well blowout, moratorium and subsequent regulatory delays,’ Newell added.”

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