I’m growing very tired of the liberal anti-growth – anti-cheap energy rhetoric, so I will cut and paste this one very slowly for the politicians and media lackeys out there. 

Washington politicians are accusing oil companies of “stockpiling” federal energy leases to keep supplies low and prices high. They claim “Big Oil” holds leases for 68 million of acres of federal leases that are not currently producing energy.  The following will help separate fact from fiction in the “68 million acres” sound bite. 

The Claim: “Energy companies are not using 68 million acres of federal lands already open to energy development.  If we extrapolate from today’s production rates on federal land and waters, this means that Big Oil is stockpiling an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.” – The Truth About America’s Energy: Big Oil Stockpiles Supplies and Pockets Profits , page 2.

The Extrapolation: To arrive at the production numbers above, it appears as though the authors of the report “extrapolated” as follows:

• Roughly 23 million acres of onshore and offshore federal land are producing 1.6 million barrels per day today.

• Roughly 3 times as many onshore and offshore federal acres – or about 68 million – are leased to oil companies, but not currently producing oil or gas.

Therefore, the authors conclude, the United States could be producing 3 times as much oil – or an additional 4.8 million barrels per day – if the lease holders for the non-producing federal lands started producing oil today.

The Reality: America Cannot ‘Extrapolate Its Way Out of an Energy Crisis

The Washington politicians mentioned in the quote are the liberals who are opposed to oil exploration most often heard screeding about Big Oil. Worthless Walz is a pro at regurgitating Washington talking points. 

Using the very same extrapolation, the Institute for Energy Research has calculated that the United States could produce an additional 160 million barrels of oil per day if the government leased all 2.46 billion onshore and offshore acres in the federal estate. That’s almost double the amount that is produced on a daily basis in the entire world.

Using the very same extrapolation, the Institute for Energy Research has calculated that 9.4 billion non-produing acres of the moon could produce an additional 654 million barrels of oil each day.

Got it yet? They don’t have any more proof that there is oil under the 68 million acres then they do if there is oil on Mars. You don’t just drill a hole in the ground and end up with oil. 

Go read the rest so when you see someone borrowing the anti-energy and anti-growth Washington liberal’s rhetoric, you can smack then down. 

No seriously, trust me, you need to go read the rest!

The Hard Facts:

• 97 percent of Federal offshore areas are not leased.

• 94 percent of Federal onshore areas are not leased.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 7:09 am and is filed under 2008, Know Thy Enemy, Lunacrats, MN 1st - Walz, MN 6th - Bachmann, National, Politics, SOTH Pelosi, Take Your Cob and Shove it. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.