It Is Not A Pipe Dream

Energy makes our economy go.  We need it for anything we want to do.  It needs to be available and it needs to be affordable.  Energy is the engine for jobs and job growth.  Without it you are going nowhere in creating jobs.  President Obama has chosen to throw billions of dollars at so-called "green" energy projects like Solyndra while totally ignoring traditional energy resources that are proven and plentiful.

President Obama also recently deferred a decision of the Keystone XL pipeline project until after next year's election.  The pipeline would allow oil that is extracted from Canada's oil sands to be economically and safely transported to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast.  This was a shovel ready project that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimated would create 20,000 jobs.  President Obama punted because of pressure from environmental groups which argue that adding this pipeline is a potential environmental risk.

However, there are already 600,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines crisscrossing the United States according to The Casey Daily Dispatch. The Keystone pipeline is 1,700 miles by comparison.


Here is a map of just the major natural gas pipelines in the U.S.

Marin Katusa of The Casey Daily Dispatch explains why pipelines like Keystone XL are necessary.

When it comes to moving oil and gas across land, pipelines are far and away the best choice. They are the safest transportation mechanism for the people who work in the industry and for the environment, and they are the most efficient, meaning they burn less energy to move all that fuel than the other options. And really, there are not many other options. In a few places oil is moved by rail, but rail is slower and less energy efficient, and trucks are too small. Pipelines are it, and have been since that first pipeline moved gas from Pennsylvania to New York City to light street lamps. Every hour the world consumes a million tonnes of oil and a quarter of a trillion cubic meters of gas - and almost all of it moves, at one point or another, through a pipeline.

Despite all the obstruction from Obama the United States is rapidly moving toward energy independence with almost no help from Washington.  The transformation is remarkable but most Americans don't even know it is happening.  After all, the success of the efforts of the oil and gas industry is not something most in the mainstream media want to be running stories about.  A few facts to consider.

• The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the United States is on track to be a net exporter of petroleum products in 2011 for the first time in 62 years.  This is a function of booming demand from emerging markets, improved efficiencies at U.S refining facilities and reduced domestic usage.
• The U.S exported 753.4 million barrels of everything from gasoline to jet fuel in the first 9 months of the year while it imported 689.4 million barrels.  As recently as 2005, the U.S imported nearly 900 million barrels more of petroleum products than it exported.  Most of the exports are refined products but it still shows a dramatic change from just a few years ago.
• In August 2011, U.S. drivers burned 7.7% less gasoline than in the same month four years ago.  This shows the effects of the economy (if you are not working you don't have to drive to get there) as well as improving gas mileage.
• North Dakota's oil production of 424,000 barrels per day in July was up 86% compared to 2 years ago due to drilling in the Bakken field.
• The unemployment rate in North Dakota is 3.5%-the lowest in the U.S.
• When the OPEC was at its peak in the 1990's, the U.S imported about 2/3 of its oil.  We  now  import less than half of our needs and 40% of that is coming from Canada and Mexico.
• Harold Hamm, the founder of Continental Resources which has made the biggest investment in the Bakken field, believes that there's 24 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken field.  If that is accurate it would be one of the largest oil field ever discovered in the world.
• Huge natural gas fields have also been discovered in Pennsylania (Marcellus Shale) and Ohio (Utica Shale).  Drilling activity is skyrocketing with Marcellus and Utica activity is beginning to ramp up.

Therefore, despite the best efforts of the Obama administration to tax it and regulate it out of existence while throwing billions of dollars at "green" energy, it is the oil and gas industry that is succeeding.  This is no pipe dream.  It is time for President Obama to start helping, and stop hindering, what is going on in this proven energy sector.