|
Oil Patch Insider Try, try, try again … then try some more; Journalist: Drill down or ‘shut up’ about high gas prices
The British Columbia government is ready to go. The Canadian government apparently isn’t.
Motivated by today’s commodity prices and hoping for a better reception from the three-month-old Conservative administration, B.C. Energy Minister Richard Neufeld is trying again to prod Ottawa to remove a 34-year-old moratorium on exploration of the province’s offshore oil and gas resources.
He told the Globe and Mail the province is working with its federal counterparts to figure out a way to end the freeze and go after a region some estimate holds 10 billion barrels of oil and 42 trillion cubic feet of gas.
No dice from Ottawa.
A spokeswoman for federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, who represents a constituency on Vancouver Island, said Lunn and Neufeld have talked about the issue, but no further meetings are planned.
She said Lunn wants more precise data on the potential economic benefits of offshore development.
Former Newfoundland Premier Brian Peckford, a veteran of offshore petroleum issues who led a review of the B.C. offshore after moving to Vancouver Island, is not surprised by the federal stance.
Because of the aboriginal and environmental issues confronting development, Peckford said he does not expect any serious movement until Canada has a majority government in power.
—Gary Park
Newspaper calls Dems opposition to ANWR oil drilling hypocrisy In a stirring staff editorial April 24, the New York Sun charged U.S. Senate Democrats who are trying to blame President Bush for high gasoline prices and demonizing the big oil companies for hiking fees at the pump to $3 a gallon with making a huge unspoken endorsement of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
“They’re not going to say so, of course, but that’s the logical thrust of the argument under way in the wake of the latest spike in prices at the pump. Americans, after all, are a lot of things, but dumb isn’t one of them,” the Sun wrote.
The paper cited recent press statements from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. bemoaning the high gas prices as evidence that the senators “skipped economics class the day they taught the law of supply and demand.
“Drilling in ANWR would increase supply, lowering prices at the pump. Yet in the most recent Senate vote on ANWR, a March 16 amendment that passed 51 to 49, all three of those Democrats — Nelson, Clinton, Kerry — who are supposedly so concerned about prices at the pump, voted against drilling,” the newspaper observed.
—Rose Ragsdale
Journalist: Drill down or ‘shut up’ about high gasoline prices Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes told U.S. television viewers April 21 that he is “tired of hearing” complaints of people who are “so upset about gasoline costing too much.”
Barnes, who appeared on the All-Star Panel segment of Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume, said: “I mean, look, if the American people are so upset about gas costing too much, why don’t they demand something more? … We know they’re not going to drive less, and they don’t want those little cars that if you get in an accident, you know, if you bump into the curb, everybody in your car is going to die.
“People like SUVs. … And well, look, it’s a given that they like these big cars and so on. So … if it costs a lot to fill up the tanks, and they don’t like that, well, demand that the supply increase. Demand that oil be drilled offshore, in ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), and so on.” Then, Barnes added: “Otherwise, look, shut up.”
Barnes joined guest host Jim Angle, Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke, and Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer on the TV talk show.
—Rose Ragsdale
| 