Drill Baby Drill, Means Jobs Baby Jobs

October 19
Drill Baby Drill, Means Jobs Baby Jobs
Last week, we heard Senator Hillary Clinton, use the Sarah Palin battle cry "Drill Baby Drill" to mock Republicans and turn the phrase against them saying "Jobs Baby Jobs". Well one thing I know, having worked in Oil and Gas for a number of years, is drilling creates a lot of jobs. In many parts of the country where oil and gas exploration is occuring, the job market and real estate markets are still strong and don't show signs of weakening. One thing that most people don't realize is, it's not the Exxon Mobil's of the world drilling the wells. Generally it is small to medium sized companies taking the risk on exploration and production and the oil ends up being purchased downstream or the purchase of proven reserves by Big Oil. Recently Congress allowed the moratorium on off shore drilling and exploitation of the massive amounts of oil in shale formations in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to expire. The Shale Oil deposits in the western 3 state region holds nearly 1 Trillion barrels of oil.

Energy independence for America is vitally important. Can it be accomplished by exploitation of our hydrocarbon natural resources exclusively? NO! But it is a start. Growing up in the Mid-West, which still contains vast amounts of crude oil and natural gas; I watched, know of and heard of thousands of producing wells being plugged due to the availability of cheap foreign oil, at that time in particular Venezualean Sour Crude. Refinerys were shut down. Major oil companies pulled out of the area and relocated to Houston. While new exploration is going to be required, there are existing wells that are not producing, that should be. These existing wells can be brought back on line with less than 5% of the capital required to drill a new well. The environmental impact would be minimal. The gathering (pipeline) system is already in place and refinerys that have idled can be revamped for a fraction of the cost of new construction. New jobs would be created from an existing infrastructure that we aren't using. So what has happend and what will happen?

In all of this, the one thing that has happened that really blows me away is the apathetic approach our government as a whole has taken and how they have turned a blind eye to the effects on the grass roots population of this whole energy/economy deal. The large mulit-national oil companies, in my opinion can be directly linked to our economic downfall. When crude prices began to escalate, the only ones to profit were Big Oil. As prices at the pump rose higher and higher, the families of the 'Joe Six Packs' and 'Joe the Plumbers' were forced to cut back. It meant the difference in a family buying steaks or hot dogs, or new school clothes or mom and dad having gas to get to work. Personally, my family has reduced our driving by more than 50%. The trickle down theory really comes into play. Manufactures energy costs go up, the price of their goods go up, retailers pay more for the goods, families hit by high energy costs, either can't afford the goods or the gas. Jobs are cut, employer incentives go out the door. Do you take your kid to the doctor or pay your mortgage. The bottom line is this. When the cost of energy started to sky rocket our economy started to go to hell. And neither republican or democrat has addressed this. Why?

Energy is vitally important to our country. Both responsible drilling and revitalization of current proven energy reserves have to occur. Job creation will go hand in hand. We also need to continue to pursue alternative energy; government needs to provide additional incentives for the development of these alternatives; private industry, especially Big Oil, needs to utilize some of their massive profits in this pursuit, not just pay lip service to the cause.

What will happen? If energy prices are not brought in line, the economy will continue to deteriorate, the majority of families will continue to be the ones taking the lumps. We need to continue to reduce our energy consumption. Make one trip count for many. Call your local, state and federal representatives, let them know you have had enough of high energy prices, let them know about abandoned reserves and infrastructure. Tell them to get off their asses and check into this and also make alternative energy happen now. If they spent the 10's of billions of our money, that has been spent in Iraq on answering our energy needs, where would we be now? Where would our economy be?