Our weekly update to unravel the industry and political spin around the energy debate
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
WHAT’S YOUR ENERGY IQ?
Energy analyst and cofounder of the Association of Peak Oil & Gas USA, Randy Udall, challenged industry representatives and pro-oil shale politicians on their knowledge of energy production in America in The Hill’s Congress Blog. He said locals out West are not holding their breath for oil shale production, which has clocked over 100 years of failure to commercially produce oil.
CHECKS & BALANCES ATTEMPTS TO UNTWIST API ENERGY SOLUTIONS
Wednesday, American Petroleum Institute (API) President (and the oil industry’s chief Oliver Twist impersonator) Jack Gerard held a conference call to pickpocket the American public out of more taxpayer handouts and public land giveaways. The Checks and Balances Project joined the call hoping to get to the bottom of why industry needed more handouts when it failed to develop over 7,000 existing drilling permits, or why tax subsidies are still needed when the top five oil companies reported $32 billion in 2011, first-quarter profits. Sadly, we were denied an opportunity to ask questions on the call. Read our list of questions.
CLOUDY WITH A SIDE OF OIL SHALE
James Bartis, senior policy researcher for Rand Corporation, testified twice before Congress on the possibilities of oil shale. Oddly, his testimonies contradicted his own research and written statements, which clearly show that oil shale is a failed effort: “No private firm is prepared to commit to commercial [oil shale] production.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Speculators now own about 70 percent of oil delivery contracts or futures markets, up from just 30 percent prior to 1990. Even Goldman Sachs analysts admitted that speculation probably added at least $27 per barrel, and last week ThinkProgress reported that Koch Industries, the nation’s largest, privately owned oil interest, is actively involved in oil speculation.
COMING UP THIS WEEK
DOC ON DECK
Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA-04) continues play the blame game on oil production in an upcoming House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources hearing, this time accusing the Obama administration of blocking development in Alaska. It seems Doc has a case of selective memory loss. Just last month, The New York Times reported that President Obama intended, “to hold annual auctions for oil and gas leases in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, a 23-million-acre tract on the North Slope of Alaska.” This looks like Doc wasting more taxpayer dollars to try and score points against the Obama administration.
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Twitter: @checksandbals | Email: [email protected]
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