On June 8 Exxon-Mobil announced it made the biggest discovery in the Gulf Of Mexico in more than a decade, which projects to produce the equivalent of 700 million barrels of oil per a Times Picayune story dated June 9. So what is new?
Actually, nothing is new. Every one including the oil industry knows the Gulf Of Mexico holds a lot of oil. They also know there have been larger discoveries in the Gulf. The oil industry likes to use those discoveries to show American can become independent of foreign oil if only the U.S. government will let them drill.
However, the U.S. government has actually let the oil industry drill for over 40 years and in fact only gave lip service to checking oil industry operations according to reports published after the BP oil spill. Yet the U.S. is more dependent on foreign oil today than ever before, even with all the billions of dollars of corporate welfare and tax exemptions given that industry by those in congress who are tied to the oil lobby via campaign contributions.
The oil industry control the price of oil and there fore gasoline because they have the ability to close the spiket on their production and then open it when they see fit. The difference between the OPEC producers and the American oil companies is that OPEC meets and tells the people when they are cutting back on production or are increasing production in order to manipulate the price. The American oil companies can do the same thing, they just never announce it.
No monopoly stockpiles its supplies because that brings down the price. Don't expect the American oil industry to open the spikets and stockpile their supplies. And that is why the oil industry will never make America independent of foreign oil. Alternate energy is the only answer.
