The recent tragedy in Ukraine with the downing of a commercial airliner, the fighting with the separatist rebels with the support of Russia has brought out the worst from the Oil Industry and their republican supporters. They are calling for the President to support lifting the export ban on oil that has been in place for many years. They are trying to sell the fabricated idea that America needs to sell and export their abundance of energy to Europe to break that country's dependence on Russian crude.
In other words, a Europe that is dependent on American oil instead of Russian energy will deprive Russia of needed revenue and some how weaken that country's military and economic expansion appetite. They say it will create thousands of jobs in America and keep the American economy growing. But that is not the real story behind their ruse and should be exposed and that is what "PolitiDose" will do in this commentary.
The American oil industry is now the worlds leading producer of oil and natural gas and production is at an all time high. If that oil and gas has to stay in America there will be an over supply of that energy at some point in time and that means lower prices for American consumers as over supply forces prices down. That is not something the industry wants. So they want the export ban lifted so they can keep the price of energy high and give them more control. It has never been the intent of the industry to make America independent of foreign energy. I wrote a commentary about that a few years ago. America's energy over supply is getting closer at hand so do not be suprised if the industry does not cut production in not to long a period of time if the ban is not lifted.
The industry has been successful at keeping the price of a barrel of oil and a gallon of gasoline at the highest sustained price in our history and it started under the Bush 43 administration. They talk a good game of expanding natural gas to be used in automobiles and truck fleets but have you heard of any oil company whose fleet of autos or trucks are run on natural gas. I have not. How many natural gas stations have the industry built to encourage such use? What are they waiting for? Their CEO's think the price of natural gas is too low and that it should be much higher.
The export ban was established for good reasons. Congress should not lift the ban because it would not be in the best interest of the United States. The industry like other industries are world players but they should be America companies first for the good of America and its people. The special treatment they ask for should be rejected and the about face of making America independent of foreign oil has to be answered loud and clear. This is the industry whose wealth accumulation is never enough.
This commentary written by John Lucia.
