How many times have you heard the Industry and their republican friends say the Obama Administration is not offering enough land for lease for drilling, especially in the Gulf Of Mexico? This writer has heard that over and over and most recently from the President of Lafourche Parish which was the topic of a recently commentary here in "PolitiDose."
Well, guess what? Federal regulators announced the week of 3/16 that only 195 bids were placed Wednesday on leases in the Gulf on 41 million acres off the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Last years sale which was equivalent, the industry offered 380 bids and the year before more than 500 bids. This years bids of 195 were the lowest since 1986 when 129 bids were submitted.
So what happened? Why so little bids on the offshore acreage? The Oil industry had an answer, the falling price of a barrel of oil. Offshore drilling is so expensive it can not be done at today's price for a barrel of oil. The fact of the matter there has never been a shortage of leases to drill on in state lands or federal lands and acreage. The industry and their republican mouth pieces just can not tell the truth about the subject matter of leasing acreage for exploration and or drilling.
It should be noted that those 195 bids covered over 920,000 acres. This lease sale is just another reason to understand why the domestic Oil industry's exploration, drilling and production will never make the U.S. independent of foreign oil. Other reasons have been explained in previous commentary here in "PolitiDose." It is sad when you have an industry so important to the economy and our daily lives that just can not be truthful and elected officials who are not only willing to be their spoke persons but take it a step farther and lie to the people who elect them. Louisiana has more than enough elected officials who are ditto heads on the subject matter.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
