To drill or not to drill. That is the question.
Washington Times (4/7/22) editorial: "The much-anticipated hearing on Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, at which oil company executives were supposed to be barbecued, turned out to be a messaging disaster for the Democrats. Some of them attacked the executives for using their company’s profits to buy back stock or increase dividends to shareholders. Good as far as it goes. However, in arguing against stock buybacks, the Democrats, led by Chair Frank Pallone of New Jersey, wound up explicitly advocating that companies spend that money — wait for it — exploring for and producing more oil and natural gas...Former President Barack Obama used to say that 'we can’t drill our way to lower oil prices.' Then the revolution in precision drilling and well stimulation proved him wrong. Having lost that fight, the bad guys changed tactics and made it painful for people and companies to invest in oil and natural gas. That led to underinvestment in oil and natural gas resources, which has created our current situation. The hearing made it clear that the Democrats don’t know whether they favor producing more oil or not. That’s, of course, an unfortunate byproduct of their lack of knowledge about the energy industry more generally. We hope they pick a side in this fight soon and get their messaging straight. In the meantime, we remain confident, knowing that greater production of oil means lower prices for consumers. We look forward to the Democrats catching up to the rest of us."
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"Expanding production requires capital investment which requires some level of confidence that policymakers won’t throw sand in the gears of your operation. Perhaps the Democrats' climate messaging has been nothing more than political red meat for its voter base, but in the real world, words have meaning, and telling an industry that your policy goal is to make it obsolete doesn’t encourage new investment or growth."
– Kat Dwyer, Real Clear Energy
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