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So the Moratorium is lifted?- Really?- so why is nobody cheering? 10/13/2010

The great Washington Elite, the Exalted Wise Ones “Up There”, hath spoken: the Moratorium is “over”. All kneel… Raise your beer cans. Are you feeling emotional yet?

Out of the goodness of his heart, exercising compassion on the dirty, unwashed, ragged Oil and Gas Workers from down Louisiana way, Grand Pooh-Bah Ken Salazar, our beloved Interior Secretary, has decreed that the Moratorium is no longer required. Why? Well, if you believe the political hype, and the fawning Media hype, (same thing), then the credit is due to our Government. Hurrah! Hurrah! Thanks be to goodness, (and Mullah Obah-MA! Of course) new safety rules have been written by our Government, and it is these Safety Rules which are saving the day. New regulations. New requirements. And lots of nice new bureaucrats have been appointed, to keep an experienced eye on those nasty Oil and Gas Workers. Wonderful work, our Government does. Wonderful work.

Actually… they have not all been written yet, those rules. Some have. Sort of. But most of it is still to come. But as we all know, the Government is full of Experts. They know all about Oil and Gas. (and Banks, Finance, Health Care, manufacturing cars…) So that shouldn’t take too long. A decade or three perhaps. And as for all those very nice bureaucrats, who are very knowledgeable about Oil and Gas… they have not yet all been appointed. But that shouldn’t take too long. There are stacks of volunteers for these $150,000 per year jobs. Green Peace activists, Environmental Apostles, Wash the Pelican Acolytes, and Hug the Bunny Believers, are busy standing in line to be considered. After all, they have lots and lots of experience, flying over the Oil Spill in BP chartered helicopters, looking down and tutting furiously. It will all work out. We know what a great Job the Government did with the Post office, when they had a Monopoly.

If you are an Oil and Gas Worker, (“And Damn Proud of it”) (see our bumper stickers) or an Oil and Gas Consumer (“And Damn Proud of it”), then you might just be feeling a whole lot less than elated. Bowing down and kissing Ken Salazar’s feet may not be your first instinct right now. Whatever the Non Gulf States might think, whatever Jo Public elsewhere might think, the Oil and Gas Worker is feeling cynical. And betrayed.

Why?

It’s not just going to take “a few weeks for drilling activities to resume.” Dream on, Mr Salazar.
It’s going to take somewhere between many, many months and for-frickin’-ever. Consider the ugly truth behind this election orientated gimmickry.
Who honestly thinks the Government can run anything? What good can conceivably come from introducing a mammoth, paper pushing bureaucracy, staffed by a newly appointed horde of pencil sucking, desk driving Soviet Era State “Apparatchiks “? Enforcing reams and reams of new regulations that have not even been written yet? You have to be an out an out Statist, a blind devotee of the concept of Big Government, to believe much real good will ever come from such a layer of expensive Middle Men. Much more likely is the scenario of endless delays, paper shuffling, costs, frustration, and, ultimately, reduced investment in the Gulf of Mexico. Ergo: less and less jobs.

But truthfully, we suspect that is really the intent, anyway. This Administration is irrevocably wedded to the need for votes at any cost. If pandering to the extreme “Eco-tists” , the “Greens” and the Bunny Huggers is what it takes to win the election, then nobody in Washington is going to lose any sleep over several hundred thousand Oil and Gas Sector Workers in the Gulf States. Let them rot. Let them eat cake. The Billions of taxpayer dollars sent overseas, to places like Mexico and Brazil, have made sure that those nations love us. Forever. And of course they will keep the price of their Oil down as low as possible if they see the Gulf of Mexico stagnate. Right? So what’s a few hundred thousand Americans unemployed? Who cares. Our Mullah-in-Chief may talk compassion for the unemployed, but his actions prove otherwise…
Looking at Comrade Salazar’s own words, we see him, as always, jumping through hoops to please the extreme eco-tists. “As we transition to a clean energy economy, we will still need oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico to power our homes, our cars, our industry.”
A “clean energy economy”. Wow. So what does that make us? The dirty, unwashed, polluters of Creation? The “filthy energy economy”? The unfortunately needed economy, to be kept alive for as short a period as possible, until such time as “clean energy” arrives, in the form of solar, wind, geothermal, bunny power and rice milk??

The naivety of Jo Public regarding the fundamental importance of Oil and Gas from the Gulf of Mexico, is unfortunate. Most states couldn’t care less that 30% of US energy requirements come from down here. Most voters couldn’t care less either, as long as they can enjoy all the benefits of the labor and toil of the Oil and Gas Man. Few voters stop to consider the strategic importance of Gulf of Mexico Energy.

The bottom line of all this is clear:

1) The Moratorium may be theoretically “over”, but in practice, what one Government hand appears to be giving, the other is quickly taking away. Huge obstacles are being put in place to a free and unfettered investment in the Gulf of Mexico.
2) The continued financial shakedown of BP amounts to an orgy of predatory litigation. Everybody and his dog can sue, will sue, must sue, and is being encouraged to sue. The whole concept of “unlimited liability” will give many an investor second thoughts. In what is an expensive and risky undertaking anyway, deep water drilling in US waters may prove to many to be too much like Russian Roulette. Why assume the risk, when around the world, other governments are welcoming Investors with open arms?

Between Red Tape and Unlimited Liability, the Multi National must ponder his options.
He is not helped by Jo Public, the voter, who is asleep at the steering wheel, taking way too much for granted. He may not wake up until it’s too late, and when he sees the price of a gallon of gas go through the proverbial roof. “Then stick a windmill up your exhaust pipe, and see how quick you go…”
The message we Oil and Gas workers need to get out to the voters is crucial:

“Start drilling – or start paying!”

Keep kicking!

Horace Oilee

CLICK HERE TO GO TO MORATORIUM PROTEST MAIN PAGE

Last edited by Horace Oilee on December 18, 2010, 9:02 pm