Just before the RNC Convention, Mitt Romney announced his Energy Plan To Energy Independence. In reality, we are likely to be energy independent faster if he is not elected. The process has already began but he is making it his plan. If you read into his plan well, it would be a wonder he does not upset what would be a clear victory in Texas ( i’ll explain later).
Now that is a easy thing to say but let me give you some tough realities.
Just with the idea of Domestic Oil and Gas production has been increasing the past couple of years and most of this increase is do to hydrological fracturing or “fracking” deep shale deposits. The price of natural gas has been coming down swiftly as there is more supply than demand. So much more supply that most company’s drilling has come to a near limited halt until a new infrastructure of pipelines can be created to get it to processing plants and then to the end user.
Current drilling rigs have been displaced from western Pennsylvania to eastern Ohio where they have discovered oil and “wet gas” that make ventures a whole lot more profitable in the “Utica Shale” play.
Fleets of gasoline and diesel trucks are being converted to natural gas. That play should relieve any bottlenecks that the refiners complain about when they hike their prices.
Compressed natural gas (CNG) stations are springing up everywhere to serve these fleets and soon any car or truck.
Wind energy generation capacity continues to expand and is not near 2 percent utilized even at all those new wind generators. Some states like Ohio and Michigan could be key net exporters of electric energy from wind generation just from the massive wind in their lakes.
One could ask why Romney or anyone else would want to open for new wells of the coast of Virginia or North Carolina because the trend does not show we are going to need it and I would like to think of those as a last resort because in at peace time, the U.S. Military is the largest consumer of oil outside of the U.S. as a whole.
It is the same as we have seen for the last few decades. we allow it to be drilled, oil company bids it and they drill just a few wells to tie it up. Or they just drill and not pump. Don’t forget it is in the oil company’s’ interest not to produce very much as it keeps the price going up.
I think it is time to put expiration on lease contracts of public property drilling. Drill it, pump it in a set time before your lease is up !
Now why does this Energy Plan not upset folks in Texas?
Why should they be upset? Pretty simple. Even those in Texas thought they were for the XL pipeline until they were faced with eminent domain right of ways were being used to plow through private property for not a utility, but a private company. Yes, they are stormin mad and I can’t find a reason for Romney to say anything about it in his energy plan. If he should lose Texas, he would have to win Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida and some other unlikely states to win.
The other thing I just can’t figure out the purpose of in his energy plan is for the states to have control of the offshore drilling. Those states in question have bigger regulations stopping it than the federal government. Unless they figure it is more corruptible at the state level.
In any case we are already on a path to energy Independence with or without Romney and his plan. It could happen even sooner if demand goes down from effective use. Trends show as the baby boomers get older, we will drive much less.
As always, energy independence has been a national security issue to me but I can only think that if Romney gets elected and follows through with his plans, we might not achieve this and of course they will blame it on the democrats. But a whole bunch of folks will get rich over the matter that otherwise would not.