"Drill, baby, drill"

In the blog ‘PowerLine’ I found an article written by John Hinderaker, a Minnesotan lawyer. Hinderaker has been writing for the past twenty years and some of his articles have appeared in National Review, The American enterprise, and American Experiment Quarterly. In this article he questions President Obama’s oil production policies and his decision to freeze oil drilling in Gulf of Mexico. Hinderaker claims that the President Obama is obstructing Gulf oil production and this is the main reason behind rising gas prices. I believe he has not been paying much attention to all the recent turmoil’s in the Middle East, a major oil importing region to US. It is true that the drilling permissions have been denied by the Obama Administration. However, the reason behind this decision is quite different from what the author has explained in his article. After the Deepwater Horizon spill and its severe damages to the environment, Obama put in place some limits to offshore drilling in an attempt to protect our environment not to make US more dependent of foreign energy sources.

In his press conference President Obama emphasizes that the US only controls 2 percent of world oil reserves and as a result we need to think of alternative energy sources for long term. John Hinderaker calls this a “long-discredited canard that is a favorite on the Left”. He claims that the definition of “proven reserves" of petroleum is not universal. I agree with him that maybe we control 4, 6 or even 10 percent of world oil, but what does it matter how much oil we control. The fact that fossil fuels will run out one day is not arguable. Americans have to think of the future. This is the reason President Obama encourages and invests money on alternative energy. Not to “waste money on subsidies for inefficient sources of energy like wind and solar.” Mr. Hinderaker concludes that that Barak Obama is a fraud with respect to energy; he is “anti growth and anti wealth.” I believe this an invalid conclusion with respect to the evidences provided. Just because the President actually care about the environment does not mean he is against Americas’ economic growth.