Just about everybody understands the concept of lubricating something to free it up and get it moving. From squeaky door hinges to sliding parts, difficult to open windows to even removing a ring off of a swollen finger, putting a lubricant on it allows it to move freely and gets it moving again.
Although lubricants come in many forms, we commonly refer to them as “oil.” Of course, a good many lubricants are derivatives of oil, just some of the many uses of petroleum. Just a little dab of these lubricants, working the rusted part back and forth and soon, it is moving smoothly again just as it was designed to.
America’s economy can be likened to a machine that when lacking proper lubricant freezes up and stops working properly. Just a like a rusty wheel bearing doesn’t roll smoothly, the economy must be “oiled” from time to time to keep it rolling along smoothly. Restrictive legislation causes the economy to rust up and stop moving smoothly.
The “oil” to lubricate our economy comes in the form of relaxing such restrictive legislation, be it in reasonable taxes for all or removing barriers set in place by legislators who, perhaps well-meaning, overly restrict business from growing and ends up costing the American taxpayer their jobs.
Such an example would be the demonization and barriers set in place over the past many years on our oil companies, the very companies that are charged with the task of recovering and refining the very petroleum that not only supplies our energy needs, but is used in nearly all aspects of our day to day lives. From medical supplies, computer components, clothing and even our food, petroleum products “oil” our economy and keep it moving smoothly.
Currently, our economy is acting like that rusted wheel bearing. It is frozen and not moving smoothly. We see this daily in the high unemployment, high gasoline prices, decreasing home values, rising food costs and the inability of our citizens to find well paying jobs.
We see efforts underway to deny the oil companies drilling rights to the Gulf of Mexico and several other known reserves of petroleum within our borders, increasing our dependence upon foreign oil sources, whose citizens have jobs and contribute to their economies.
I and many other bloggers have long touted how relaxing prohibitive legislation on the oil companies could spark the economy and get it rolling smoothly again. Study after study has been released showing how there are thousands of jobs directly related to petroleum are being wasted while those in control of our government prefer to hedge their bets on so-called “alternative” sources, which remain uneconomical, inefficient and unreliable.
In just the last few days, yet another study was released indicating the oil companies are the lubricant needed to get the economy rolling smoothly again.
This study by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and IHS Global Insight focuses on how, in just a little over a year, by the end of 2012, we could see results of 230,000 American jobs, more than $44 billion in US gross domestic product, nearly $12 billion in tax and royalty revenues for state and federal treasuries and a $15 million reduction in the amount the US sends to foreign governments if oil companies were permitted to operate at their capacity.
A piece of “lubricating” legislation pending currently is the “North American-Made Energy Security Act,” H. R. 1938 that would “direct the President to expedite the consideration and approval of the construction and operation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline” from Alberta, Canada to the Texas Gulf.
A Press Release from The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power upon their approval of this piece of legislation states in part,
“Completion of the [Keystone XL] pipeline expansion will bring nearly 1.3 million barrels per day of safe and secure oil into U.S. markets. In addition to bringing more oil online, the pipeline expansion project is estimated to directly create 20,000 jobs for its construction and many thousands more related to the effort.”
An email received from the Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urging support of this legislative “oil can” states,
“America continues to import an increasing amount of oil from foreign partners, some of whom don’t share our best economic or national security interests. In fact, in 2010 the United States spent $72 billion more on imported oil than we did in 2009.”
Our much needed economic lubrication is there, just waiting to be applied.
Showing us how the Obama Administration remains reluctant to reach out and grab the “oil can” to lubricate the economy, the American Petroleum Institute’s Mark Green, on API’s Energy Tomorrow blogsite supplies some corrective information to answers given by Barack Obama to questions posed to him in a Kansas City KMBC News interview.
From documenting how we in America are not “producing more oil than we ever have,” to the oil companies investing almost $60 Billion in “alternative energy research,” and the oil companies seeking more “environmentally sound ways” to recover our own resources, Green expertly shines a light in on the many canards promoted that keep the wheel bearings of our economy rusted and not moving.
Referring back to the newly released study above, we can see that just in the Gulf of Mexico alone,
“pending exploration plans are up by nearly 90%, approvals are down by 85%, and the approval process has slowed from an average of 36 to 131 days.”
The bearings supporting our economy and that it rolls on smoothly are rusted and preventing it from moving. Both figuratively and literally, our economy is in bad need of being “lubricated” with oil.
It’s time for Barack Obama and any others who have been reluctant to give our economy the lubrication it needs, to reach out and grab hold of that much needed oil can and let’s get it moving again.
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