Absolutely policy matters, but the 2021 price increases have very little to do with availability of lands for oil production. Federal lands only represent about 20% of oilfield land ownership; the vast acreage in oil fields are private lands. And there are currently over 9000 active federal leases on 26 million acres that are available for production. Available leases is not the limiting factor. 80% of oil field lands are private or state lands, and most of the productive oil field land that are federally owned are already leased, with the exception of Alaska. Several years ago, the Department of interior offered leases in Alaska’s north slope with no bidders. It costs too much to produce petroleum products in Alaska. In my state where production costs are low and petroleum is plentiful, oil companies have stated in the local news that production costs increased in 2021, due to finding skilled workers and increased wages. Many skilled workers left the industry during the Covid layoffs and didn’t return. Also the cost of reopening shut wells and recouping shareholders for 2020 losses are significant.
No federal government opened leases on private lands, that makes no sense. State governments regulate private lands not the federal government. Neither the last administration or the current have made much difference in the lands available for production. Since you are so busy bashing the federal government policies, why don’t you state your ideas for how the government can lower prices; specific ideas. I will offer tpolicy decisions that would help:
1. Reduce fuel taxes and fund roads another way.
2. Ban export of US oil and take us off the world market pricing.
3. Offer tax incentives for companies to operate on less profitable oil fields such as Alaska and subsidize transportation costs.
Now your turn. Be specific instead of bashing the current government and worshiping the previous administration. Let’s hear some ideas.
