http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/opinion/krugman-natural-born-drillers.html?_r=1

"And this tells us that giving the oil companies carte blanche isn’t a serious jobs program. Put it this way: Employment in oil and gas extraction has risen more than 50 percent since the middle of the last decade, but that amounts to only 70,000 jobs, around one-twentieth of 1 percent of total U.S. employment. So the idea that drill, baby, drill can cure our jobs deficit is basically a joke. "

 

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http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Fossil-Fuel-Production-on-Federal-Lands1.png

Crude oil production on Federal and Indian lands decreased 13 percent from 739 million barrels in fiscal year 2010 to 646 million barrels in fiscal year 2011. Production of crude oil on Federal lands is dominated by offshore production, which fell by 17 percent in fiscal year 2011, mostly notably due to government actions taken following the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. These actions include a moratorium on offshore drilling by the Obama Administration, followed by a permit moratorium. Only recently has the Obama Administration leased any federal land offshore to oil and gas drilling


Natural gas production on Federal and Indian lands decreased every year since fiscal year 2003, the earliest fiscal year EIA reported data. In fiscal year 2011, natural gas production on federal and Indian lands was 4,859 billion cubic feet, 10 percent less than in fiscal year 2010, and 31 percent less than in fiscal year 2003. Offshore natural gas production volumes have been on a consistent downward trend for the last 9 years, and are 63 percent less in fiscal year 2011 than in fiscal year 2003.

Natural gas plant liquids production on Federal and Indian lands peaked in fiscal year 2010 at 115 million barrels and declined to 111 million barrels in fiscal 2011, down 3 percent.

Coal production on Federal and Indian lands peaked at 509 million short tons in fiscal year 2008 and decreased each year since then. In fiscal year 2011, coal production on Federal and Indian lands was 470 million short tons, down 2 percent from fiscal year 2010 production and 8 percent from the peak in fiscal 2008.


Conclusion

The big picture is clear that government policies undertaken by the Obama Administration have produced a significant decline in offshore oil production on federal lands in fiscal year 2011. That is certainly not a way to increase domestic production of oil and keep oil and thus gasoline prices in check


http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2012/03/15/fossil-fuel-production-on-federal-lands-at-9-year-low/


See also–The Myth that the U.S. Only Has 2% of the World’s Oil

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2012/03/13/exposing-the-2-percent-oil-reserves-myth/


Proven oil reserves are not all of our oil resources—not even close. In fact, proved reserves represent a tiny portion of our total oil resources. Proven (or proved) oil reserves are reserves that have already been discovered, typically through actual exploration or drilling, and which can be recovered economically. That estimate does not include oil that we know about, yet are unable to access because of regulatory barriers. For example, the billions of barrels of oil in ANWR are not included in our proved oil reserves. So let’s look at the facts.

Currently, the United States has 1,442 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, but only about 20 billion barrels are considered proven oil reserves.[ii] That is partly because the federal government is denying access to hundreds of millions of acres oil-rich federal lands: the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, the Naval Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, at least 45 percent of the Gulf of Mexico, the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and oil shale on federal lands in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, to name a few. In the case of oil shale (an oil composed of kerogen), technology needs to be perfected to make its production viable, but this will not happen until the land is leased. Regrettably, the Department of Interior has stopped a leasing program Congress directed it to undertake.

Proved Oil Reserves Are Not Static

Let’s take a look at history. In 1944, U.S. proven oil reserves were 20 billion barrels — about the same as they are today. Yet, between 1945 and 2010, the United States produced 167 billion barrels of oil. In other words, the United States produced over 8 times more oil than the amount of proven oil reserves it had in 1944. How can that be? The answer is that proven oil reserves are not stagnant because people keep looking for oil. Proven oil reserves keep changing, are officially recorded every year, tallied country by country, and published in the Oil and Gas Journal, among other publications. And due to U.S. entrepreneurship and ingenuity, more reserves are found and proven each year.


Conclusion

Proven oil reserves are not stagnant. They are continually changing as companies explore, find and produce oil. Declaring that “the U.S. has only 2% of the world’s oil is akin to saying that the only gasoline we will have is that which is in our tanks.” The president should know better, and if he does not, his Secretaries of Energy and Interior should tell him.

So, what can be done to increase our oil reserves? First and foremost, the United States needs to open more federal lands and waters to oil leases. Currently, only about 3 percent of government property is leased for finding energy. Once that is done, American ingenuity will take over to explore and produce those resources. ”According to a Gallup poll, an overwhelming number of consumers — 85% — say Obama and Congress should take “immediate” action to keep a lid on (gasoline) prices.”[v]

It is time our government stops misleading the American public and starts owning up to the reality of our energy situation – we are a nation rich in energy resources with poor policies that do not allow us to access them.


December Unemployment Rates Nebraska: 4.1% National: 8.5% Next Release Date: Mar 13th at 9:00

http://www.dol.nebraska.gov/

 

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Eastern Montana Oil Boom Helps State Unemployment Rate

http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/30672508/detail.html

MISSOULA, Mont. -- New numbers out this week show Montana's unemployment rate fell for the sixth straight month, but Western Montana is still feeling the pinch.
Unemployment statewide dropped to a seasonally adjusted 6.5%, almost two percentage points lower than the national rate of 8.3%, but eastern Montana and the Bakken oil boom is credited for driving down the average.

 

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http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1143496--unemployment-rate-dips-in-february-but-job-creation-stalls

Canada shed 2,800 jobs last month, Statistics Canada said Friday. That’s well below the estimated 15,000 gain economists had expected, marking the fifth month in a row the numbers have disappointed.

The latest job loss was particularly hard on young people, ages 15 to 24 years, especially in Ontario, the data showed.


bad news for younger Canadians, many of whom gave up looking for work last month, a trend that worries labour economists.

“This huge withdrawal from the labour force is a sign of weakness in the job market,” Erin Weir, economist for the United Steelworkers of Canada, wrote in an email. “Most of those leaving the labour market were young people in Ontario and Alberta. Nationally, 25,000 of the 38,000 who dropped out were younger than 25.”

As well, real wages in Canada are failing to keep pace with inflation, Weir noted, commenting on the fact average hourly wages grew just 2.1 per cent in February compared to a year ago.

 

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pop. of montana : 998,199

2% of 998,199 = less than 20,000


"the idea that drill, baby, drill can cure our jobs deficit is basically a joke. "

 

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Krugman is one of a small handful of people I'll skip over without reading. 100% partisan with a complete disregard for truth.

 

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"Drill baby drill" isn't about jobs, it is about letting the world know that we are serious about making the country energy dependent.

It isn't the sole solution, it is just one of many things that we should be doing towards that goal.

When the world realizes that we actually mean it, the price of oil will start to collapse as OPEC attempts to make our new exploration cost-prohibitive. That's always been their game.

Canada has already regained all the jobs it lost during the 2008-09 recession while the U.S. is still catching up. Overall, Canada’s labour market is 179,000 jobs above its pre-recession peak.

 

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Solving our energy problems is critical to the US economy in both the short and long term. Drilling is inevitable but drilling as a substitute for planning for the future will only make things worse in the long run.

 

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