New rating shows US 44th in energy competitiveness

By Ed Lasky

Now it is official: Barack Obama’s animus and actions towards our energy companies are choking off the prospects of America developing our own energy wealth.

From Steven Hayward , writing at Powerline:

It is almost as if the United States deliberately wanted to be more dependent on foreign oil. Consider that while the World Economic Forum rates the U.S. 4th in its ranking of the world's most competitive economies, it would rank far down the list if the WEF were to look at the competitiveness of the oil and gas industry in isolation. A proprietary ranking of political and investment risk for oil and gas by IHS's Petroleum Economics and Policy Solutions unit places the U.S. 44th, below several African nations such as Angola, which is ranked 18th. As an IHS analyst observes, in the U.S. "there is the constant threat of adverse contract or fiscal regime changes at both the state and federal levels of government. None of these threats or business risks is present in Angola."

Angola has a long history of political and military strife (civil wars and the like). It is an undeveloped nation with all the attendant problems involving corruption and regulatory roadblocks. Nevertheless, Barack Obama has created a regulatory regime that makes energy exploration in America a big risk for energy companies- a risk that makes Angola a far more congenial place for exploration.

Here in America: oil and gas exploration and development permits have been withdrawn (after energy companies spent years and millions of dollars to do the exploratory work); coal mining permits have been yanked away in West Virginia after private companies have spent millions over the years to prepare to open a new mine; vast swaths of federal lands have been placed off-limits for exploration; the permit process has been afflicted with sclerosis; offshore areas have been hit with a de facto and de jure moratorium-to an extent that a federal judge has held the Obama administration in contempt for not following his orders to ease the moratorium.

Barack Obama wants to pull tax incentives in another move that would curtail American energy production. Shale gas is attacked by allies in Congress (though the EPA head, Lisa Jackson admitted there is no proof behind the assertions that fracking-which releases shale gas trapped in rocks, posed any risk to water supplies); the list of administration actions that retard the tapping of our own vast reserves grows longer and longer as time passes.

And this will not change until Barack Obama leaves office.