Energy executives, including T. Boone Pickens, weighed in on President Obama’s announcement this week to allow offshore drilling in areas along the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Alaska.
“We should be taking full advantage of every available American resource to help decrease our crippling dependency on foreign oil — a dependency that is slowing our economic recovery and jeopardizing our homeland security,” said Pickens in an interview published on Thursday in The Oklahoman.
Pickens said development of the newly opened offshore areas is still years away, so the country must focus on other domestic alternatives, in particular, abundant supplies of natural gas.
At Chesapeake Energy, Tom Price said the move into new offshore areas is a good first step, but it has no immediate effect on the country’s energy situation at a time when the United States has a 100-year supply of natural gas. Price said it is perplexing that the administration has not paid more attention to natural gas, a cheaper and cleaner burning alternative to oil.
Harold Hamm, president of Continental Resources, said it is nice to hear administration officials say something positive about the oil and gas industry for a change, but the administration still is sending mixed signals. Opening up new avenues for drilling is a good thing, but it appears officials still intend to pursue additional taxes on the industry, he said. Hamm said industry representatives will keep pushing officials to support increased domestic exploration, which he is convinced can help the United States push its oil imports to less than 50 percent of its consumption in the next five years. That would be a psychological boost for the nation, improving the trade balance and creating new jobs, he said.
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