Editorial: Obama and gasoline prices

Gasoline prices remain relatively low across the nation and, once again, President Obama is congratulating himself for it. The trouble is, the relief occurred in spite of, not because of, the president’s agenda.

Last week, during his first public stump speech for Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obama again patted himself on the back for America’s increased energy production and lower gasoline prices. “Remember when we were all concerned about our dependence on foreign oil? Well, let me tell you — we’ve cut the amount of oil we buy from other countries in half,” he said. “Remember when the other team was promising they were going to get gas prices down in like 10 years? We did it.”

In a sense, the president who famously said “we can’t just drill our way to lower gasoline prices,” has a point. His slow, obstructionist approach to opening federal lands to energy production has fueled a boom in oil and natural gas drilling on private and state property.

Citing data from the Congressional Research Service, the Institute for Energy Research this month released an updated analysis comparing oil and natural gas production on private and state lands with production on federal lands. The contrast is staggering.

While some states approve permits within 10 business days, it currently takes an average of 237 days for the Bureau of Land Management to process a drilling request. This has resulted in the Obama administration approving almost 60 percent fewer leases than the Clinton administration and 43 percent fewer leases than the number issued during the George W. Bush presidency.

Not surprisingly, oil production on federal lands in fiscal year 2015 was a mere 0.8 percent higher than its peak reached in 2010, while production on private and state lands jumped by a whopping 113 percent over the same period.

President Obama has repeatedly celebrated his administration’s energy policy, calling it “good for families and good for your pocketbook.” But as the institute points out, today’s affordable energy boom has virtually nothing to do with this president and everything to do with private-sector innovators working around the administration’s efforts to quash the use of fossil fuel resources.

“The Obama administration is offering less land for lease and taking longer to process permits to drill than prior administrations,” the group noted. “As a result of the red tape, oil and natural gas producers are turning to private and state lands to make their investments and to produce affordable energy for American families.”

The president’s self-congratulatory rhetoric about energy prices amounts to nothing more than cynical posturing.