End the devastating drilling moratorium

With national unemployment at a whopping 9.8 percent, our focus should turn to the thousands of oil industry workers who continue to face joblessness and uncertainty because of the Obama administration's failure to issue new drilling permits, inspections and certifications in the Gulf of Mexico and other offshore areas.

The White House claimed in October that it had lifted its Atlantic and Pacific Ocean offshore drilling moratorium in the aftermath of the BP oil spill. But that is simply not the case. Earlier this month, the administration announced it had rescinded its decision to expand drilling in the gulf and along the Atlantic Coast.

That announcement, plus the deceptive de facto continuation of the moratorium elsewhere, is especially punishing to Louisiana, and its senators and representatives are feeling the heat and frustration from constituents tied to this vital national industry.

The New York Times reported that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said drilling must remain on hold because more stringent environmental and safety standards are needed. Yet many experts argue that current heavy-handed federal regulations actually assisted last spring's oil spill. They are the reason why companies like BP must take risks by drilling three miles down into the ocean to find oil, as opposed to safer drilling that can be accomplished in shallow water.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama promised to reduce this nation's dependence on foreign oil. But the policies of his own Interior Department are designed to make America more dependent on foreign oil by reducing domestic production and relying on the Arab-dominated OPEC oil cartel for assistance if we need to dip into reserves.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement issued an "interim final rule" on Oct. 14 that pursues a policy directly against America's economic and energy interests. Page 69 of this rule claims that the moratorium "will not cause a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, federal, state and local government agencies, or geographic regions."

It continues with this incredible admission: "The deepwater Gulf of Mexico is an oil province and the domestic crude oil prices are set by the world oil markets. Currently there is sufficient spare capacity in OPEC to offset a decrease in Gulf of Mexico deepwater production that could occur as a result of this rule."

The Interior rule goes on to declare: "(M)ore of the oil for domestic consumption may be purchased from overseas markets because the cost of Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas production will rise relative to other sources of supply. This shift would contribute negatively to our balance of trade."

Why this dependence on foreign oil? It is a ruinous policy position, and one I suspect is opposed by a large majority of Americans regardless of their politics. Why is this president ensuring that the United States will be the only country in the world not actively exploring its rich offshore oil resources?

The Obama administration thinks it is OK that communist Cuba can bring in the Chinese and Venezuelans to drill a few miles off Florida rather than allow American companies to explore in American waters.

This makes no sense and leaves one to question whether President Obama really does have job creation as a top priority. It is true he supports "green jobs" that require taxpayer subsidies and federal mandates, but exploring for oil and extracting it from the Gulf and other offshore areas would quickly restore hundreds of thousands of jobs and create new ones -- all the while pumping billions of dollars into the national treasury in royalty and auction payments.

This contradiction on job creation, coupled with a continuing dependence on foreign oil, must be stopped by the new Congress that will be seated in January. This should not be a partisan issue. It is an American issue that should transcend party labels.

The White House recently backed down and crafted, with Republicans and centrist Democrats, an extension of the Bush era income tax rates for another two years. That policy decision will foster economic stability and growth. So, in this vein, it is not too late for the president to change course and end, at least in the Gulf of Mexico, his Interior Department's devastating drilling moratorium.

J.C. Watts (JCWatts01@jcwatts.com), chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group, is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002. He writes twice monthly for the Review-Journal.