Romney's Energy Plan

By Robert B. Semple Jr
August 24, 2012

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/romneys-energy-plan/

Ridiculing a campaign document is like shooting
unusually large fish in a barrel, but Mitt Romney's
new energy "plan" is so fantastical and extreme that
I feel compelled to fire away.

Let's start first with the premise of the plan, which is
also its promise: that energy independence is an
achievable goal for America by 2020.  Presidents
have been talking about energy independence since
Richard Nixon and haven't come close. The simple
truth, as President Obama has recognized, is that a
country that holds less than 3 percent of the world's
reserves but consumes more than 20 percent of the
world's supply cannot drill its way to energy
independence. More production will help, but true
independence from foreign imports - not to mention
fewer greenhouses gases and a safer climate, a
subject Mr. Romney never touches upon - will
depend on developing alternative fuels and more
efficient vehicles.

Mr. Romney's position paper says that
independence can be achieved if we "partner closely
with Canada and Mexico. " But that wouldn't do the
job either, even if Mexico and Canada sent every
single barrel they produce to the United
States-highly unlikely since they might want to use
some of it for themselves.

Mr. Romney further suggests that oil production in
the United States would magically increase if the
states were allowed "to oversee the development and
production of all forms of energy on public lands
within their borders." An act of Congress would be
required to transfer to the states hundreds of
millions of acres now managed by the Interior
Department and the Forest Service.  But, setting
that aside, Mr. Romney's federalist plan echoes an
election year perennial, the idea (dating all the way
back to the Sagebrush Rebellion a generation ago,
and fostered by the oil and gas and timber interests)
that all will be well if we allow the states to reclaim
public land originally ceded as a condition of
statehood, or acquired by act of Congress .

At one campaign stop, Mr. Romney said he did not
know the "purpose" of the public lands. The
purposes, under established law, are various:
recreation, preservation, resource development.
States, as a rule, tend to be interested mainly in
resource development. In the energy future
envisioned by Mr. Romney, that is precisely what
would prevail.

Finally, Mr. Romney would have us believe that
domestic oil and gas production has fallen off a cliff
during the Obama administration. That too is
ridiculous. Domestic crude oil production is actually
up slightly from 2004, to 5.6 million barrels a day.
And despite a necessary slowdown in the Gulf of
Mexico after the BP oil spill, the number of rigs in
American oil fields has quadrupled over the last few
years.

Mr. Romney has raised millions of dollars in Texas
over the last few days, and it would be tempting to
draw a connection between this bonanza and his
energy policy were it not for one fact: Fossil fuels
have been front and center in Mr. Romney's energy
policy since the beginning of this race.

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