Tired Of Waiting On The President Wyoming Drills For Oil
Gas prices are so high, don't you just want to go out in your own backyard and drill for oil yourself?
More than a few Wyomingites are looking at their own back yards and thinking just that.
They know that underneath their crops and cattle is an abundance of coal, gas, and oil.
So why doesn't someone just go for it?
When asked why we aren't drilling for more oil on American soil, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki suggested we ask the oil companies why they had 9000 leases on private land and were not developing them.
Taking her advice, I asked them.
Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller joined me on the Wake-Up Wyoming program and explained that, in fact, oil companies want to work for a living. It's those currently in charge in government who don't want them to.
He explained that just because oil is under private land does not mean that the minerals under the land, or oil, in this case, is owned by the landowner above
In the case of Wyoming, most of that oil is owned by "The Feds."
That means, under current rules and regulations, it will take 7 to 10 years of plowing through government bureaucracy just to set up a well and start pumping.
The Biden administration is making that pile of paperwork even deeper.
Add to that, supply chain problems.
Right now it is just about impossible to get almost any piece of equipment needed to drill.
You can blame the government for that too. The economy did not shut itself down in 2020, and kept it shut until 2022.
Shutting down pipelines like the Keystone XL only made the situation even worse.
Finally, getting employees to come back to work has been hard. I asked Mr. Obermueller where everybody was. He just sighed. He had no idea.
Meet Steve. Steven has had enough.
Steve is now in his own back yard, with a shovel, digging for oil.
He's not sure what he's going to do if he finds any. "But it's a start," says Steve.
His neighbors and friends have been drinking beer in their back yard watching Steve dig in his back yard.
"Doesn't he know you just can't dig for oil with a shovel? It doesn't work like that.
"Yeah but, I'm still tempted to help him. I mean, have you seen the price of gas today? Hell, the price of everything."
"I'm with you. Soon as I finish this beer."
Okay, that last part of my story is fiction, but honestly, are getting that frustrated.
But Steve has a point, in one sense. Damn the government paperwork. Just get to work and let's fix this.