The Last Barrel

For this month and next month, this column will focus on oil and gas election issues in the U.S., because at no other point in the lifetime of most people in our industry, have the stakes been higher. This might seem of little consequence or interest to some of our readers in other countries, but I would disagree. What happens in this U.S. election cycle this autumn will have significant ramifications for energy policy in this country, and whatever happens on the oil and gas front in the U.S. eventually impacts the global market. This month, the topic centers on a subject that we brought to you six months ago, but which has persisted despite our efforts to set the record straight. What I’m referring to is the chronic habit of President Obama and his White House advisors and surrogates to mis-state, distort and/or twist the facts about oil and gas operations, especially when they do it as a means of pumping up financially disastrous “green energy” schemes.