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Report says U.S. must drill

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By GARY PERILLOUX AND TED GRIGGS
Advocate business writers
Published: Feb 19, 2010 - Page: 6B

A national group of utility regulators claims restrictions on federal oil and gas reserves could cost the United States $2.36 trillion over the next two decades.
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners this week released a study of how much moratoria on drilling for oil and gas on federal lands and in federal waters could cost the nation, if active leasing doesn’t follow the 2008 lifting of presidential and congressional restrictions in Outer Continental Shelf waters.
Without the new domestic exploration through 2030, the group said:
- Domestic crude oil production would drop a total 9.9 billion barrels, or 15 percent a year.
- Imports from OPEC would rise a total 4.1 billion barrels, or 19 percent a year
- Domestic natural gas production would fall a total 46 trillion cubic feet, or 9 percent a year.
- Natural gas prices would rise an average 17 percent a year.
- Electricity prices would go up about 5 percent a year, the group reported.
David Dismukes, associate executive director of the LSU Center for Energy Studies, helped advise the utility commissioners in organizing the research.
The work began the winter after Hurricane Katrina, Dismukes said, when many state regulatory commissions saw the impact of high natural gas prices in utility bills.
“They (the commissioners) wanted to do a study to see what the implications were on supply availability and prices as a result of these moratoria areas,” Dismukes said.
This was also around the time Congress was discussing whether to end the bans on drilling in some offshore areas, Dismukes said. The regulators wanted to figure out what the resource base was in the areas where drilling was banned.