My blog yesterday pointed out that the oil industry still trots out the old rhetoric of our nation’s need for energy independence and security even though it also states that the US has achieved energy security and abundance.
Here is the quote last week from the industry in its efforts to derail government programs to promote energy conservation:
Surging U.S. and gas production has brought on “energy security and abundance,” Frank Macchiarola, a group director of the American Petroleum Institute trade association, told reporters this week, in a telephone call dedicated to urging scrapping or overhauling of one U.S. program for biofuels.
Fears of oil scarcity used to be a driver of U.S. energy policy, Macchiarola said.
Thanks partly to increased production, “that pillar has really been rendered essentially moot,” he said.
And while that message was be given last week, here is what David Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council was telling the Sunshine State News last week in advocating for seismic testing for offshore oil in the Atlantic:
We’ve got to look at this long term and exploring offshore is a part of that for the United States’ energy and security interests.
Come on guys. Get your story straight.
Or does it depend on who you are talking to and what you are trying to push down our throats?