Skip navigation


Current DateTime: 05:35:58 09 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 24355697

FEATURED QUIZZES


Current DateTime: 05:35:59 09 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 33793611

Current DateTime: 05:35:59 09 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 24890560
  • Winterizing Your Portfolio

      If 2009 was the winter of our discontent, will 2010 be a winter wonderland for investors? A lot depends on the recovery—or lack thereof.

  • Investor's Guide to Real Estate

      Some even say the long-awaited recovery is here. Regardless, buyers and sellers alike can profit from our guide.

  • Alternative Investing

      Stocks and bonds? Sure. But it's a big world out there for investors.

powered by digg
Top Oil Executive: 'Quit Rhetoric' On Energy Policy
By: By CNBC.com | 15 Jul 2008 | 08:09 AM ET
Text Size

Congress should follow President Bush’s lead in opening up the outer continental shelf to oil and gas exploration and seek other non-partisan solutions the nation’s urgent and substantial energy needs, an oil industry veteran tells CNBC.

“It’s an American problem,” said John Hoffmeister, former CEO and president of Shell Oil's US operations, adding that the powers that be in Washington need to “quit the rhetoric and get on to solutions.”

Hoffmeister’s endorsement of the president’s decision to lift the existing executive order barring activity in the area known as OCS comes amid heightened debate about how the US will satisfy its energy demand as crude oil and gasoline prices continue their seemingly endless ascent.

In his public comments Monday, Pres. Bush said the OSC is capable of producing ten years of oil, based on existing US output, which currently represents about one-third of the 21 million barrels of oil the nation consumes daily.

The President had previously called upon Congress to repeal legislation barring activity in those areas as well as the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, known as ANWR, which is supposedly capably of producing about 1 million barrels a day.

Hoffmeister, who recently left the company to found the non-profit group, Citizens for Affordable Energy, also stressed that both the Congress and the President need to adopt a sense of urgency and think in “energy time,” not political time, stressing that exploration and development takes years.

“Seven to ten years is like a couple weeks to them,” he said. “This twenty looks at 25-40 year cycles.”

Critics of the President’s proposal – which includes Congressional Democrats – often dismiss new drilling because of it’s the long lead time involved.

“In real time, it will not make any material difference,“ admitted Hoffmeister, but was quick to add that such short-term thinking has helped lead to the nation’s predicament.

“For thirty years we have been denying industry the capability to expand, “ he said. Americans are paying the price of years of not wanting to increase their natural resources.”

Hoffmeister also played down criticism of the industry’s unwillingness to actively pursue existing leases elsewhere in the country, saying their prospects were low, “so you don’t drill.”

© 2008 CNBC.com
Tools:
Print EmailAdd This share icon
  • digg share

CNBC HIGHLIGHTS

  • Do free market libertarians really believe what they say about ethics and shareholder value? The Big Money takes a look.
  • Jim Cramer
  • Cramer did the research and found eight stocks that lead the pack. Read on to get his top picks.
  • On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, many in the former Eastern Bloc recall communism fondly.
  • Gavel
  • Software, biotech firms, even banks are watching a particular Supreme Court argument today.
  • From politicians to CEOs to companies, here's your chance to vote for the winners and losers of 2009.
  • A new sinister Internet viruses can turn you into an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.
ADD COMMENTS
Remaining characters


Current DateTime: 03:21:08 09 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29778428

Current DateTime: 01:47:27 09 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779196

Current DateTime: 04:47:44 09 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779199

Current DateTime: 01:47:27 09 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779198
  Data is a real-time snapshot  *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis

© 2009 CNBC, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
A Division of NBC Universal
Thomson ReutersThomson Reuters