Obama jobs panel pushes domestic drilling

Reuters reports that “President Barack Obama’s jobs council called on Tuesday for a corporate tax overhaul, expanded domestic drilling and new regulatory reforms”. Since this is an energy blog, I found the inclusion of domestic drilling especially interesting.

The backdrop for this is that the U.S. unemployment rate is high at 8.5%, the labor force has contracted at 6.1 million jobs below the pre-recession level, and the election is only 10 months away. The recommendation is interesting because President Obama is a Democrat, whereas Democrats traditionally oppose both domestic drilling and cheap energy.

Fossil fuels are still the goto energy sources when you need to address economic concerns. For example, ANWR has about a trillion dollars worth of oil, and the only thing preventing drilling there is government regulation. Whereas alternative energy sources are not yet economically viable, and the only thing that keeps them afloat is government regulation (see recent example with windmills).

Reuters notes:

"The Jobs Council recommends expanding and expediting the domestic production of fossil fuels – including allowing more access to oil, gas, and coal opportunities on federal lands – while ensuring safe and responsible development of those sites," the report said.