U. S. Government Oil and Gas Policies
Authors: Laird Wilson M. 
Published: December 2007

Introduction

Under the word "policy", Webster offers the definition of "prudence or wisdom in the management of affairs." An alternate definition is "a settled course adopted and followed by a government. . ." In the preface to the dictionary, the reader is informed that in general the order of the definitions given for any of the words follows the practice of placing the earliest ascertainable meaning first, and that later meanings are arranged in the order shown to be the most probable by dated citations and semantic development.

Does this mean then, in the strictest sense of the word, that when a government sets about to develop policy for whatever it has in mind at the moment, it policy for whatever it has in mind at the moment, it is first glided by "prudence and wisdom", but then after a certain amount of time has passed and after our semantics experts have had a go at it, policy becomes a settled course adopted and followed by a government", and "prudence and wisdom" have fallen by the wayside?

I do not wish to challenge Webster nor do I wish to attempt to offer you a more acceptable definition of policy. But I would emphasize that transfer from the sometimes abstract of the dictionary to the realities of everyday life is not without its contradictions.

So it is with our energy policies, and certainly with respect to the policies on oil and gas of the U. S. Government. I can list for you the objectives of energy policy objectives so broad and so unchallengeable that virtually any nation in the world would be willing to subscribe to them. These objectives are in essence an adequate supply of cheap energy, from stable and diverse sources, whose production and use are as free as possible of damage to our environment. We can all agree on these points, and they indeed form the guidelines your government attempts to follow when undertaking courses of action that may have impact upon the current or future well-being of energy producer and consumer alike.

To describe the objectives of an energy policy is one thing; but it is quite a different matter to define succinctly just what this energy policy is, and even more difficult to make this policy work. problems are so complex, so diverse, that they problems are so complex, so diverse, that they literally defy solution through the formulation of standing policy that may be applicable now and for some time to come. Rather, we continue to seek fulfillment of our broad objectives through judicious interplay among federal and state governments and the private sector.

Role of Federal, State, and Local Authority

There is no single agency to bring about coordination and eliminate overlapping that adds to the difficulties of our task. All branches of the federal government have inputs that affect energy policy. To this must be added the several independent agencies such as the Federal Power Commission (FPC) and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) that play a major role in their own areas of competence. But in the petroleum industry, government activity-both Federal and local-has been confined almost exclusively to regulatory functions. Private enterprise has had the responsibility for the development and our oil and gas.

In the legislative branch nearly all of the congressional committees affect one or another aspect of energy policy, and in the executive branch we have some 61 bureau-level organizations that have substantial concern with one or another aspect of the energy field. The Post Office probably has been the lone organization not probably has been the lone organization not involved in energy policy in some fashion.

State and local governments hold considerable authority over the energy-producing industries, especially in pollution control, taxation and conservation. The procedures and policies that these state and local governments follow are in no way uniform, although some attempts toward solution of mutual problems, notably the interstate Oil Compact Commission (IOCC), have been successful.

The Private Sector

Scholarly works do not usually identify the private sector as a force in policy decisions in private sector as a force in policy decisions in countries outside the United States.

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