Onshore, the President has used his executive powers to limit oil and gas activity on vast regions of government lands. Congress has refused to authorize exploration on that small section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that was specifically set aside by law for possible exploration in 1980. More recently, the U.S. Forest Service moved to make it more difficult for our companies to explore for oil and natural gas on government lands when it announced a plan to bar road building in 43 million acres in the forest system. Yet, technology has revolutionized how oil and natural gas are found and produced. For example, we now can produce more oil with fewer wells thanks to three-dimensional seismic equipment that locates hydrocarbons with greater precision and directional drilling technology that allows a variety of productive reservoirs to be accessed from one location.
Fewer wells mean less disturbance of the environment.
Offshore wells can now safely capture oil and gas in ocean depths of thousands of feet in areas far offshore. We need to recognize that the oil and gas industry of the 21 st century has the tools to decrease our dependence of foreign oil while protecting our environment. The government can reduce the potential for market volatility by making environmental regulations more reasonable and workable and by considering the impacts on consumers of the reduced system flexibility brought about by the increasing complexity of the regulatory framework in which the industry must operate. Improved regulations would give companies more flexibility to adjust to problems that may have temporary impacts on supply and price. This applies especially to fuels regulations, including EPA's new diesel sulfur proposal, which sets a standard beyond what the technology will support.