At the same time, demand increased from 14.6 million barrels per day early in 1999, and reached 15.4 million barrels per day by October 1, 1999. Logically, our production should grow as demand grows. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. And now we find ourselves victims of an energy policy dependant on the kindness of other oil producing countries. During the last two years, the American oil industry has been hammered with regulations and perverse tax incentives .
Regulations place ridiculous restrictions on how, where, and when producers can work.
They are subject to excessive reporting and permitting rules that increase their overhead, hurt their profit margins, and decrease their likelihood of survival. Rather than having one or two big regulations that harm producers, there is a vast mosaic of rules and restrictions that interact and come from several agencies to slow down domestic production and frustrate domestic producers. Perverse tax incentives. Presently, there are tax penalties on domestic oil and gas production. Then, we need to save marginal oil production through an aggressive tax incentive program.