Riiiiiight. Yeah, the Obama administration really tried to put a screeching halt to drilling, huh?
NOT.
That, sir, is only an assumption on your part. Try actually going with the real numbers, instead of with your assumptions. Let the NUMBERS - and not partisan rhetoric - be your guide.
So...why is it, then, that we are now a net oil EXPORTER, but our prices have not dropped? Why is that? We haven't added any extra taxes on gas since we became an oil exporter, so you can't blame the government...so WHY is it that our prices haven't gone down?
Of course, we can't blame Big Oil...because they're very, very patriotic and would never ever squeeze the market for as much as it could get. They wouldn't close down or reduce production at refineries in order to decrease supply and thus keep prices high,
would they?
Did we become energy independent when we became a net oil exporter? No. We could double our current oil production and we'd still be importing oil. Why? Because ALL oil production is fungible - it goes on the world market as soon as it's pumped. As long as there are other nations drilling oil more cheaply than we do (and they always will since much of ours is now done through more-expensive fracking), we will always import oil...no matter how much we drill.
Yeah, the government's SO terrible with those onerous regulations, huh? BTW, you did hear about the Gulf oil spill, right? You know, the one that happened because BP was too doggone cheap to buy a $500K part that would have prevented the spill...the same part that other major oil producers like Brazil and Norway require?
Here's a clue, guy - if you want to see how great it is when government doesn't regulate oil drilling, go look at what's happened again and again and again in third-world nations where the drilling faces little regulation or has no regulation at all.
AGAIN, guy - when we became a net oil exporter, WHY did our prices at the pump not fall? According to the we-love-Big-Oil Right, if only we'd get out of Big Oil's way and let them drill all they want to, our prices at the pump would fall, right?
Well, we're not only drilling more now than EVER before, but we're also a net oil EXPORTER...meaning that we can't use all the oil we're drilling.
And have our prices at the pump fallen? Have they? NO.
And you call that "not relevant". WHY HAVEN'T THE PRICES FALLEN? Big Oil is drilling more than ever before, we can't use all they're producing, and STILL our prices have not fallen.
Can you not see a problem there?