With very little time left in the campaign, President Trump is trying to exploit the comments that Vice-President Biden made about the future of energy in Thursday night’s debate.  Vice-President Biden’s statement meet the classical definition of a gaffe — when a candidate actually speaks the truth.

The reality is that whomever wins the election the oil industry is in trouble.  And the major oil companies have known this for years and have made adjustments to compensate.  It’s the folks on the ground relying on the oil industry for their jobs that do not know what the suits in the offices have already come to terms with.

I grew up in the oil belt in the 70s and 80s.  Even then, the U.S. oil industry was in trouble.  The simple reality is that we have a lot of foreign competitors who also have vast oil reserves.  The health of the U.S. oil industry is closely linked to the price of oil.  When oil is over $60 per barrel, the U.S. oil industry is in good shape. When oil gets down to $30 per barrel, it is really not cost-effective to drill for new wells in the U.S.  And, as time goes on, old wells also become less cost-effective as all of the “easy” oil has been removed and it is more expensive to coax the last drops of oil out of the well. Continue Reading...