Friday, March 16, 2012

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Obama was bragging recently that his administration has quadrupled the number of drilling rigs ("Don't tell me we're not drilling!") This is an exaggeration. If you look at the Baker Hughes rig count data you see that the current rig count is not quite 2000. You have to back before 1999 to find a rig count as low as 500.

Obama is running scared from gasoline prices and is trying to find shelter - so he lies.

The other thing to remember is that Obama is a victim of his own success at raising the price of oil. If the price of oil goes up it will stimulate more drilling as oil companies try to take advantage of a rising market. Take a look at the charts and see how many of those rigs are looking for oil. But never forget that this increase has nothing to do with Obama. This was done by private industry in spite of Obama. Those rigs are drilling on private lands where Obama can't contol the permitting. He's just trying to take credit for something he didn't do. What do you call people who take credit for things they didn't do?

2 comments:

The Lost Goat said...

Mr.President, apparently.

Old NFO said...

Excellent point!