The Patriot Post® · Great Time for Some Capitalism in U.S. Oil Industry

Oil is flooding the world market. The U.S. shale oil boom got it there, driving gas prices through the floor, and now, the U.S. oil industry is starting to shutter because of low demand. Fewer than 900 oil rigs are in operation in the nation – the lowest number since 2011. Lynn Doan at Bloomberg Business reports, “The country has sidelined 709 oil rigs in 14 weeks as a price collapse has prompted the nation’s energy producers to cut billions in spending and eliminate thousands of jobs. The retrenchment threatens to slow the shale boom that turned the U.S. into the world’s largest fuel exporter. Oil analysts, traders and investors have been monitoring rig counts to determine when output will retreat enough to balance the market.” But this is no reason to worry, writes Jazz Shaw at Hot Air, because America still retains oil-producing superiority. Instead, Shaw continues, America’s bureaucrats could help the oil industry and those thousands of unemployed rig workers by lifting some of the regulations that forbid oil companies from exporting U.S. oil on the international market. More…