Drilling new oil wells and gas rigs is going to be uneconomical within a couple of decades anyway. Why fight this fight, Republicans?
Their genuine answer, even if not always spoken out loud?
"Maybe, but you know how much money I can make in the next 20 to 30 years doing this?"
Maybe. But you need your rig to operate for a pretty long time before it actually becomes profitable for the investment. Definitely most existing rigs are still profitable, and maybe some new ones are profitable for a little while longer, but exploration and new drilling has been mostly a money-loser in recent years. I actually represent a fair number of companies that invest in oil and gas (mainly gas; oil is in much bigger immediate trouble), and none of them have been doing well lately (meaning the last six years; none of them really ever recovered fully from the crisis in 2015). It's true that there are issues other than purely competition from renewables and renewable energy mandates, but it's increasingly hazy if the investment will line up to solve those issues, either. Battery technology isn't quite there to *completely* eliminate oil and gas, but oil and gas are not the growth industry they once were: New investment will be chasing smaller and smaller returns, and, eventually, a shrinking pie.
At some point soon, everyone in the industry is going to realize the party years are never coming back, and that will dry up the lobby money really fast - no point in lobbying to drill in protected lands if you can't make money off it anyway. The smart ones have already called the coal executives for advice on how to manage a declining business in the coming decades. Or are just retiring.
