Harold Hamm reflects on the 40th Anniversary of the OPEC oil embargo.
Hamm is described by Forbes.com as the billionaire founder of oil company Continental Resources, who is famous for being one of the first wildcatters to take a chance in developing the Bakken field of North Dakota.
Here’s an excerpt of his op-ed at Forbes.com:
Today it’s time to celebrate how far America has come since the OPEC Oil Embargo of 1973. Never again are we going to be held hostage and extorted. With vast new supplies of oil, America has the ability to become energy independent and gain all the associated benefits – and it isn’t necessary to retool American infrastructure. Although natural gas is an important part of our energy mix, the infrastructure required to convert vehicles to CNG is too expensive. To put it in perspective, people aren’t dying in the Middle East over natural gas.
Although oil is harder to find and does not share the same ubiquity as natural gas, what we’re doing today is working. We’re making an immediate impact in terms of creating jobs, national security and wealth in America.The industry supports more than 9 million U.S. jobs. New supplies are creating an extra $1,200 per year per family in America. Perhaps most significantly on the 40thanniversary of the OPEC Oil Embargo, U.S. gasoline prices are down despite an escalating crisis in the Middle East and we are no longer beholden to go to war and sacrifice American lives to protect our oil interests.
Meanwhile, the North Dakota farmer who stumbled across a large oil spill that recently made headlines told the local Tioga Tribune that he’s tired of all of the media attention:
SayAnthingBlog.com shares this highlight:
Was he angry or bitter about the damage, a potential threat to his health and well-being?
“It’s not like you would think,” he said. “I’m not jumping on a bandwagon of negativity.”
“If you had to shut progress down, what sort of future would you have? We all like our cars, our planes, our warm houses. If I had to go back to horses to farm and chopping wood to stay warm, I don’t know.” …