Crisis in the Oil Patch: How America's Energy Industry Is Being Destroyed and What Must Be Done to Save It [Hardcover]

Donald Paul Hodel (Author), Robert Deitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1994

"...likely to spark vitriolic policy debates in Washington." DS The Washington Post

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hodel, who served as Secretary of the Energy and Interior Departments during the Reagan administration, and Dallas journalist Deitz here assert that America's oil industry is overregulated by Washington and pulverized by "environmental extremists." They argue that the "domestic oil and gas industry is being destroyed by imprudent public policies that are making the nation increasingly dependent on foreign energy supplies." Unfortunately, their specious solutions lack objectivity. Hodel and Deitz maintain that America must avoid "politically correct" but "technologically flawed" policies (e.g., Clinton's short-lived BTU tax), remove "the alternative minimum tax on domestic oil and gas exploration," curtail foreign oil imports, restore "an oil depletion allowance" and "open up for oil and gas exploration and development all promising federally owned land." Alternative scenarios are eschewed by the authors. Though titillating and likely to spark vitriolic policy debates in Washington, their arguments run out of gas.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Not since Ruth Sheldon Knowles's 1980 diagnosis of America's Energy Famine (LJ 12/15/80) has such an unabashed psalm to big oil appeared. The subtitle leaves little doubt of the book's direction. For the slow, however, the chapter titles will dispel any lingering doubts. The industry's inability to develop our "Oceans of Oil" can be traced to the financial and environmental restrictions we impose on it. The outcome: "The Golden Goose Murder" and resultant economic, social, and political "Wages of Imprudence." Curiously, the book's overkill also makes it attractive. There has been no shortage of balance-free writing on the other side, and Hodel's analysis offers an interesting return visit to the leave-it-to-the-free-market energy philosophy of the Reagan administration, in which he served as both secretary of energy and of the interior. Recommended only for libraries seeking comprehensive collections in the energy field.
Joseph R. Rudolph Jr., Towson State Univ., Md.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 185 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing (March 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895265028
• ISBN-13: 978-0895265029
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,737,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Crisis in the Oil Patch - Donald P. Hodel, April 17, 2009

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Joel D. Vaughan (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crisis in the Oil Patch: How America's Energy Industry Is Being Destroyed and What Must Be Done to Save It (Hardcover)

Would that current and future policy makers read and learn from this master of conservative thought as they consider and try to prevent future crises at the pump.