March 05, 2009 05:46 PM UTC

Williams Energy admits industry strategy is to drive up consumer prices

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• by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Remember the ‘Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less’ shtick?  We were told then–from the likes of Newt Gingrich, with a straight face–that Big Oil wanted nothing more than to drive down consumer prices so we could all have more affordable energy.

These companies wanted nothing more than to keep drilling and drilling and drilling, so we could all ‘Pay Less.’

Oh how things change when energy prices actually come down.

Today the Sentinel is reporting:

Williams, however, is keeping its Piceance Basin holdings in anticipation of an economic resurgence…

Keeping its stake in western Colorado and “living within our means” will position Williams for growth when the time comes, he said.

“Energy prices will rise again,” most immediately as a function of the massive lay-down of drill rigs across the region, Hill said. [Emphasis Twitty’s].

…Prices will climb as the excess supply is used up, with little new drilling under way. The trend toward lower prices could reverse itself by the fourth quarter this year, said Hill, who has headed Williams’ exploration and production efforts for a decade.

I’m so confused. It’s like oil and gas companies want high energy prices or something.  And that these companies are intentionally manipulating consumer fears to lock up more public resources (but not actually drill on them), and to gut new regulations, so that–once they cut supply sufficiently to push prices back up, laid-off workers and subcontractors just being collateral damage–they can get back to business as usual, making record profits off the backs of consumers.