The Democrat Party, led by Barack Obama, is obstructing the flow of oil
Political pressure is one of the major influences on the price of oil. Democrats
in Congress need to have an endless series of crises to solve. The United States has
plenty of oil, but much of it has been placed off-limits by the Democrats in Congress and
(years ago) in the White House. To allow more drilling here at home would have the effect of
lowering gas prices at the pump. That would make the (Republican) President look like a
problem solver, and the Democrats can't afford to have that happen.
Democrats and environmentalists are
co-dependent. Democrats pretend that only they care about environmental issues,
and environmentalists help to maintain public pressure by creating an endless series of
environmental crises for the government to solve. Unfortunately, the federal government
almost never solves any problem. Problems keep bureaucrats employed, so real solutions are
out of the question. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency was established by President
Nixon at a time when air and water quality in this country was really poor in the big cities. Now
that those problems have been all but eliminated (airborne lead has been reduced by over 99 percent),
the EPA is still around, looking for more and more minute problems to solve. Other agencies
are the same way, and now there are hundreds of
busy-work bureaucrats.
Obama's "green energy" policies won't work.
Two powerful forces are pushing crude oil prices up. First, the Obama Administration is restricting American
production of oil through its "no drill America" energy policy, in which it obstructs efforts to increase domestic
oil and gas production. This is bad for consumers not only because it restricts total world supply, but
especially because it restricts supply from sources unaffected by foreign political instability. Secondly,
oil from the Middle East remains vulnerable as illustrated by Iran's continuing threat to mine the Straits of
Hormuz and so block 35 percent of all world oil carried by ship.
Narrow Interest Blocks Big
Pipeline. The Obama Administration, encouraged by environmental groups, has blocked yet another
affordable energy project — the Keystone XL Pipeline. Add this to the unconscionable slowdown
of leasing and production in the Gulf of Mexico, foot-dragging on production in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas,
blocks on offshore production in the Atlantic and Pacific, and continued prohibitions and impediments to production
in non-park, non-wilderness areas of the Western U.S. and ANWR. For each one, the claim is that the
production wouldn't make much difference.
ANWR — Is President Obama Serious
About Domestic Oil Production? President Obama admitted in the State of the Union that energy
production creates jobs, so why isn't he opening up new areas like the North Slope of the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge (ANWR) for oil and gas production? As we have noted numerous times, the federal government leases a
mere 3 percent of federal lands for energy production. The United States is already the world's third
largest oil producer, but we could produce a lot more oil if the federal government would let the American people
explore for oil on more federal lands.
[Italics in original.]
Obama on
Energy: An Exercise in Nuance. Obama's "Green Energy" policies are based on the global
warming hoax. His decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline project pleased environmentalists,
but at the cost of 20,000 jobs. And "global warming" is Obama's scare tactic. During his State of
the Union (SOTU) address on January 24, 2012, Obama applauded his administration for increases in oil
and natural gas production in the U.S. He also claimed that the federal government, under his watch,
invented hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.
Senate
GOP floats bill to bypass Obama and approve Keystone. Senate GOP leaders are flexing their
constitutional muscles with a new push for approval of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline. Citing Congress's
powers under the Commerce Clause, Senate Republicans floated legislation Monday [1/30/2012] that would bypass the Obama
administration and approve TransCanada Corp.'s pipeline to carry oil sands crude from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries.
Moving
Oil on Buffett's Railroad. It's already been widely reported that Warren Buffett, a major shareholder
in Obama, Inc. will be one of the primary beneficiaries of the decision from the White House to kill the Keystone
pipeline and the jobs it would create. The administration now makes no attempt at all to disguise the fact
that most decisions he makes are made in the best interest of Obama, Inc. shareholders.
Rejection
of Keystone XL a Hammer Blow to Economy. Obama has blocked a project that would have given the United
States a secure and safe pipeline that would have fed our economy with 700,000 barrels of oil every day —
and created hundreds of thousands of jobs. And this from our most trusted and closest trading partner, Canada.
That's nearly half of what the United States receives from the Persian Gulf, through the Strait of Hormuz, which is
shaping up to be the next global flashpoint for military conflict. If that does happen, Obama will learn just
how it feels to be "rushed" into a decision about energy policy.
Obama claims credit for cheap
natural gas. President Barack Obama has been taking the credit for the worldwide boon of cheap natural-gas,
and declining to give credit to the entrepreneurial energy industry.
Dem
lawmaker says 20,000 Keystone XL jobs 'not that many'. Chicago Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) drew fire
from Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) on Wednesday [1/25/2012] when she dismissed the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline,
suggesting the 20,000 jobs it could create were relatively insignificant in the scheme of the greater economy.
Drawing a pipeline in the
sand. On Wednesday, Rep. Fred Upton's House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to question Kerri-Ann
Jones, assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environment and scientific affairs, about the administration's
choice. "We want to know why this project was derailed at the 11th hour after an extensive review process and with
time to spare before the president's deadline," the Michigan Republican said in a statement Thursday [1/19/2012]. The
House had given Mr. Obama until Feb. 21 to act on the project.
Destroying America
by Denying Access to Energy. It is the crime of the century that America, home to some of the world's
greatest reserves of coal, natural gas and oil, is being deliberately destroyed by the Environmental Protection
Agency and the Department of the Interior as they do everything in their power to restrict access and drive energy
producers out of business. It is common sense that a nation that cannot produce sufficient electricity to
turn on its lights and power its manufacturing sector will be destroyed if current Obama administration
regulations and actions continue.
Obama loves oil! Not!
Without his nose growing visibly, the President claimed the government was behind the technological advances that
led to the current shale gas boom, and even suggested that he might take credit for the rise in domestic oil
production. In fact, Mr. Obama's administration has hampered and castigated oil companies at every turn.
In the light of the hysterical grandstanding over the BP Gulf spill (whose impact proved to be greatly exaggerated),
it was ironic indeed to hear the President now declare a great opening up of offshore exploration.
What can the President do to make America Prosper? The President's
policies are raising energy prices, which makes consumers poorer and destroys jobs in energy-intensive industries.
If President Obama is sincere when he says that 'we can't wait' to create jobs and economic growth, then he should
reverse his anti-energy policies and tell the EPA to stop its regulatory onslaught against coal-fired electricity.
He could start tonight by taking back his decision to block the Keystone pipeline.
Keystone Kops energy
policy. In his State of the Union speech, President Obama had barely cleared his throat when he
outlined his vision for an American "future where we're in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity
aren't so tied to unstable parts of the world." Just days before, he had delivered a crippling blow to
his own plan.
15
Questions The Mainstream Media Would Ask Barack Obama If He Were A Republican: [#5] When
you took office, gas was $1.79 per gallon. Since then, you've demonized the oil industry, dramatically
slowed offshore drilling, blocked ANWR, and killed the Keystone Pipeline. Now, gas is $3.34 per gallon.
How much higher do you anticipate driving gas prices?
Let's
restore sanity to environmental reviews. "The score is Job-Killers, two; American workers, zero.
We are completely and totally disappointed. This is politics at its worst," Laborers International Union of
North America President Terry O'Sullivan said last week following President Obama's decision to require more
environmental study of the Keystone XL pipeline. Unions weren't the only ones roundly criticizing
Obama's transparent cave-in to environmental activists. The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal,
the Chicago Tribune, the Houston Chronicle and USA Today all condemned the decision too.
President Obama's job-killing environmental extremism.
The Keystone XL pipeline would have been a 1,700-mile pipeline transporting Canadian tar sands oil to Texas
refineries for domestic use and export. Tens of thousands of jobs for Americans in six U.S. states were
expected to be created as part of this project. The pipeline would have aided in reducing dependence on
Middle Eastern oil, provided more oil for U.S. refineries and accelerated free trade with Canada. But
President Obama seems to be too busy pandering for green voters to worry about reducing unemployment.
Buffett's
Burlington Northern Among Winners From Keystone Denial. Warren Buffett's Burlington Northern
Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration's
decision to reject TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit. With modest expansion,
railroads can handle all new oil produced in western Canada through 2030, according to an analysis of the
Keystone proposal by the U.S. State Department.
The Editor has two questions:
Do railroads present less danger to the environment than pipes? And why is the State Department involved
in this anyway?
Congress has legal clout on
Keystone pipeline: study. The Congress has the constitutional right to legislate permits for cross-border oil
pipelines like TransCanada's Keystone XL, according to a new legal analysis released late on Friday [1/20/2012]. The
study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service could give a boost to Republicans drafting legislation to overturn
a decision this week by President Barack Obama to put the $7 billion Alberta-to-Texas project on ice.
Environmentalism and the Leisure
Class: This week President Obama handed down what may prove to be one of the most fateful decisions of
his entire administration when he rejected the plan to build the Keystone XL Pipeline carrying oil from the tar
sands of Canada to the refineries of Houston. ... In turning down Keystone, however, the President has uncovered an
ugly little secret that has always lurked beneath the surface of environmentalism. Its basic appeal is to the
affluent. Despite all the professions of being "liberal" and "against big business," environmentalism's main
appeal is that it promises to slow the progress of industrial progress.
Rejecting
the Keystone pipeline is an act of insanity. President Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline
from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn't often that a president makes a decision
that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won't even advance the goals of the
groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his reelection that, through some
sort of political calculus, he believes that placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances.
Obama's Keystone Blunder.
Using the fig leaf of a State Department review of the environmental impact on Nebraska of a possible pipeline rupture,
Barack Obama has killed the Keystone XL pipeline project, and with it tens of thousands of good paying jobs.
Aside from the oddity of the State Department acting as the protector of the environment of a landlocked state (isn't that
the job of the EPA, and hasn't the pipeline already passed EPA review?), it is hard to see how the decision will benefit
Obama poltically.
Obama the Job-Killer.
Republicans shouldn't let a single day go by without reminding voters of the Keystone pipeline, the most visible
symbol of the Obama administration's hostility to economic growth and job creation.
A
Lose, Lose, Lose, Lose, Lose Proposition. If the Keystone project raises environmental issues, then
every other comparable one would too. It is not as if the route bisects Yosemite on its way to Big Sur.
How strange — we assume that the Saudis or the Turks can build pipelines across their own lands without
environmental problems, but that we, the apparently less technologically advanced, cannot. We hear that oil
is "fungible"; if so, each barrel that we pass on, someone else less green won't.
Republicans
fume as Obama rejects Keystone pipeline. In an election-year decision that pits the Democrats' twin
pillars of big labor and environmentalists against each other, the Obama administration Wednesday rejected the
proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have provided tens of thousands of jobs from the Canadian
border to Texas.
Obama rejects the Keystone XL pipeline and blames Congress. The Anti-Jobs
President. The central conflict of the Obama Presidency has been between the jobs and growth
crisis he inherited and the President's [eager] pursuit of his larger social-policy ambitions.
The tragedy is that the economic recovery has been so lackluster because the second impulse keeps winning.
Yesterday came proof positive with the White House's repudiation of the Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada's
$7 billion shovel-ready project that would support tens of thousands of jobs if only it could get the
requisite U.S. permits. Those jobs, apparently, can wait.
The Passive-Aggressive
Presidency. The Obama administration today [1/18/2012] denied a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline,
which would bring crude from Canada's tar sands to Texas' refineries. But as National Journal reports, that
doesn't mean the pipeline will never get built.
Obama administration rejects Keystone XL pipeline.
The State Department will shoot down the Keystone XL pipeline, closing off a valuable source of oil and discarding
thousands of American jobs. ... Supposedly the State Department might still be willing to entertain an alternative
route for the pipeline... but of course they'd dither forever, the President would repair to the golf course, and
the "alternative route" will end up leading to Beijing.
Only
Obama and Big Green oppose Keystone pipeline. All that stands between the start of work and the
creation of thousands of good-paying jobs in America is a green light from President Obama. But Obama
fears angering thousands of campaign contributors and workers associated with the Big Green environmental
movement, which rabidly opposes Keystone. So he's waffled and delayed a decision until after the
November 2012 election.
Interior
Department energy propaganda misleading, disingenuous. The interior department announced Tuesday [1/10/2012]
that oil and gas lease sales on public lands increased 20 percent in 2011, generating more than $250 million
in profits for taxpayers. The fact, however, is that oil production on federal lands, lease sales, and revenue
have drastically declined during the Obama administration. "The American people need only to check their
electric bills or the price they are paying at the pump to see just how well the Obama administration's energy
policies are working. ... The president promised to make energy prices 'skyrocket,' and so he has." ... said
IER Senior Vice President Dan Kish.
Keystone
XL pipeline: Oil chief issues threat to Obama over decision. The head of the US's biggest oil
and gas lobbying group said on Wednesday [1/4/2012] that the Obama administration will face serious political
consequences if it rejects a Canada-to-Texas oil sands pipeline that has been opposed by environmental groups.
Oil
industry: 'Huge political consequences' if pipeline rejected. A top oil industry official delivered
a clear warning to President Obama Wednesday [1/4/2012]: approve the Keystone XL pipeline or face "huge
political consequences." American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard urged Obama to quickly approve
the pipeline, which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
Obama's War on U.S. Energy.
The Obama administration delayed the proposed Canadian Keystone XL pipeline that would provide more oil for
America's needs. It imposed an illegal moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. While
China drills for oil off the coast of Cuba, access to offshore oil is restricted on both the East and West
coasts of America and, of course, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. According to the Department of
Interior's 1987 resource evaluation of ANWR's Coastal Plain, there is a 95% chance that a 'super field'
with 500 million barrels would be discovered.
Obama's Delay On Keystone Carries A Large Cost.
In November, the White House announced it would delay deciding on the project until after next year's election.
Administration officials claim they need more time to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of the $7 billion,
2,100-mile project to transport crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to major American refineries in the Gulf Coast.
Create wealth, not jobs.
"There's no reason for Republicans in Congress to stand in the way of more construction projects," President
Obama told an Ohio crowd in September. "There's no reason to stand in the way of more jobs." However,
the president now wants to block a massive private-sector construction project that would create the thousands
of jobs he demands — the Keystone XL pipeline.
The Keystone Ultimatum.
One provision would force a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days. This is the most
shovel-ready project in America, as the TransCanada company has already made plans to buy the steel pipe to carry
crude oil from Canada and the Upper Great Plains to the Gulf of Mexico. The pipeline would create thousands
of new jobs, both immediately and downstream, which is why the Teamsters and other unions support it. But
Mr. Obama's green financiers see the pipeline as a conveyer of evil carbon, and so the President recently
postponed any decision past the election into 2013.
Union Leaders Blast Obama For Keystone XL Pipeline
Delay. Obama's other two job-creating ideas are extended unemployment benefits and infrastructure
spending. "Infrastructure" is an ancient Greek word meaning "huge construction project." Trans-continental
pipelines, for example. The President's ideologically and politically motivated indecision could do a lot
more than simply "delay" the pipeline, which Canada could route in other directions, if America doesn't
want it. [Brent] Booker correctly fears such an outcome.
Obama's Keystone cop-out.
President Obama has done everything in his power to keep oil from flowing through the Keystone XL pipeline.
TransCanada says this $13 billion project would put 20,000 to work immediately, but the Obama administration wants
none of it.
Obama
Blocks The Biggest Shovel-Ready Project Ever. The president says that extending unemployment benefits
and the payroll tax cut will create more jobs than an oil pipeline from Canada. There are at least 20,000
members of the 99% who would disagree.
Obama
Insists He's 'All In' for Domestic Energy Production. President Barack Obama, who punted a
decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline until after the presidential election, nevertheless insists
that his administration has gone "all in" when it comes to domestic energy production. He also flatly
refused any give-and-take with Republicans to speed up the pipeline project.
Top 10 Most Needed Government Reforms.
[#6] Energy production: It is far past the time for the federal government to get out of the way and
let America's vast energy resources be developed. With large coastal oil reserves and shale oil potential in
the heartland, it is a crime that America can be held hostage for its energy needs by Middle Eastern madmen.
White
House denies pipeline delay was political decision. The White House is pushing back against fresh
GOP claims that the administration had politics in mind when it delayed a decision on whether to approve the
Keystone XL oil sands pipeline until after the 2012 elections. Senate GOP leaders revived the allegation
Wednesday when rolling out new legislation that would force a decision about permitting the proposed Alberta-to-Texas
pipeline within 60 days.
Will
The EPA Choke Oil Shale Production? The latest salvo in the administration's war on energy may be new
rules and permits to regulate a process to get oil and gas from porous rock, sacrificing jobs and economic growth
while under review.
Energy in America: No Bridge to
Oil. North of the Arctic Circle, the tiny village of Nuiqsut, Alaska, has become the latest flash point
in the struggle between oil drilling and environmentalism. The town, with a population of 400, nearly all
Eskimos, sits on the edge of the Colville River and the National Petroleum Reserve, or NPR. How isolated
is it? It takes four flights and eight hours to get there from Seattle. Conoco Phillips wants to
build a road bridge and pipeline over the river to connect to the nearby Alpine development, which sits just outside
the NPR. But the Army Corps of Engineers rejected the plan telling, the oil company it had to go under the river.
Obama's Disastrous Energy
Record: The energy policies of the Obama administration have made America less safe and have significantly
contributed to our nation's high unemployment rate and lackluster economic growth. At the same time, President
Obama's failure to expand our oil resources has led to higher prices at the gas pump for all Americans. In
short, the Obama administration has been an utter failure in managing the energy sources of the United States.
Hey Obama: Gas Up and Go.
[This is] the most anti-oil, anti-energy administration this country has seen since the failed presidency of
Jimmy Carter. ... But that's what happens when your president goes on a jihad against American energy.
Obama has opposed coal, he wants to be punitive against the oil industry, won't allow drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge and, in a politically cowardly move, stalled plans for the Keystone XL pipeline.
The only energy Obama seems to support is the mass anger of Occupy Wall Street.
'Lazy'
Isn't America's problem. President Obama was wrong to say at the Asia-Pacific economic summit that
America has gotten "lazy" in the last few decades at attracting foreign investment. What he should have said,
in light of his administration's handling of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, is that America has become quite
adept at blocking it.
Powering Down: Federal regulation is
killing energy development. American energy policy is increasingly defined in terms of what is
prohibited, not what is promoted. Coal, nuclear, and natural "shale" gas all have been hampered by the current
administration.
China
wants our crude, Canada says. Canada expects strong interest in its heavy crude oil reserves from
China after the U.S. government balked on a major oil pipeline project, the government said.
Sticking
Our Head In Tar Sands. The administration plans to study rerouting the Keystone XL pipeline until
after next year's election, delaying needed jobs and energy. By that time, Canada's oil will be on its
way to China.
Canada
Looks to Asia after Oil Pipeline Delay. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is disappointed with
the Obama administration's decision to delay construction of TransCanada Corp.'s $7 billion Keystone XL
pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. The delay is designed not to ruffle environmentalists feathers
before next year's election. Harper says Canada won't wait and will start selling more of its energy products
to Asia.
Obama
to Be Involved in Keystone XL Pipeline Decision. President Obama says he will be
closely involved in the decision on whether to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline
that has pitted two of his key constituencies, labor unions and environmental groups, against
each other.
Obama,
Liberals, And Destructive Energy "Policies". President Barack Obama seems to have determined that
our problem isn't so much "foreign oil," but oil itself. His Administration has sought to force the nation
away from consuming all types of oil — both foreign and domestic — and to move us in the
direction of his environmentally preferred "green" energy sources. Unfortunately, the President has
approached energy policy just as he approaches most everything else — with the naïve assumption
that as long as lots of government programs and mandates are established, the agenda will be accomplished and
all will go well.
Obama's Regulatory
Excess and Abuse. Shortly after Obama took office, his Interior Secretary Ken Salazar "canceled
land leases for energy development on 77 parcels of land in Utah. Then he canceled a pending oil-shale
lease sale based on his expert judgment that it 'didn't meet the smell test.'" Kerpen adds, "Overall there
has been a steep drop-off in leasing on federal lands.... 2010 saw a 79 percent drop in leasing in
Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming from 2005. Total onshore royalties dropped
33 percent in just two years." Even more virulent is the Obama Administration's attack on coal,
which the President seems to have targeted for quick phaseout, even though we have the world's most expansive
coal reserves, offering 200 years of inexpensive energy.
We must remove energy production
obstacles to create jobs. Two of the biggest challenges facing the United States are getting people
back to work and becoming less dependent on foreign oil from hostile countries. Unfortunately, the President's
rigid belief that stimulus spending could create private-sector jobs has failed and left us with higher unemployment
and skyrocketing debt. His energy policies undermine America's security by making it more difficult for
entrepreneurs and private employers to produce domestic energy resources.
A Disastrous Presidency.
The gulf lost 40,000 jobs when the president decided it was best to shut down all oil production after the BP oil
spill. The approval for Keystone XL Pipeline sits on his desk, awaiting his signature. It would
connect Canadian oil from the tar sands of Alberta with refineries in Cushing, Oklahoma and Nederland, Texas,
while providing 20,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs. With recent discoveries and improvements in
drilling techniques, some have called America the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. America also has the
largest oil reserves in the world; the Bakken Formation alone is said to contain more than 11 billion
barrels.
Sen. Inhofe: Obama's EPA Waging War on Fossil
Fuels. "The President of the United States wants to destroy American energy," said Oklahoma GOP
Sen. James Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee. "His intention is
to kill fossil fuels, which we rely on for 99% of the energy in America. "All of this killing of our
energy supply is not by accident. It's on purpose."
Texas
EPA Czar Pushes 'Urgency' Drilling Regulations. Fearing President Barack Obama might not get
re-elected to the White House in 2012, Texas EPA Czar, Al Armendariz, a professor at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, called for greater "urgency" in getting oil and gas fields in the Lone Star to be
declared as "health hazards."
Greens
want terror oil in your gas tank. Canada, not the Middle East, is the No. 1
supplier of oil to the United States, a symbiotic relationship that has existed for decades.
What's more, the Canadian province of Alberta is home to the world's third-largest petroleum reserves.
Viewing America as the most logical market for its expanding production, the government of Alberta
and the TransCanada Corp. are proposing a pipeline called Keystone XL to bring crude oil from Alberta
to refineries along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.
End Mindless
Energy Policy. Of all the absolutely mindless things coming out of Washington these days, it's
hard for me to imagine anything more mindless than the Obama administration's thinking on energy policy.
His energy secretary has said he thinks we'd all be better off if gas cost $7 per gallon. They've used
the BP oil spill, whose lasting environmental impact seems to be minimal, as an excuse to end all deepwater
drilling and virtually all other drilling. This has crippled the economies of oil-dependent states,
particularly those along the Gulf Coast.
Oil
industry study: Wider drilling would add 1 million jobs. A study commissioned by a
major oil-industry lobbying group found that federal policies to expand oil-and-gas development
could add 1.1 million U.S. jobs over the next decade and bring in $36 billion in federal
revenues by 2015. "We can be a major driver in the economic recovery and we stand ready to
do so," said American Petroleum Institute (API) President Jack Gerard in an interview about
the study, unveiled Wednesday [9/7/2011].
The
Obama energy crisis as you've never before seen it. It's been eclipsed somewhat
in recent months by the continued stagnation of the economy and the increasingly loud Republican
presidential nomination battle, but the energy crisis caused by President Obama's Permatorium on
drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is just as serious as it ever was. And it's going to get worse
if something isn't done soon to lift the bureaucratic strangulation being applied to the oil and
natural gas industries by Obama's Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Congressman warns Alaska pipeline could be dismantled within 10 years.
The Obama administration is setting the stage for the dismantling of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and poses the
greatest threat to its existence today, according to House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings.
The 800-mile pipeline cost $8 billion to construct in the 1970s, and has moved more than 18 billion
barrels of crude oil. Three oil companies constructed it, in the face of significant opposition from
environmentalists, in response to the 1973 Arab oil embargo.
Ruby Red Tape.
The abstraction known as "regulation" is often invoked as a reason businesses aren't growing or hiring fast
enough, and with good reason. Anyone wondering what that means in practice should consult the epic saga
of the Ruby pipeline.
Solving
Our Debt Crisis Through Energy Freedom. Things would not look so bleak if the federal
government allowed more freedom in the development of American energy resources. Energy freedom
would boost economic growth and lower oil prices. The fiscal crisis would be eased as more
revenues flowed into the Treasury, and fewer people needed unemployment benefits and food stamps.
Solving
Our Debt Crisis Through Energy Freedom. Things would not look so bleak if the federal
government allowed more freedom in the development of American energy resources. Energy freedom
would boost economic growth and lower oil prices. The fiscal crisis would be eased as more revenues
flowed into the Treasury, and fewer people [would need] unemployment benefits and food stamps.
The Tea Party,
Right About Everything. [Scroll down] According to a new study by IHS Global Insight,
merely picking up the pace in granting oil drilling permits would go a long way in producing jobs throughout
the US, adding to GDP and reducing dependency on foreign oil sources. In 2012 alone it could mean
230,000 new jobs, $44B more in GDP, 150 million more barrels of oil, and $15B less in
imported oil.
Oiling
The Economy. With the job market in the dumps, and the president moving that to the top of his
priority list, wouldn't getting out of the way of 740,000 jobs that could be created in the oil industry be a
no-brainer? Well, no.
Petroleum
leader decries 'extreme' regulations. Despite President Obama's pledge to cut red tape for job-creating
industries, regulations and other delays are holding up billions of dollars in investments and thousands of
jobs for oil and gas producers, the head of the American Petroleum Institute tells The Washington Times.
Obama's assault
on the rule of law. [Scroll down] In 2008, the Senate voted against the "cap-and-trade"
bill that would have created a carbon-tax system and vast federal power to interfere in the energy market.
So the Environmental Protection Agency declared carbon dioxide a pollutant and has embarked on a massive scheme
to impose cap-and-trade through bureaucratic power. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama's green fascists have virtually
shut down new oil exploration and drilling.
Obama
continues his war on cheap American energy. Barack Obama's EPA has been on a crusade to kill
off efforts to boost America's domestic energy supplies. We are now among the least attractive nations
for energy companies seeking to explore and develop energy supplies. The American people are waking up
to the man-made disaster that Barack Obama has created. Three quarters of Americans now think our oil
and gas resources are under-exploited. Yet, Barack Obama and his Democratic allies are doing all they
can do kill carbon and jam down our throats ruinously expensive and uneconomic green schemes that benefit
their donors.
Obama's Oily Desperation.
The excuse being used by the Obama Administration and the International Energy Agency for the oil release is
that reduced oil exports from Libya are raising energy prices and thus hurting world economies. However,
the Saudis have already said they would increase production to offset losses from Libya — and they
have done so. ... The idea that the federal government needed to knock oil prices down further or faster for
economic purposes while oil was already in what would be considered a dramatic sell-off is simply not credible.
Too Little, Way Too Late.
The Democrats have been blocking oil companies from developing America's fossil fuel resources — the
largest in the world — for decades. Whenever their anti-drilling policies are challenged, they
assure us that increasing domestic production would do little or nothing to bring down the cost of energy.
Yet, whenever the price of gasoline becomes politically embarrassing, what do they do? They take "emergency"
action to increase the supply of petroleum by opening up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — some
700 million barrels of oil that are stored along the Gulf coast.
The
Strategic Petroleum Reserve Is an Obama '12 Reelection Asset. The American economy, the one
that even Democrats admit Obama now owns, is hurtling towards a near depression so fast that the administration
will exploit any asset, and embrace any ploy, however desperate, in the hopes the economy will resurrect
itself and reflate Obama's plummeting poll numbers at the same time.
Cash for Pumpers. On
Thursday [6/23/2011] the President announced that he would release 30 million barrels of oil from the
nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The immediate effect on world markets was to knock the oil price
down by over $4 a barrel. But many experts question the wisdom — and the timing —
of the move. Clearly, the timing of the withdrawal was politically motivated.
Is
Obama's Oil Dump A Political Ploy? The White House announced Thursday that for only the third time
in history, the U.S. would release 30 million barrels of oil from the national stockpile. ... The spigots
have been opened just twice — in 2005 by President Bush, who released 11 million barrels after
disruptions from Hurricane Katrina, and in 1992 by President Bush Sr., who tapped 20 million barrels in
the wake of the Gulf War. President Obama's release — which is far bigger than either of
those two emergencies — is supposedly in response to disruptions from Libya, which isn't even
a U.S. supplier. It isn't our crisis.
Obama's Oily Desperation.
In a move that has everyone from oil analysts to traders to petroleum producers scratching their heads, the
Obama Administration announced on Thursday morning that the U.S. along with over two dozen other nations will
release 60 million barrels of oil from emergency oil stock piles. Half of the total release, or
30 million barrels, will come from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The
Strategic Petroleum Reserve Isn't a Political ATM. The Obama administration announced
Thursday the answer to a question it hass been mulling for months: It will tap the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve to release 30 million barrels of oil over the next 30 days. The
administration is hoping the move will lower the price of oil. While the move led to immediate declines
in the short term, this move will do little to impact prices and energy security over the long term and only
proves that the administration's energy policy is a disaster.
Business group slams Obama
over oil release. Washington's most powerful business lobby panned the Obama administration's
decision to tap the nation's strategic oil reserve Thursday, calling the move "ill-advised."
New Low. Less than a year ago, the
Obama Administration was insisting that its moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico would do no harm to our
nation's economy because we could just buy more oil from OPEC. Now, instead of allowing more production in
the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Alaska, the President is tapping our strategic reserve in the salt domes of Texas
and Louisiana, which will only have to be refilled later at potentially higher prices. Tapping the SPR will
do nothing to bring down oil prices in the long term, but rather distort markets even further without bringing any
significant new energy supplies to market. If allowed to drill in Alaska, we could produce an extra
one million barrels a day for decades, rather than one month, as the president's plan calls for.
Our Hokey President.
[Obama's] release of oil from the strategic reserve is a classic: the Democrats tell us that increasing
our domestic production won't affect gas prices, until they face a political crisis. Then the clouds
part, momentarily, and they remember Economics 1: increasing supply will lower prices.
Tap the
nation's true oil reserve in the Gulf of Mexico. The Obama administration has come under
criticism for its decision to drain 30 million barrels from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve,
purportedly in an effort to address Libya's unrest and ease prices at the pump. The critics are
right. This move was not necessary. Gas prices are trending downward already, and our nation
doesn't face an emergency that warrants tapping into the strategic reserve.
Update: Release
of oil from reserves seems to have had no effect. The move was widely ridiculed as a blatantly
political effort to get past the Fourth of July holiday weekend; some liberals, however, hailed it as a success.
The verdict is now in, as the effect of the release has run its course. This morning, an expert in the field emailed:
* The SPR's release of 30 million barrels of oil was sold to oil refiners and traders at
more than $10/bbl BELOW market. Can the US taxpayer afford the $300mm subsidy?
* Does the public know that prices are the same now, less than two weeks since the SPR
announcement? Was this money well spent?
Obama's gas stunt
comes up empty. The results are in from President Obama's controversial decision last month to
tap into the nation's oil reserves to drive down gas prices: none. Like his futile efforts to revive
the moribund U.S. economy by spending $1 trillion in borrowed money, the president's release of 30 million
barrels from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve produced nothing more than a brief pause in the steady
rise in prices at the pump.
Gangster
government attack on oil companies. The main feature of the Democrats' bill, which was defeated
in the Senate but which we probably have not heard the last of, was to deny five major oil companies the
domestic production tax credit that is available to all manufacturers and mining companies, including oil
companies. The justification? Well, big oil companies get lousy ratings in polls. So
stick 'em with a higher tax bill. Sounds a lot like gangster government to me.
Administration
blocks restart of massive oil pipeline, citing leaks. The Obama administration said Friday [6/3/2011]
that a massive pipeline carrying oil across much of the United States must remain shut down until federal
regulators are satisfied that it can operate without future leaks. TransCanada's Keystone pipeline
leaked twice last month, fueling opposition to a pending expansion of the project, which is undergoing a
wide-ranging federal review.
U.S. Energy Crisis a Liberal Power Grab.
It is no coincidence that U.S. oil production peaked in 1970, the year after President Richard Nixon signed
the National Environmental Policy Act and the Environmental Protection Agency was established, just the beginning
of a decade of laws that have made the United States the hardest place in the world to produce energy.
When the federal government started taking over roles traditionally held by the states and expanding its
reach into every corner of every economic activity in the country, those who love more government had the
perfect proxy for justifying more power over the economy and over the way Americans live their lives.
Obama's schizo energy
policy. Rising energy costs already have changed many families' summer vacation plans, threatened
to short-circuit the weak recovery from the Great Recession and, combined with recent increases in food prices,
contributed to incipient inflationary pressures that foreshadow a lower standard of living and a return to the
stagflation of Jimmy Carter's presidency.
New
Issa report goes after Obama administration's energy agenda. Rep. Darrell Issa of California,
chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has found another target in the Obama administration's policy
agenda: energy. Late Monday [5/23/2011], Issa released a scathing report accusing the White House of being
complicit in driving up oil prices to push a move to alternative energy sources.
Rising
Energy Costs: An Intentional Result Of Government Action. President Obama, Energy Secretary Chu
and others have stated that American consumers should pay more for energy, including electricity and gasoline.
From a political perspective, increasing the price of energy (by whatever means) helps them make the case for
"green" energy. Even beyond the effort to raise energy prices through "cap and trade" legislation that
Congress rejected, a pattern of increased enforcement, regulatory delay and new hurdles can be seen across
numerous agencies and approval processes. The result of this government action is less production,
higher costs for producers, and more expensive energy.
Natural gas pains.
America's energy woes show what's wrong when politicians intervene in the market. ... As gasoline prices
skyrocket, natural-gas backers sense an opportunity to grab a larger share of the fuel market and want
lawmakers to climb aboard the "green" fuel express.
Drill,
Maybe, Drill. When President Obama said during his Saturday [5/14/2011] radio address that
"we should increase safe and responsible oil production here at home," the operative words were "safe and
responsible." We will drill if it's safe for polar bears, caribou and West Texas lizards, and if it
doesn't contribute to the "climate change" myth. Similar words were used to justify the seven-year
moratorium on offshore drilling off both coasts, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the seas off Alaska
following last year's Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf, even though no other wells were found to be
unsafe.
Obama's
latest fake plan for more drilling. First he promised to open up the Atlantic to exploration.
Then he reneged. Then he said he'd lift his oil moratorium in the Gulf. Production has only decreased
since. Yesterday [5/14/2011] Obama again played Lucy to the American energy consumer's Charlie Brown. This
time he is promising to direct "the Department of Interior to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska's National
Petroleum Reserve, while respecting sensitive areas, and to speed up the evaluation of oil and
gas resources in the mid and south Atlantic."
Cole:
"The president doesn't know squat about energy production". Oklahoma is one of the nation's
top energy states, so it's no surprise that its senators and representatives are opposed to President Obama's
energy and environmental policies. What is surprising, however, is the intensity of their reactions to
Obama's proposal to do away with $4 billion worth of energy industry tax breaks.
Washington vs.
Energy Security. Americans keep hearing only short-term solutions and narrowly focused rules
and regulations. The U.S. still imports more than half its oil, gasoline prices are at historic highs,
and consumers are paying the price. One bipartisan policy tradition is to deny Americans the use of
our own resources.
Shrinking Oil
Supplies Put Alaskan Pipeline at Risk. When the famed Trans Alaska Pipeline carried two
million barrels of oil a day, the naturally warm crude surged 800 miles to the Port of Valdez in three
days and arrived at a temperature of about 100 degrees. Now, dwindling oil production along
Alaska's northern edge means the pipeline carries less than one-third the volume it once did —
and the crude takes five times as long to get to its destination.
Obama
war on oil production threatens Alaska pipeline. The House is voting on the Reversing President
Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act today which, among other things, would require the administration to allow
drilling in at least 50 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf, including the Arctic. Also today,
The Wall Street Journal's Russell Gold has a great article on how President Obama's efforts to stop new oil
fields in Alaska is threatening to shut down the entire Alaska pipeline.
Public Misplaces Blame for
High Oil Prices. [Scroll down] Obama and other Democrats have pooh-poohed the idea of
more drilling. First, new leases would take years to result in new oil, they say. Second, they argue
that oil companies are sitting on existing leases, with some hinting that companies are deliberately sitting on
proven reserves. Oil companies point out that it takes a long time to get to the point of drilling.
They have to find the oil — if it exists — and then figure out if it's economical to pull
it out of the ground.
Phony
'Safety' Fears Cripple U.S. Oil. The Energy Department wants to find ways to make hydraulic
fracturing, a fast-growing method of extracting natural gas, safer and cleaner. Say, isn't that how
the administration justified its offshore drilling ban?
Get a
Clue About Drilling And $4 Gas. With last month marking the one year anniversary of the Gulf
spill, the public should take a moment to review America's energy landscape. They won't like what
they see. The White House has declared open season on our domestic oil firms.
More oil
would mean smaller deficit. With the price of oil at more than $100 per barrel, higher gasoline
prices are eating into Americans' budgets. Consumers, however, are not the only ones losing out. The
various taxes, lease revenues and royalty payments to federal, state and local governments for oil and gas
production on public lands is a significant source of revenue — among the largest sources outside
of the personal income tax. Yet, the Obama administration stubbornly clings to a "no new production in
our backyard policy" — while blaming oil companies for high prices.
2008:
Pelosi blames high gas prices on "oil men in the White House". Back in 2008 Speaker of the
House Nancy Pelosi said, "The price of oil is at the doorstep. Four dollars plus per gallon for oil is
attributed to two oil men in the White House." Oddly enough, Pelosi is now conspicuously silent about
gas prices. No public comments. No press conferences. No interviews.
Are
Sky-High Gas Prices Good? Examine a few revealing past remarks from President Obama and the
Cabinet officials who are now in charge of the nation's energy use and oil leases on federal lands.
Then decide whether the current soaring gas prices are supposed to be good or bad. In 2008,
then-Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar — now the secretary of the Department of the Interior in charge of
the leasing of federal oil lands — refused to vote for any new offshore drilling. In a
Senate exchange with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Salazar objected to allowing any drilling
on America's outer continental shelf — even if gas prices reached $10 a gallon.
Oil and Obama don't mix.
Americans are paying more than $4 a gallon for gas, ExxonMobil announced a 69 percent boost in
earnings, and President Barack Obama is struggling with the fact that he can't do much about any
of it.
'Change'
via executive power grab. The Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that Shell Oil Co. may
not drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Circle off Alaska, where an estimated 27 billion barrels of
domestic oil are waiting to be extracted. Never mind that Shell's already spent nearly $4 billion
on the project, including $2.2 billion to Uncle Sam for the leases. No, the EPA's appeals board
said the oil giant had failed to include possible greenhouse-gas emissions from an icebreaking vessel in its
calculations and that the project might somehow threaten the health of the 245 people in an Eskimo village
70 miles away.
Listing of lizard may shut down Texas oil.
You can't make this up. First, a Spotted Owl destroyed the timber industry of the Pacific Northwest,
then a minnow turned the most productive agricultural land in the world into a dustbowl, and now, as energy
prices spike and the economy sputters, they're going after Texas with a scurrilous reptile. Specifically,
the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard.
Will
A Lizard Stop West Texas Oil? After the harm done by the spotted owl and delta smelt, the listing
of a tiny reptile as endangered may be the latest salvo in the war on domestic energy.
Despite $4 gas, Obama boots Shell from Arctic drill site. EPA Rules Force Shell
to Abandon Oil Drilling Plans. Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill
for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following
a ruling by the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. ... The closest village
to where Shell proposed to drill is Kaktovik, Alaska. It is one of the most remote places in the United
States. According to the latest census, the population is 245 and nearly all of the residents are Alaska
natives. The village, which is one square mile, sits right along the shores of the Beaufort Sea,
70 miles away from the proposed off-shore drill site.
Pence
rebukes Obama over committing to support Brazilian oil. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) is criticizing
President Obama for expressing support for Brazilian oil production while limiting American energy output.
"Under his administration, there is a de facto moratorium on oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico,"
Pence wrote in an op-ed Monday [4/25/2011] in The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind. "The United States
has a drilling ban off both coasts, on Alaska's continental shelf and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."
Obama blames
everyone but himself for high gas prices. The president's energy non-policy of funding solar,
wind, and god-knows-what-other kind of power while doing everything to prevent opening new oil fields to
exploration and development is not to blame for high gas prices, says the president.
Obama's
Fake Energy Policy. In 1999, Americans paid $90 billion for all their oil, less than 5 percent
of what they paid in federal taxes. At current prices of $108 per barrel, Americans this year will pay
over $800 billion for oil, an amount equal to 33 percent of all federal tax revenues, with two
thirds of the take going to fill the coffers of foreign regimes. If current trends continue, there is
every prospect that oil prices will more than triple by Obama's 2025 target date, leaving us paying more for
oil than we pay to the federal government.
U.S. Gov't Agency
Plans $2.84 Billion Loan for Oil Refinery — In Colombia. The U.S. Export-Import
Bank, an independent agency of the federal government, is now planning a $2.84 billion loan for a massive
project to expand and upgrade an oil refinery — in Cartagena, Colombia. The money would go
to Reficar, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ecopetrol, the Colombian national oil company.
How we
will end up paying $6 a gallon for gas: Someday, you will be pumping gas, staring at the digital
numbers racing by, and you'll wonder: "How could I possibly be paying $6 a gallon for gasoline?"
You also will be wondering why so many of your friends and relatives are still looking for work. Or why
America is more dependent on foreign oil than ever before. If you look back to today, you'll remember
why: President Obama's de facto moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Desperation Breeds Familiar Energy
Gimmicks. When lawmakers were home for spring recess this month, they faced an earful of
outrage as gas prices near $4 per gallon, well ahead of summer driving season. Some members of Congress
told their constituents that they are pounding on the administration to jumpstart offshore drilling in order
to relieve the pressure at the pump. ... Opponents of American energy development on Capitol Hill are
becoming increasingly desperate to deflect criticism against anti-drilling policies which the
majority of Americans realize have contributed to this price surge.
Obama
promised higher energy costs. He wasn't kidding. President Obama held a town hall meeting
Wednesday at a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Fairless Hills, Pa., to promote his Big Green energy
agenda. Not everyone in the audience was receptive to his message. ... "There is no magic formula to
driving gas prices down," the president also said Wednesday. Maybe so, but Obama has figured out a
pretty good formula for driving gas prices up.
Obama's energy
hoax: The emphasis was on a vast expansion of "clean energy." The familiar pipe dreams
were unfurled again: Biofuels. Further increases in fuel economy requirements. Electric
cars. Flexible-fuel vehicles. High-speed rail. Public transit. Sure all nifty ideas,
their regulatory quirks notwithstanding. And all are costly, many to the point of wiping out any possible
benefits. If the president sought increased oil production to hold down prices, he'd do a lot more good.
The
President's New Energy Plan: If you want to lower the price of something, the best solution
is to produce more of it. This is basic Econ 101 stuff. But nowhere in the administration's
new energy proposals, presented by the president this Wedesday in a speech at Georgetown University, is the
idea of pumping more oil in the United States addressed, except to say it is impossible.
Obama's overseas oil:
It's no surprise that gas prices are on the rise as President Obama returns from his truncated excursion to Rio.
The commander in chief has shown more interest in helping Brazilians develop their energy resources than he has in
helping ease the pain of Americans stung by spiraling prices at the pump. Three months into the new
administration, Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, received approval for at least $2 billion in
U.S. government-backed loans.
Soros Wins Under Obama's
Energy Policies. Abby Wisse Schacter, in the New York Post, notes that the Obama administration
is clamping down on oil and gas development in America (both onshore and offshore) but is hell-bent on helping
other nation's tap their resources and points out that such help is being showered specifically in New Guinea,
of all places.
Obama
administration's energy stagnation. It is starting to look obvious that the administration doesn't
want oil exploration and extraction at home while it is promoting the same exploration and extraction
elsewhere — specifically Brazil and New Guinea. ... [But] this isn't about a single piece of
equipement, [sic] it is about wanting to retard offshore drilling in America, period.
George Soros: Demagoat. Another
interesting note: Soros has a lot invested in Brazilian oil production. His puppet, Obama announced
that the U.S. would be investing and trading in Brazil's oil development. Of course, Obama doesn't want to
drill here in the U.S. The connection is very clear. Since Soros is out to destroy the USA like he
has other countries, all of the organizations he funds are nothing but puppets for him, just like Obama.
Obama went to Brazil to protect the Soros investment there in Petrobras.
Wrecking a Nation.
In 1985, the U.S. imported 25 percent of its oil usage. Today, it's 61 percent. And
still we are placing restrictions on increases in domestic production, both for oil and other sources of
energy. A few days back, President Obama, rather than sticking around a couple hours to explain to
the American people or to the U.S. Congress why we were going to war in Libya, flew off to Brazil to hand
out a permit to allow deep sea oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to Brazil's state-run oil company,
Petrobras. Capitalist companies in America need not apply.
A
Man-Made Energy Crisis. Gas is well over $4 a gallon in most places in California —
and soaring elsewhere as well. But are such high energy prices good or bad? That should be a
stupid question. Yet it is not, when the Obama administration has stopped new domestic offshore oil
exploration in many American waters, curbed oil leases in the West, and keeps oil-rich areas of Alaska
exempt from drilling.
Obama Needs to go Back to Energy School.
The Administration's "logic" regarding oil leases is liable to drive one insane. The claim is that oil
companies pay billions of dollars to the federal government to obtain the right to drill, and then purposely
don't drill in order to drive up the price of oil. But wouldn't it be cheaper to not bid on the
lands in the first place? And why is the oil industry in favor of expanded access to drill offshore and in
ANWR, if their nefarious plot is to keep oil off the market and push up prices? Obviously the whole thing
makes no sense. The reason the oil industry doesn't extract oil from certain leased land is that oil
isn't distributed evenly across the globe.
Stall, Baby, Stall.
Many Americans fear that President Obama's new energy proposal is once again "all talk and no real action," this
time in an effort to shore up fading support for the Democrats' job-killing cap-and-trade (a.k.a. cap-and-tax)
proposals. Behind the rhetoric lie new drilling bans and leasing delays; soon to follow are burdensome
new environmental regulations.
Full-Throttle
Drill, Drill, Drill. In the fact sheet that accompanied the speech, there's a lot of talk
about "responsible development" for natural gas fracking chemicals, state regulators, tapping experts, the
environmental community, and protecting public health and the environment. In other words, the standards
for new drilling could be so high that there won't be that much new drilling. The president doesn't
discuss the role of the EPA, which is going after coal, natural gas, and oil. And while he says he'll
speed up new leases and permits, he then blames oil companies for not using their old leases. That's
an old saw of an argument that neglects to mention dry holes.
Barack Obama's
Oil Lease LIES! How do you know which parts of Obama's energy speech were either lies or
misrepresentations? The parts where his mouth was moving. This morning President Obama outline
his energy policy which is comprised of trying to pull the energy policy wool over America's eyes.
Lawmakers,
Executives Slam Obama for Boosting Brazil's Offshore Drilling. Republican lawmakers and
oil industry executives are slamming President Obama for offering to help Brazil expand offshore drilling
while U.S. production struggles to get back on its feet in the wake of the BP spill. The president,
on the first leg of his trip to Latin America, said in Brazil over the weekend that his administration wants
to assist the Brazilian government "with technology and support" in developing its oil reserves — a
black gold mine he said could hold twice as much oil as U.S. deposits.
President
Obama's Crony Capitalism. The president's announcement that his administration would lend billions
of dollars to develop Brazil's offshore oil reserves left many Americans flabbergasted. After all, he had
issued two drilling moratoriums in U.S. waters and then was declared in contempt of court for defying a federal
judge who ordered the moratoriums reversed. Some wondered if the president wasn't intentionally acting
against U.S. interests. Others wanted to know if pleasing political campaign contributors was the idea.
Obama Boldly Continues his Energy
Deception. President Obama finally held a press conference on the subject of rising
gas prices last week that required anyone who has been watching his administration's war on domestic
energy to suspend disbelief. Instead of announcing a reversal of his anti-domestic energy
policies, he explained that on his watch, oil production is actually up and imports are down.
What the President failed to explain was that his energy policies have nothing to do with this,
and that the U.S. would actually be producing more oil today if his administration had not been
doing everything in its power to stop domestic energy production since they walked into office
in January of 2009 when gasoline was $1.80 a gallon.
Solving US Energy Problems:
The big problem is the Democratic agenda to destroy US oil. Currently, this agenda is well
illustrated in the Gulf of Mexico. BP's Macondo Prospect well, which blew out in the Gulf of
Mexico last year, was reported by the federal government to be producing 62,000 barrels of oil per
day. At the present oil price, that is $2.2 Billion a year. This well may have been
the largest oil well in the history of the world. Yet, it was plugged and abandoned, and the federal
government would not allow the development of the large oil reservoir it was in, which may have created
thousands of new jobs. No other nation on earth would do that to an oil well which may have been
the largest oil well in world history.
Exploiting the Japanese.
[Scroll down] Then the President proceeded to take credit for record levels of domestic oil
and gas production in 2009, the year in which he was inaugurated. The last I heard, oil and
gas drilling has a lead time of at least five years, with exploration, leasing, licensing, and
actual production taking as long as twenty years. Yet Obama suggests he had something to
do with 2009 production levels? What he has done, with his Gulf drilling ban and
restrictions on East Coast and Alaska drilling, is to set future U.S. oil and gas production back
by years.
Drilling Unlikely
to Lower Oil Prices, Energy Information Chief Says. Richard Newell, administrator of the U.S.
Energy Information Administration (EIA), said that while oil prices are likely to stay above average for the
remainder of 2011, it is unlikely that an increase in domestic oil production would dramatically affect oil
prices in either the short-term or the long-term. Newell, a political appointee, was tapped to head
the EIA by President Barack Obama in mid-2009.
The Editor says...
This man clearly does not understand supply and demand, and obviously knows nothing about
the oil industry.
An Energy Policy
Designed to Fail. Gasoline prices are on the rise again, mostly due to a combination of
turmoil in the Middle East and increased worldwide demand that has driven crude prices up over $100
per barrel. When refiners switch to EPA-required summer blends starting on May 1, gasoline
prices will increase even more. The left understands that the harder consumers are hit at the
pump, the more sympathetic they are to calls for more domestic oil exploration. In an attempt
to head off the issue, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other
leftists have fallen back on a tired, discredited canard: the "use it or lose it" approach.
Who
benefits when Obama puts federal lands off-limits? It sounds like a logical argument until it
runs into the reality provided by the answer to two basic questions — How much federal land is
actually off-limits and who benefits from those lands being kept off limits? Based on government data,
the answer to the first question is this: Ninety four percent of federal onshore lands are off-limits
to oil and gas exploration, while 97 percent of offshore federal lands are off-limits. So
virtually all of the public lands now owned by the American people but controlled by the federal government
isn't even eligible to be placed on the auction block for bidding by U.S. companies for energy exploration
rights leasing.
They're
Not Serious. No-drill Democrats are looking wan under the bright light of rising gasoline
prices. So what do they do? They retreat to their worst ideas and claim they've brought a
fresh set of solutions to the table.
Green Goons. It's getting so people
are afraid to drive more than 150 miles for fear that they won't be able to afford the gas to get home
again. Still, President Obama refuses to allow oil development either on government-owned land or just
off our coasts. We have enough petroleum in the ground right here in the United States to last us
centuries but Obama, the Democrats and their green goons won't let us get at it for fear there might be a
spill and a sea gull might get oil on its wings. It's all right though to send $1,000,000,000 a day to
Muslim countries who use much of it to finance jihad against us in their radical quest to destroy western
civilization. Our liberal Democrat rulers want fossil-fuel energy prices to go up in hopes that
Americans will turn to solar panels, windmills and Chevy Volts.
Why We Need to Drill
Here and Drill Now. Upon taking office, President Obama's Department of Interior, led by
Ken Salazar, began taking deliberate steps to reduce domestic drilling. From canceling oil and gas
leases throughout the American West to banning offshore production to refusing to issue deep water drilling
permits, the Obama administration has imposed virtually the same regulatory agenda that Americas soundly
rejected in 2008. The result of these policies is also the same as last time. Oil prices above
$100 per barrel for the first time since 2008.
Our Man-Made Energy
Crisis. [Scroll down] What's missing is a coherent U.S. energy policy. At best, the
Obama administration's approach to U.S. domestic oil and gas production can be characterized as a strategy of
ambivalence, an uneasy equilibrium between desire to lessen the role of fossil fuels and the reality of their
necessity in a functioning U.S. economy. Last year's Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf tilted the current
administration's policies to an even more punitive posture vis-a-vis domestic energy production. ... The time to
rethink and redesign our entire energy strategy is now.
War
On The Poor. Those on the left who say they care most for the least fortunate see the soaring
price of gasoline as positive — despite the fact that those with the lowest incomes are hurt
the worst. Since January 2009, when President Obama was sworn in, the average price of a gallon of
regular-grade gas has rocketed from less than $2 to $3.53. During this period, Obama's administration
has placed an illegal ban on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, refused to permit deeper exploration into
our rich fossil fuel reserves and pushed $2.3 billion in a useless green energy initiative.
Murkowski
calls for new energy policy, more domestic drilling. Amid rising energy prices, Sen. Lisa
Murkowski (R-Alaska) is urging the formulation of a national energy policy that expands U.S. oil drilling
and creates alternatives to reduce consumption, both of which would provide greater control over energy
prices. In the weekly Republican radio address, the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee said her party is prepared to "end the de facto moratorium on new development in the
Gulf of Mexico and parts of the Rocky Mountain West."
Murkowski
uses rising gas prices to call for opening Alaska's oil fields. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska),
citing rising gas prices, called on the administration Thursday [3/10/2011] to open up Alaska's oil reserves
for further exploration. "We are the only country that has identified a huge resource base and then
absolutely refused to use it," said Murkowski, referring to her state's massive oil reserves that remain
untapped because of their designation as a wildlife refuge. "We need to develop a coherent national
energy policy."
Oil Hypocrisy.
As the White House goes to court to defend its self-imposed drilling moratorium, it floats the idea of tapping
our strategic petroleum reserve to lower rising prices. How about the oil offshore and in Alaska?
Feds:
No new drilling permits, but we'll tap into Strategic Petroleum Reserve! Oil prices have been
on the rise recently, with supply worries from the unrest in the Middle East pushing prices past $106 a barrel
this morning, the highest in two years. Americans are feeling the sting of an average $3.50 a gallon
price at the pump, with prices as high as $5 a gallon in some areas such as L.A. The Obama administration
has issued contradictory statements on the high oil prices.
As Gas Prices
Rise, Is It Time to 'Drill, Baby, Drill'?. With unrest and turmoil in oil-producing Middle
East and North African countries upon which America heavily relies for our domestic oil consumption and
with gas prices inching toward $4.00 a gallon, now is the time to drastically increase America's own oil
production. Even before the Middle East and North African government meltdowns, many experts were
predicting $4 a gallon gas in 2011 and $5 a gallon gas in 2012.
The End of the Drilling
Permitorium? Guess Again. After 314 days of the United States government holding the nation's oil
industry hostage in a fashion which hearkened back to the Carter administration, the first deep water drilling permit
in the Gulf of Mexico has been issued. Or has it? As The Hayride points out, this wasn't actually a new
permit.
Gas Price Increases Are Intentional. Gas
prices continue to go up. When George W. Bush was President of the United States, Democrats constantly
demanded he open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help lower prices. Some even wanted a temporary suspension of
the gas tax. With Obama? Crickets. ... The left could use gas prices as a political wedge issue against
George W. Bush because they knew he did not actually want higher gas prices. Barack Obama, on the other
hand, wants higher gas prices. His Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, wants the same.
Drilling
Here, Drilling Now: It's Just Common Sense. One of the problems we face right now is the uncertainty
in Libya, an OPEC nation that has cut its normal daily output of 1.6 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) to
just over 700,000, amid the political tensions surrounding Muammar Gaddafi. What this means for humanity as
a whole is that there is now less oil on the world's market to meet the demand around the globe. What this means
for you and I as Americans is that our refusal to "drill here, drill now" is catching up to us with a vengeance.
Obama
Making Us More Dependent on Foreign Oil. Expectations of political instability in the North
Africa and the Middle East are factors which cause the price of crude oil to rise, but the reality is the
Obama Administration is doing serious damage to our essential domestic oil industry. The Administration
is making our nation more and more dependent on imported foreign crude oil through increased regulations,
taxes, and litigation.
Barack Obama repeating Jimmy Carter's mistakes.
You need to watch only a few minutes of cable news analysis to realize just how ludicrous our national energy
policies have become. As escalating tensions and chaos unfold in Egypt, Libya and other Middle Eastern
nations, one energy analyst suggested that if Libyan oil supplies were to fail, the United States would rely
on Saudi Arabia for its oil needs. If that statement alone doesn't put U.S. leaders on red alert, the
looming national energy crisis may soon become reality.
Obama: Lost in Translation.
On February 2, 2011, his administration was found to be in contempt of court, for knowingly and intentionally defying the
court's injunction of its enforcement of a ban on oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. And just weeks before the
issuance of that contempt citation, a Federal court judge in Florida ruled ObamaCare is unconstitutional in its entirety.
In his order the judge held that his ruling was tantamount to an injunction, and he was proceeding on the well-established
presumption that government officials will conform their conduct to rulings. The President, whose oath of office requires
him to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution, nevertheless appears to have accorded the Florida judge's ruling the
same level of respect and compliance as he did the order enjoining his "moratorium" on oil and gas drilling in the Gulf.
Barbour
says Obama cheers for higher gas prices. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential presidential
contender, accused the Obama administration Wednesday [3/2/2011] of favoring a run-up in gas prices to prod
consumers to buy more fuel-efficient cars.
Obama is AWOL in
Oil Crisis. We have a major oil crisis unfolding now and where's Obama? ... We now, this
week, have oil prices busting through $100 a barrel. This will create major havoc to our already
anemic economy. How did we get here? Our president has a moratorium on nearly all domestic
oil production: we can't drill off our coasts, nor Alaska and certainly not the gulf. We can't
build nuclear power plants, dam rivers, explore for natural gas or mine coal. We're stuck with
windmills and failing solar power companies — companies that can't even stay in business
after billions in taxpayer subsidies. This is an energy policy written by hippies.
America's
Enemies Don't Want U.S. Drilling. With oil prices shooting through the roof, the nation's failure
to ramp up domestic energy production is baffling. But one thing we know for sure: America's enemies are
actively agitating against drilling in the U.S.
The Editor says...
Apparently some of America's enemies work in the White House.
Obama
administration 'hostile to oil states,' Alaska Gov. Parnell says. In a speech at the
National Press Club, the Republican governor called the federal government "openly hostile" to
oil-producing states, particularly for the delays in allowing Shell to drill exploratory wells on leases
off Alaska's northern coast that the company purchased in 2008. "If it looks like a moratorium and
walks like a moratorium ... maybe it is," said Parnell, who is in Washington this weekend for the
National Governor's Association winter meeting.
Now
Can We Drill In Alaska? Alaska's governor attacks President Obama's hostility to oil states and
warns that ever-higher oil prices will doom economic recovery. The polar bears are doing fine. The
American economy is not.
The inflation
disaster is near. Five dollar a gallon gas will shatter the Federal Reserve's tightly constrained
lid on inflation and accelerate the other half our long anticipated "double dip" recession. ... 91% of House
Republicans have historically voted to increase the production of American-made oil and gas, while 86% of House
Democrats have historically voted against increasing the production of American-made oil and gas.
After Obama,
the Deluge. Gas prices in many parts of the country are nearing $4 a gallon; it could get even
worse as unrest spreads throughout the oil-exporting Middle East. Yet the Obama administration once
again seems to see no crisis. It has curtailed new leases for offshore oil exploration for seven years
and exempted thousands of acres in the West from new drilling. It will not reconsider opening up small
areas of Alaska with known large oil reserves.
The left's drive
toward $8 gas. A perfect storm of foreign and domestic policy choices by the Obama administration
has paved the way for European-style energy prices to arrive on these shores. Far from being alarmed,
President Obama sees the prospect of $8 a gallon gas as an opportunity. ... Making energy more expensive is
exactly what the administration's "cap and trade" scheme is meant to do.
Obama's Solar Nightmare:
The Obama administration has tried to kill off the oil industry. Offshore moratoriums have been unilaterally imposed
by executive orders and justified using scientific panel studies that were misrepresented — if not
distorted — by the administration. The drilling permitting process has been afflicted with
sclerosis. Federal lands are becoming less and less available for development. Obama does not
like carbon; he boasted during the campaign that he would bankrupt coal power plants and that his policies
would necessarily boost the price of power. Those words were ignored by much of the media, in thrall to
the man they so wanted to win.
A
Shale Of A Difference. The brightest hope for America's energy independence has been shut down
by an Interior Department that says it wants to review the rules for leases. It really wants to
kill off oil altogether.
Increased Energy Development
Will Lead to More Jobs, Faster Recovery. Research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie recently
released a startling new report analyzing the devastating economic impact of the nearly $73 billion in
proposed tax increases upon the nation's oil and gas industry. In contrast, allowing access to energy
resources currently off limits would provide massive boosts to production, employment levels, and government
revenue. Onerous federal regulation currently prevents access to oil and gas reserves in areas of
Alaska, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic and Pacific Outer Continental Shelves. The
difference between allowing access to these vast reserves versus continued regulation and following through
with the nearly $73 billion of proposed tax increases could not be more drastic.
Obama's Oil War: Oil
prices are surging to levels that will soon crimp economic growth. And what's our government doing about it?
Just making it worse. ... It's becoming more and more obvious that Obama's energy policy is meant to raise prices by
making fossil fuels harder to produce and use. Indeed, the White House has followed a deliberate policy of
attacking Americans' use of energy, turning it into something of a moral crusade.
Driving
US Families Into Poverty. The Obama Administration still hasn't gotten the message voters sent
Washington on November 2. The lame duck session and 111th Congress finally ended, without the
White House getting key items on its wish list. So now, the Environmental Protection Agency and
Interior Department intend to impose costly, job-killing, economy-strangling new rules for power plants and
refineries, and implement more land-grabs that will lock up additional millions of acres and more billions
of dollars of American energy. Their goal is to end the hydrocarbon and nuclear era in
America — and force us to convert to "renewable" energy.
Auditing the President's Oil Spill
Commission. The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (the Oil Spill Commission OSC) just
finished its last set of public meetings as it prepares to submit its report to the president, due January 12, 2011.
There is good news and bad news. The good news is that its report will be released after the Republicans take control
of the House of Representatives in January. The bad news is that left to its own devices and predispositions, the
administration will likely do to the offshore oil industry what the Carter administration did to the nuclear power industry
in the wake of the Three-Mile Island accident: effectively destroy a critical energy industry in which America
is the world technology leader.
Oil Producers Bullied.
Department of Interior officials seem to take sadistic pleasure in badgering oil companies. The latest
example involves a new agency created to levy untold millions of dollars in fines if companies don't kowtow to
the new bureaucracy. The agency's head gave the tasteless warning: "If they cut corners they could
end up paying enough to quickly take care of the federal deficit." The oil industry now pays $37 million
a day in royalties. That's over $13 billion a year for our near empty U.S. Treasury and other state and
special accounts. The comment about collecting royalties enough to pay off the federal deficit might have been
said in jest. But petroleum officials aren't laughing.
New
Starve-The-Beast Plan: Stop Fed Printing Press. Capital Hill has been exploring the potential
for a political backlash against renewed Federal Reserve quantitative easing with a focus on one particular
set of risks: a jump in oil prices even as the economy continues to sputter. Oil prices have
climbed back to $83 a barrel, fueled in part by a Fed-inspired weaker dollar, though demand growth in China
and other emerging markets is the biggest reason.
China's Will To Drill.
The administration lifts the Gulf drilling moratorium in time for the election, but it's not as good as it
sounds. Meanwhile, China buys up Texas oil land to develop the energy reserves we won't.
The
Very Dangerous Folly of Obamanomics. [Scroll down] From here, then-Senator Obama went on
to introduce his new "energy" proposal. As a remedy for rising gasoline prices, he wanted to raise taxes
on oil companies, and use that "extra" tax revenue to give "working Americans" a thousand-dollar voucher that
they could use to make gasoline purchases. ... Senator Obama simply portrayed the Exxon Mobil company as a
"villain" for earning a "record profit," and he was going to be the "good guy" who would legislate money away
from the oil company and give it to "us."
Barack Obama Secures His Grip on the Oil
Industry. [Scroll down] So why, then, does this country, especially the Obama administration,
continue to play ball with [Hugo] Chavez? And, more interestingly, why was the Chavez rhetoric towards
THIS White House so vanilla by comparison to the vile language hurled at Bush? The obvious answer of
Socialist brotherhood comes to mind; after all, the handshake viewed 'round the world is household news by
now. No, there's something deeper here; something much more complex — even sinister, perhaps.
Arctic Drilling
Suspended. The Obama Administration has done an about face on drilling for oil in the Arctic
Ocean. Just days after its Justice Department defended Shell Oil's plan to drill five exploratory
wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off the coast of Alaska, the Interior Department suspended the
operation.
Obama is Strangling Big
Oil. There was no "official" announcement. Not in so many words. Connect the dots
of what has occurred in just the past two weeks to deep-water oil drilling, shallow-water drilling, and oil
refining. The effect is the same. Barack Obama is shutting down Big Oil.
A
Few Questions for President Obama. [Scroll down] America is not running out of oil.
It is running out of places the government allows us to drill. ... Companies have been drilling in deep
waters, because most onshore and shallow water areas are off limits.
Empty rhetoric,
empty gas tanks. The Army Corps of Engineers recently denied ConocoPhillips' permit to construct
a drill pad in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, threatening 400 construction and 100 operating jobs and new
production that could extend the life of the trans-Alaska pipeline. If this shameful abuse of regulatory
power could be used to stop routine oil and gas development of leases already granted by the federal
government — in an area already designated a National Petroleum Reserve — then how optimistic
could anyone be about this administration's new energy policy?
Getting Gas Wrong: In an
economy full of problems there are still a few high points. One of them, as you may have noticed if you
pay attention to your utility bills, is that natural gas prices are relatively low. ... We shouldn't have to
worry about this sector of the economy, but there is a dark cloud looming on the horizon in the form of yet
another environmental initiative that the Obama administration is pushing forward, one that has the potential
to cut domestic natural gas production, cost us jobs and revenue and force energy prices upward.
Drilling plan
opens new areas but halts Alaska sales. President Obama's new offshore drilling plan opens up
some new areas for oil and gas exploration but also cancels some Alaska lease sales planned for the next two
years, putting billions of barrels of oil out of reach for now. The long-awaited plan, announced
Wednesday, expands drilling opportunities off the coast of the southern Atlantic seaboard,
in the Gulf of Mexico and some parts of Alaska, but halts other future sales in Alaska's Chukchi and Beaufort
seas that drilling advocates say could account for far more oil than the new areas the president proposes
to open up.
Obama's
EPA stifles new energy gains. [Scroll down] Last week, it was Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
announcing that no new permits will be issued for outer continental shelf development until 2014 at the earliest.
Salazar has also used bureaucratic obfuscation to delay new energy development on Western lands. There are
billions of recoverable barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas in those areas, enough to put
the United States well on the way to complete energy independence. Obama is instead spending billions of
tax dollars on renewable energy resources that can't possibly supply even a fourth of this nation's critical
energy needs for many decades to come.
The
'necessarily skyrocket' energy strategy comes to Hawaii. Bright ideas from Hawaii's legislature:
House members introduced House Bill 2421, a "barrel tax" or "carbon tax bill", which will increase the tax on
unrefined petroleum by $1 per barrel. Their reasoning, they want to discourage Hawaii's
"dependence" on fossil fuels through taxation and encourage renewable energy use and creation.
Obama's
budget reveals true agenda on energy. The budget shows that revenues collected from new offshore
leasing will decline over the next five years — from $1.5 billion in 2009, to only $413 million
in fiscal 2015. If the president planned on expanding offshore drilling, revenues would be increasing,
not decreasing.
Obama surrenders
gulf oil to Moscow. The Obama administration is poised to ban offshore oil drilling on the outer
continental shelf until 2012 or beyond. Meanwhile, Russia is making a bold strategic leap to begin drilling
for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. While the United States attempts to shift gears to alternative fuels to battle
the purported evils of carbon emissions, Russia will erect oil derricks off the Cuban coast.
Obama's a pain at
the pump. Get ready to pay a lot more than $3 a gallon to fill up your car during peak driving
periods this spring and summer. More pain at the pump is the inevitable result of the Obama administration's
carrot-and-stick approach to dealing with America's energy woes. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last
week announced new leases for offshore oil and gas drilling, which will take effect in 2012. While news
reports characterized the decision as a bold response to the nation's energy needs, reality is quite to the
contrary.
The
Obama Moratorium: No offshore drilling while he's in office. The Obama administration's
six-month delay in approving new offshore drilling leases in federal waters will become a new three-year ban,
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar quietly told reporters last Friday [3/5/2010]. Which means that no new
oil and gas leases will be approved during President Obama's term even though two-thirds of the American
public supports such activity, according to a December 2009 Rasmussen poll.
Chortling At Chu.
Our secretary of energy pushes bio-refineries and windmills to oil executives at an energy conference as the
administration announces a three-year offshore drilling ban. This is a policy for economic suicide.
Report:
Oil-and-gas drilling bans will cut GDP by $2.36 trillion. This should provide some ammo for
industry groups pushing the White House to allow wider drilling: A new report says U.S. oil-and-gas
drilling bans will increase consumer energy costs and decrease cumulative U.S. GDP by $2.36 trillion
over the next two decades. That's an average annual GDP drop of roughly a half a percent.
Drilling Ban To Cost Trillions.
A new study shows that our reluctance to develop domestic energy will cost the beleaguered U.S. economy trillions
in opportunity costs, reduce our gross domestic product and increase our trade deficit.
Our National No-Energy Policy:
Thomas Pyle, the president of the Institute for Energy Research, recently offered a chilling description of our
national energy focus. "When it comes to paving the way for the responsible development of homegrown,
job-creating energy resources, no administration in history has done more to ensure producers do less."
How to spell Obama energy policy: 'D-e-l-a-y'. The need
to develop America's bountiful fossil fuel resources will only intensify as our economy grows and those of
emerging world economic powers like China and India similarly expand. But President Obama is moving
national energy policy in exactly the opposite direction. Instead of aiding exploration and development
of available fossil fuel resources, the administration appears to be doing everything possible to slow or even
stop it.
Follow the Money. As we
have noted many times, the United States is the only country in the world that deliberately fails to develop
its own energy resources. Other than instituting price controls, this is the single most destructive
economic policy that a country can pursue, which is why no one does it except us.
The Obama Energy Fiasco.
If the president wishes to free America from dependence on foreign oil, he should be encouraging the production of
reliable energy supplies in this country. What has he done to encourage more production of coal, oil and gas,
and nuclear energy? The answer is that he has done nothing. ... Not only has the president done nothing to
promote new supplies of energy, but he has also done much to impede them.
Alaskan Oil Abundance Versus Washington's Wasted
Billions. Analysts are already forecasting 100-dollar-a-barrel oil within a year. Yet the
Obama administration is still blocking offshore drilling in America — even though it was approved by
Congress last year — and wants to raise taxes on oil companies. Several years are needed to get
major new production on line, even without anticipated environmental lawsuits designed to stymie or at least
harass and delay any drilling of new wells off of America's east and west coasts. In Alaska, we have a
pipeline which could flow another 1.5 million barrels per day — worth nearly $50 billion
per year — from vast oil resources waiting to be drilled.
No Substitute For Fossil Fuels.
Earlier this year, Congress approved a scheme to pour $80 billion — on top of the tens of billions
already spent — into renewables. A government report released last week indicates the money
will be wasted. Renewable energy is the shiny gem that everyone wants but no one can have.
Forget 'Peak Oil' —
Drill, BP, Drill. Ignoring peak-oil Cassandras, BP has made another giant oil find in the Gulf
of Mexico. We're not running out of oil. Our government just doesn't want us to look for it.
Foolishly Choosing Bears Over
Barrels. [Al] Gore is just plain wrong. Yet the myth he perpetuates has dealt a
critical blow to our hopes for true energy independence. Despite ever-increasing numbers and demonstrated
adaptability, the famous Knut the polar bear and his kind are still said to be endangered. That in turn
has prompted the federal government to designate 200,541 square miles off the coast of Alaska as critical
habitat for polar bears, effectively killing hopes to exploit the vast energy riches of the American
Arctic. The world polar bear population is at a modern high and growing.
A Crude Reality. To get
to the bottom of what's wrong with the 1,400-page energy bill passed by the House of Representatives, you have to dig deeper
than Canada's tar sands. ... The greener we are, the less secure we're likely to be. Meaning, we either can be green or
we can be less dependent on oil from terrorist-sponsoring states. But under the current energy bill, we can't be both.
Running on empty.
American energy policy is in limbo. "Drill, baby, drill" still articulates a good policy direction, but the Obama
administration is outsourcing that policy, and our tax dollars, to Brazil. This is all while the White House is
ignoring public opinion by blocking domestic energy production. The mind boggles when trying to figure out why
the energy issue is still at issue at all.
Seeing Chukchi. Back
in July [2008], ... it was thought that Chukchi's waters northwest of Alaska's landmass held 30 billion cubic feet
of natural gas. Today, Science magazine reports that the U.S. Geological Survey now finds it holds more than anyone
thought — 1.6 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered gas, or 30% of the world's supply and 83 billion
barrels of undiscovered oil, 4% of the global conventional resources. That's enough U.S. energy to achieve
self-sufficiency and never worry about it as a national security question again. The only thing left to
do is drill.
Judge
blocks drilling on refuge. A federal judge has indefinitely blocked gas and oil drilling on
a wildlife refuge that sits next to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in south-central Colorado.
U.S. District Court Judge Walker Miller on Thursday [9/3/2009] granted a preliminary injunction, ruling
environmental groups presented adequate evidence that drilling would cause irreparable injury to
Colorado's Baca National Wildlife Refuge.
Lost In An Energy Wilderness.
Earlier this year, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 Utah oil and gas leases that had gone through seven
years of studies, negotiations and land-use planning. They were rejected because temporary drilling
operations might be "visible" from several national parks more than a mile away. We are not making
this up. Some of these parcels are in or near the Green River Formation, an oil-rich region in
Colorado, Utah and Wyoming that's been called the "Persia of the West."
Cap and Trade spells disaster.
[Scroll down] To see how extreme HR 2454 is, one need only go to page 106-107 of the bill. "Congress
finds that the status of oil as a strategic commodity which derives from its domination of the transportation
sector presents a clear and present danger to the United States." With this one statement, House
Democrats have declared war on the oil industry. Currently, oil is supplying the vast majority of this
country's energy requirements. While we need to continue to diversify our energy supplies, we cannot
ignore reality.
Environmentalist Economic
Strangulation. The Green Left must be thrilled with the new Obama/Pelosi/Reid (OPR) troika in
charge of the federal government. Three times already, the troika has blocked the development of domestic
oil resources. During his first week in office, President Obama rescinded his predecessor's executive
order permitting drilling on the continental shelf and in the Green River Formation. Both areas contain
abundant oil — especially Green River (under Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah), which has recoverable
shale-oil reserves three times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Several weeks later, Secretary
of the Interior Ken Salazar unilaterally canceled 77 oil and gas leases in Utah, on the grounds that
(I kid you not) someone might catch a glimpse of temporary drilling equipment from the national park
that sits more than a mile away.
Drill,
Drill, Drill. Onshore and offshore drilling restrictions for oil and natural gas have to be
removed. Deregulate the energy sector. Open the door to nuclear power. Drill the shale regions
for natural gas. Exploration has dried up in the new Obama environment, which is so very anti-fossil-fuel
and anti-nuke. If we are going to power our way to economic growth, fossil fuels and nuclear energy have
to play key roles. Alternative-fuel technologies may grow up, but that's gonna take several decades.
Right now they're about 2 percent of our power. That's all.
CBS Slams Exxon for Not Drilling
More. After all the media hand-wringing the past few months over imploding financial institutions,
they might praise ExxonMobil for taking care of it shareholders first and keeping ample reserve funds, rather
than running on risky investments and toxic assets. "Consumer advocate" Dan Weiss closed the story
saying, "Big oil is swimming in profits with money drained from the pockets of American families." CBS
mentioned he was a senior fellow at the "Center For American Progress" yet neglected to mention that it is an
avowedly liberal think tank. The founder of CFAP is former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta.
Cognitive
Ideological Dissonance on Capitol Hill. Speaking of energy, we can't help but give more attention
to a recent press release from some of the Senate's leading liberals. Charles Schumer, Byron Dorgan,
Bernie Sanders, Bob Casey and Mary Landrieu are demanding that President Bush tell OPEC nations to increase
their oil supplies or risk losing arms deals with the United States. The Senators say U.S. consumers need
the price relief that only increased oil production can bring. Yes, that Senator Schumer and that Senator
Dorgan, both of whom voted against increasing U.S. oil production because they couldn't abide drilling across
1% of Alaska's wilderness.
1.5 TRILLION barrels, locked up U.S. Geological Survey ups
estimate of Piceance Basin oil shale by 53%. The Piceance Basin of northwest Colorado probably
holds about 53 percent more oil-shale resources than previously estimated, the U.S. Geological Survey
said Thursday [4/2/2009]. It was the federal geology and mapping agency's first reassessment of
in-place oil-shale resources in the basin in 20 years. In 1989, USGS said the Piceance Basin
held the equivalent of about 1 trillion barrels of oil in its oil-shale resources. Now, it says
the basin has an estimated 1.525 trillion barrels of in-place oil-shale resources.
Big Oil Bites Back. Wednesday
[5/27/2009], Chevron was descended upon by a zoo-full of San Francisco leftists pushing rain forest sentimentalism, Burma,
and other pet causes dear to the no-soap crowd. They journeyed all the way to San Ramon, Calif. to shout "Shame on
you!" and "No blood for oil" and worse yet to make demands on the company. ... The real aim of all these attacks is to end
these companies' world leadership in oil extraction. The green groups want to put an end to what the oil companies
do best, from finding oil in the world's most hostile climates like the Arctic Sea, to extracting oil from abandoned wells,
to drilling oil 12 miles through salt walls under the sea. The ultimate goal is less oil to power American
industry and to maintain the quality of private life.
Obama budget
rescinds oil, gas industry tax breaks. The oil and gas industry is taking a hard hit
in President Barack Obama's proposed budget. According to details released Thursday about the
2010 budget, the plan would rescind tax breaks at a cost to the industry of $52.4 billion over
the next 10 years.
Drill, Ivan, Drill.
Oil prices have risen to a six-month high on the prospect of economic recovery. Russia plans floating
reactors to power Arctic drilling. We plan to do nothing to increase supply.
The Next Oil Shock: The
current recession has wiped out demand growth for the last four years. Oil prices have tumbled $100 a barrel
or more from their high point. Spare production capacity is expected to be 6.5 million barrels per day
through 2009. Anticipating a robust future, other countries such as China and Brazil have continued to look
for oil while we continue to research ... switch grass.
An End to Dependence on
Middle East Oil. Today, America imports two-thirds of its oil at a cost of $300 billion per
year, much of it from politically unstable, Middle East countries which control 45% of the world's oil, overall.
This is occurring despite the existence of bountiful, untapped oil resources within the United States. Developing
these resources could free America from imports, create badly needed, oil-production jobs and meet U.S. energy demand
for the next 200 years. With nearly three-fourths of Americans favoring increased energy exploration, the
only obstacle standing in the way of our energy independence is a lack of political vision and will.
Offshore Oil Drilling Ban Will Be
Restored 'By Any Means Necessary,' Democratic Congressman Says. "When we talk about drilling, the
new thing we have to think about is the Arctic," said [Rep. Jay] Inslee. "There is a dangerous irony occurring.
We are drilling, burning oil, sending CO2 up into the atmosphere, creating global warming — and it's melting
the Arctic making it possible for people to drill." "Now there is this gold rush to start punching oil wells
in a place we just desecrated because of global warming," said Inslee. "That's one place we have to get a
new moratorium where there hasn't been one before, because there has always been ice there before."
Obama's
anti-oil team. The president-elect is poised to hand environmental policy to people who want to punish
petroleum.
Drill, Baby, Drill? Forget It. For
all the political energy spent on offshore drilling —something that a vast majority of Americans support
but liberals oppose —the courts have spoken and delayed drilling for years, perhaps decades. Last
Friday [4/17/2009], the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the 2007-2012 plan authored by the
Interior Department because —as the lawyers say, inter alia —its "environmental sensitivity
rankings are irrational." So the matter gets dumped into the hands of the much more sensitive Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar.
Boxer Unwilling to Compromise on ANWR
Drilling. Even if you offer Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., what she's been pushing for — taxpayer
investments in "green" or renewable energy — she's not going to budge in her opposition to opening federal
lands to oil and natural gas exploration.
Santa Barbara County reverses oil drilling
stand. Months after making national headlines for supporting offshore oil drilling, the county famous for
spawning the modern environmental movement reversed course Tuesday [4/7/2009] and voted to oppose the drilling.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, citing a need to preserve its coastline, voted 3-2 for a resolution to
oppose oil exploration and extraction in the county.
Appeals court cancels
offshore drilling program. A federal appeals court ruled Friday [4/17/2009] that the Bush
administration did not properly study the environmental impact of expanding oil and gas drilling off the
Alaska coast and canceled a program to find new reserves. A three-judge panel in Washington found that
the Bush-era Interior Department failed to consider the effect on the environment and marine life before it
began the process in August 2005 to expand an oil and gas leasing program in the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi seas.
Obama Is Anti-Oil And Anti-American.
Oil producing nations such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, along with Venezuela, will grow rich while Americans
will be faced with high costs for gasoline, heating oil, and everything else that depends on oil such as asphalt or
even Vaseline. Meanwhile, oil producers in America, large and small, will take a financial beating. If
you don't like living in a modern, advanced and industrialized society, you will favor this. If you think
Americans consume too much, drive too much, and deserve to be punished for it, you will favor this.
Obama Targets U.S. Oil. While Mr. Obama's
original plan was to impose windfall-profit taxes on oil firms, now that windfall profits are gone because energy prices
have fallen, he is pitching in his fiscal 2010 budget proposals to raise at least US$31.5-billion more from the oil-and-gas
sector over 10 years by raising royalties, imposing new taxes and eliminating loopholes. ... Too bad it won't work the
way Mr. Obama envisions, as the Alberta experience with higher oil and gas royalties has shown, and that Mr. Obama's plan
will more likely steer Americans further down a path of dependence on Middle East oil ... .
Green-Subsidy
Strings. President Obama has long promised $150 billion — $15 billion a year over
10 years — in industry subsidies to develop alternative fuels, including Detroit Three production of
alternate-fuel vehicles to meet federal fuel mandates. White House Deputy Budget Director Robert Nabors confirmed
yesterday that that the subsidy is contingent on revenues from the president's cap and trade tax. No cap and trade,
no $150 billion. The White House was not forthcoming with details, but the move points a gun at Detroit's
head: Support our cap and trade scheme or no green subsidIes for you.
Energy-state lawmakers vow to
fight Obama oil tax hikes. Energy-state lawmakers are vowing to do everything they can to block President
Obama's proposed $31.5 billion tax increase on oil and gas producers. Obama's $3.55 trillion budget
blueprint released Thursday [2/26/2009] targeted U.S. energy producers by imposing new taxes and fees, abolishing
existing tax breaks and changing accounting rules. The White House proposals provoked a firestorm of opposition
today from industry allies on Capitol Hill.
Court halts Utah
oil and gas leases. A judge late Saturday [1/17/2009] halted the Bush administration's efforts to
open 110,000 acres of federal land in Utah to oil and gas exploration, ruling that the danger of damaging the
pristine land required further study before leases were awarded. The leases to the parcels had been auctioned
off Dec. 19 in a move that environmental groups said was a last-minute gift to the energy industry before
President Bush left office.
Bias alert!
A "gift to the energy industry" is a gift to the energy consumer.
Harry
Reid's Land Grab: The 1200-page, pork-laden, $10 billion proposal locks up millions of
acres of energy-rich property by designating it as environmentalist-friendly "federal wilderness" area where
not even as much as a bicycle would be permitted to travel across the land. Many of these areas recently
became available when the ban on domestic drilling in Western states expired last fall and the liberal left
couldn't muster the courage to keep it in place due to rising energy prices. Now Democratic leaders are
using different legislative strategies to put a new kind of ban in place.
US govt cancels leases for Utah oil,
gas drilling. In a sharp reversal of Bush administration policy, the Interior Department
canceled controversial energy leases on Wednesday [2/4/2009] that would have opened lands near national
parks in Utah to oil and natural gas drilling.
Obama's 'Extreme Team' On Energy.
One of them wanted to see Americans paying $8 a gallon for gasoline. Another tried to block access to
domestic oil reserves that could one day exceed those in Saudi Arabia. Another thinks global warming is
a dire crisis justifying a massive crackdown on energy — decades after saying the same thing about
global cooling. Yet another had a position in the one of the world's top socialist organizations.
Meet the Obama administration's energy team.
War On Fossil Fuels.
The new administration has wasted no time in reversing a decision by the Bush White House that let gas and oil
companies explore for new resources. Keep this in mind the next time pump prices take off.
Boxer Unwilling to Compromise
on ANWR Drilling. Even if you offer Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., what she's been pushing
for — taxpayer investments in "green" or renewable energy — she's not going to
budge in her opposition to opening federal lands to oil and natural gas exploration.
Obama Interior Nominee to Consider New Ban on
Oil Drilling in USA. President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of the interior nominee, Sen. Ken Salazar
(D-Colo.), said he will consider restoring parts of an expired federal ban on offshore oil drilling, but told CNSNews.com
that he has "no idea" how much of the drilling restrictions should be reimposed.
The POR
(Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy: Tanks a Lot. The POR economy kicked in during the latter part
of June, when its architects — Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid — decided
that starving the economy of energy by refusing to allow more offshore drilling in the face of $4 gas
prices was a winning political position. Pelosi claimed that because we couldn't totally "drill
our way out of this," we shouldn't increase drilling at all. Reid put an exclamation point on
Pelosi's stubbornness by insisting that fossil fuels are "making us sick."
In Alaska, The Drill Is Gone.
Remember those 68 million acres House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the oil companies had to use or lose?
According to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, they can't drill there either.
"Use It or Lose It" Is
Not the Way Energy Markets Work. While Republicans have argued for drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Congressional Democrats responded
with a counterclaim: oil companies need to use what they already have. To that end, House
Democrats have proposed "use it or lose it" legislation that would apply to leases on federal land.
Speaker
Pushing Stealth Renewal of Congressional Energy Embargo. Having failed to pass the required
measures to fund the government for the next fiscal year, Congress must now pass what is known as a
Continuing Resolution (CR) in order to avoid a government shutdown. A draft of the resolution contains
a provision taken from the recently passed House bill, H.R. 6899, to continue the ban on energy
exploration and production on nearly all of the taxpayer owned Outer Continental Shelf in the lower
48 states for another year.
Gasoline, Oil and the
Economy: Despite the current gas price relief, growing numbers of Americans remain wary of domestic gasoline
supply, gas prices, and fear for their economic future. They are wary of the OPEC nations, who can throttle supply
on political whim; and, they fear that, should they lose their job, how will they be able to buy food, gas, and pay for
their home. Their worry is understandable. Perhaps, it is also wise — if their worry serves as a
catalyst for demanding specific action by elected officials.
Stop the War
on Poor Families. As Democratic Party delegates gather in Denver, America is repeatedly being
told that we must transform our economy to "green" energy. Our future is in wind and solar, liberal
Democrats and environmental activists insist. Oil, gas, coal and nuclear must go. American
citizens vigorously disagree. They know fossil and nuclear fuels built this country and created health
and living standards unprecedented in history. Over two-thirds support increased drilling.
Why Americans Can't Get U.S. Oil: At
last report, Democrats decided to allow the quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts to expire. That's not the same as lifting the ban. Moreover, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
(D-Md) is on record saying that, if the Democrats retain control of Congress, restoring the ban "will be a top
priority for discussion next year." So much for so-called "energy independence." When Democrats say
that, they are talking about wind and solar power, and biofuels, not oil, natural gas, and coal.
The Congressional Oil Embargo.
Congress and America united when we suffered from an Arab Oil Embargo in 1973. Now we're suffering from
a Congressional Oil Embargo. … The Arab Oil Embargo only lasted six months. The Congressional Oil
Embargo has lasted for decades and endures to this day.
House
Democrats to Let Ban on Drilling Expire. Congressional Democrats bowed to political pressure
yesterday [9/23/2008] and agreed to let the ban on offshore oil drilling expire, a decision that would allow
exploration just three miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines unless the next president reinstates an
executive branch order that prohibits drilling.
Pedaling no-gas
options. Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives sent a message last week to
hard-working commuters forced to pay historically high prices for gasoline: Ride a bike. The
message was buried on page 255 of a 290-page bill the Democratic leadership introduced at 9:45 p.m.
last Monday night, forced through the Rules Committee at 10:00 p.m., and put up for a "debate" and
final vote — with no amendments allowed — on Tuesday evening [9/16/2008].
Congressional corruption: The
energy crisis comes to rest at the feet of the Democrats. For more than 30 years, the Democrats
have used whatever rules and procedures necessary to block or prevent the energy industry from keeping up
with the growing demand. Democrats have prevented the construction of a single nuclear plant, or a
single oil refinery, and the development of our domestic energy resources. It is the Democrats that
are now preventing even a reasoned debate.
The
drilling bill that bans drilling. This bill permanently bans all drilling within 50 miles
of the US coast, which just happens to be where most of the recoverable oil and gas reserves are. It
permits drilling between 50 and 100 miles out only if the adjoining states agree — which
they won't, since the bill denies them any share in the royalties the oil companies would have to pay, thereby
eliminating any financial incentive for a state to say yes. Virtually all the oil off the California
coast and beneath the Eastern Gulf of Mexico would be locked up for good.
Energy
Policy End Game. In 41 days, the long-imposed moratorium on offshore oil drilling and domestic
oil shale production is set to expire — gone. This happens automatically and can be stopped only if
Congress votes to re-establish the ban. Lifting the moratorium might free up as much as 100 years'
worth of oil and gas for domestic consumption. But keeping domestic energy supplies off limits is
something Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and their environmentalist allies desperately
want to do.
A Country At Mercy Of
Environmentalists. For several decades, environmentalists have managed to get Congress to keep
most of our oil resources off-limits to exploration and drilling. They've managed to have the Congress
enact onerous regulations that have made refinery construction impossible. Similarly, they've used the
courts and Congress to completely stymie the construction of nuclear power plants. As a result, energy
prices are at historical highs and threaten our economy and national security.
Where's
the Energy? Locked up, thanks to Speaker Pelosi. With complete disregard to the rights
of the minority party, the Democrat leadership in Congress will not allow a vote on drilling for America's
vast domestic resources. Producers have made great strides in minimizing ecological damage. Over
the past 25 years, 7 billion gallons of oil have been pumped to shore, without a single significant
spill. In fact, the last oil spill of any impact from a drilling rig off our shores occurred 37 years
ago. Yet, congressional Democrats refuse to acknowledge these facts, choosing instead to remain beholden
to the fringe environmental extremists who oppose advancement.
No Excuses For Not Drilling.
About 700 billion U.S. dollars flow out of this country every year for foreign oil and gas. Instead
of this obscene transfer of our wealth and standard of living out of the United States, why don't you let
the "Big Evil Oil Companies" invest their obscene, windfall profits right here in the United States and
then the let the taxpayers' dollars for energy stay here too? Here are the weak excuses I hear,
mostly from Democrats….
Nelson endorses Jennings, vows to block
offshore drilling. Democratic congressional candidate Christine Jennings on Wednesday [8/20/2008]
picked up the endorsement of Sen. Bill Nelson, a fellow Democrat who also vowed to prevent any expansion of
oil drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast.
Pelosi's
Energy Stonewall: Democrats appear ready to sacrifice their whole agenda, even spending, rather
than allow new domestic energy production. Or even a mere debate about energy. The Democratic
leadership is stonewalling any measure that might possibly relax the Congressional ban on offshore drilling.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid know that they would lose if a vote ever came to the floor, and they're desperate
to suppress an insurrection among those Democrats who are pragmatic about one of the top economic issues.
Pelosi won't limit
vote to offshore drilling. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday firmly rejected the idea of
a House vote solely on the issue of offshore oil drilling, calling it "a hoax on the American people" backed
by oil companies. ... "You want to drill? We want the royalties for the American people, and we want
that to pay for renewable energy resources," the San Francisco Democrat said in an interview for KQED television's
weekly news show, "This Week in Northern California." "We want to connect all that together."
The Editor interjects...
But Ms. Pelosi, those royalties are not yours to give away.
Let's See the Votes. Here is
information and a list of votes compiled by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranging from 1995 to 2008, on
off-shore drilling and drilling in ANWR. Take a look and decide for yourself who is to blame for
stopping drilling in the OCS and in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR).
No-Energy
Nancy's Phony Energy Plan: Our friends at the Institute for Energy Research (IER) posted a
devastating exposé of the Pelosi plan. As announced last week, the plan would:
• Permanently ban access to about 97 percent of the undersea oil lying within 50 miles
of the California coast.
• Continue the ban on energy production in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.
• Impose a brand-new ban on oil and gas leases in Alaska's coastal waters out to 50 miles.
• Not allow states that approve new leases beyond 50 miles to share royalties with
the federal government, thus stripping any financial incentive for states to stand up to environmental
pressure groups, who will continue to agitate against any new oil and gas operations offshore.
The Democrats' Sham Energy
Bill: Republicans recognize expanded drilling for oil is a powerful issue working for them in
this election year. Voters paying record high oil prices in a country where long drives to work are
often mandatory favor expanded oil drilling. Speaker Pelosi's ruse was endangering too many of her
Democratic colleagues. Thus she resorted to Plan B.
Pelosi's Drilling Ruse:
When Democrats opposed every measure to increase domestic oil production, they angered millions of Americans.
And when they finally tried to claim they were for new drilling by producing two bills that allowed new
drilling only where there was little or no oil, Americans quickly picked up on the scam. On all of the
major issues of the past two years, the Democrats chose to play political gotcha instead of actually govern.
Democrats Still Aren't Serious About
Drilling. After a five-week paid vacation, Democrats are back in Washington and claiming that
they want to do something about oil prices. But the problem is that their plan, which passed the House
yesterday [9/16/2008] and will likely come up for a vote in the Senate later this week, will not produce a
single drop of oil. Why? Because it does nothing about environmental groups that are suing to
stop drilling.
Dems like $10 per Gallon Gasoline.
You have to see this video to believe it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) was on the Senate
floor earlier today, attempting to get offshore drilling authorized. As you'll see on the YouTube shot, he
tried to get Democrats to agree to a trigger for it, at ever-increasing levels of gas prices. McConnell
was asking for unanimous consent, so the bill could pass immediately. Try as he might, Sen. Ken Salazar
(D-Co) objected no matter how high McConnell raised the ante. $4 a gallon? Salazar objected.
$7.50 a gallon? Again, Salazar objected. Finally, McConnell offers a trigger for offshore drilling
permission at $10 a gallon gasoline prices. And guess what? Salazar objected.
Bush Says
Drill, Drill, Drill — and Oil Drops $9! Democrats keep saying that it will take
10 years or longer to produce oil from the offshore areas. And they say that oil prices won't
decline for at least that long. And they, along with Obama and McCain, bash so-called oil speculators.
And today we had a real-world example as to why they are wrong.
'Rig' The Election. When
President Bush lifted the executive order banning exploration and drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, two things
happened almost immediately: The world price for oil started to drop and the Democrats panicked. They
could no longer hide under the umbrella the order provided.
Washington's
Dry Well: President Bush ratcheted up the pressure on Congress this week to open the Outer
Continental Shelf to oil drilling by rescinding the executive order prohibiting such exploration. There's
just one catch: For the president's action to take effect, Congress has to lift its own ban, which has
been in place since 1983. And that's not going to happen.
Boehner
says majority of Congress wants to drill. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Congress
is ready to lift the ban on offshore drilling but is being blocked by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "Nancy
Pelosi and the liberals here in the Congress, they worship at the altar radical environmentalism. The
last thing that that group wants is more drilling," said Boehner in an interview with Bloomberg TV Saturday.
Pelosi stands firm against offshore
drilling. Her voice carries considerable weight since, as speaker, Pelosi is in a position to
prevent a vote on expanded drilling from reaching the floor. And she and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the
majority leader, appear intent on holding the line against calls to approve drilling in areas now off limits.
Pelosi blocks vote on Bush request to lift ban on
offshore oil drilling. A plan to lift the ban on coastal drilling is stalled on Capitol Hill,
for one simple reason: A Californian who opposes President Bush's proposal is calling the shots in the
House of Representatives. Despite growing public support for ending the ban, even in California,
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said she won't allow the immediate vote the
president wants.
Blunt
blasts Pelosi for not allowing drilling vote. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Sunday [7/20/2008]
strongly criticized Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for not allowing a vote on a measure that would allow
offshore drilling. While acknowledging that Pelosi can prevent such a vote, Blunt said the Democratic
leader would have to live with that decision, which he argued "does not make sense to the American people."
America's
Energy Held Hostage. A recent CNN poll showed more than 73 percent of Americans in favor
of offshore drilling. But the House Speaker can keep the issue from even reaching a vote, and Pelosi
seems bent on just that. "(In California) We learned the hard way that oil and water do not mix on
our coast," she said back in 1996. Pelosi was referring, of course, to the famous Santa Barbara oil
spill of 1969, an event that serves as the Alamo of the anti-drilling cause.
The Editor says...
Nancy Pelosi has gotten a lot of political mileage out of that one oil spill almost 40 years
ago. The Santa Barbara incident was a blowout. Prior to the development of blow-out
preventers, blowouts were common and were referred to
as gushers.* In
other words, there's so much oil and gas out there, it can hardly wait to get out of the ground.
Democrats
Against Drilling. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and other liberal leaders on Capitol Hill are gripped
by cold-sweat terror. If they permit a vote on offshore drilling, they know they will lose when Blue
Dogs and oil-patch Democrats defect to the GOP position of increasing domestic energy production. So
the last failsafe is to shut down Congress.
Dems Over a
Domestic Barrel. On September 30 … the ban on fossil-fuel drilling off America's Outer
Continental Shelf (OCS) and in the oil-shale fields of the West will expire. Democrats, who control
both houses of Congress, must pass an appropriations bill extending the bans. The onus, in other words,
is on them.
Democrats Should
Let Us Drill. Now that an executive branch ban on offshore oil exploration has been lifted, the time
has come for Democrats in Washington to lift their own ban on increased domestic supply. Americans are demanding
that Congress do something about record-high gas prices. They recognize that prices will not go down unless
supplies go up. And they also know that the only thing now standing in the way of more domestic supply is the
Democratic refusal to allow it.
The Futile Crusades of Dem Quixote: You
name the issue, and the party led by Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi has diagnosed it incorrectly and applied the wrong
remedy. Let's consider just a few of today's ills: oil prices, Iraq, and obesity.
Dems'
Doublethink on Drilling: High gasoline prices are good. A high price, imposed through
federal carbon taxes or carbon caps, is precisely the mechanism by which Democrats hope to curb carbon
emissions. … [But] High gasoline prices are bad. With constituents irate over gasoline prices
that are pushing $5 a gallon, Democrats complain that high prices are a bad thing.
The Democrats' No-Drill Energy Plan.
When it comes to domestic oil production, the Democrats and their Green/Left supporters are all singing from
the same deranged hymnal. In May, one of the choir leaders, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of
Illinois declared, "We can't drill our way to lower prices."
The
Democrats' Energy Charade: Earlier this month the House of Representatives voted on an energy
bill called the Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands (Drill) Act. The good news, for those of us who
actually want to do something to lower gas prices, is that it failed. … The problem here came in the fine
print. The bill would have mandated that leasing be done in an undefined, "environmentally responsible"
way. We know from experience that such ambiguous language leads to lawsuits and delays.
How Wrong are
the Democrats on Drilling? A common response of the Democrats when confronted with citizens
advocating for increased offshore drilling is that the results are "years off into the future" and therefore
any relief on gas prices would be unlikely — at least in any sort of time frame that matters to voters
right now. They are wrong on many measures — foremost among them is that the same obstruction
deprived Americans all these years of domestic production which would have been in place but for Democratic
opposition. Also future prices would respond to the prospect of increased oil supplies and this
would have a depressive effect on oil prices — NOW.
Drilling
and Blissful Ignorance: Consider: 25 years ago, nearly 60 percent of U.S.
petroleum was produced domestically. Today it's 25 percent. From its peak in 1970, U.S.
production has declined a staggering 47 percent. The world consumes 86 million barrels a
day; the United States, roughly 20 million. We need the stuff to run our cars and planes and
economy. Where does it come from?
Shut Up and Produce Some Oil.
Liberals are flailing about looking for some political cover on energy and gas prices. For decades now,
they have supported the policies of extremists who have systematically sought to shut down every major
energy source for our economy. We can't drill for oil offshore, we can't drill in the frozen tundra
of north Alaska, we can't even develop oil shale on the mainland. Liberals are even opposing the
development of new oil discoveries in the Plains states.
Let's Drill.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Mr. Magoo of American politics, stumbled onto the truth last week.
He discovered the law of supply and demand. "We want to put [more oil] on the market to increase supply
and lower prices," Reid said. "With oil and gas prices continuing to break record highs every day, much
more needs to be done." Indeed it does. But Reid won't allow it.
Loony Harry Reid. This nation is
in serious trouble because it has people in very powerful elected positions that say crazy things. Take,
for example, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) who is the Senate Majority Leader: "The one thing we fail to talk
about is those costs that you don't see on the bottom line. That is coal makes us sick. Oil makes
us sick; it's global warming. It's ruining our country, it's ruining our world. We've got to stop
using fossil fuel." [Italics in original]
Harry Reid's
Position Paper on Drilling: In a recent interview with Fox News Business Channel, Mr. Reid, who was
evidently fed up with questions about drilling, suddenly exclaimed: "Coal makes us sick, oil makes us sick; it's
global warming. It's ruining our country, it's ruining the world. We've got to stop using fossil fuel."
Mr. Reid's rant quickly became the No. 1 video on the Internet, approaching a half-million views.
Dems
oblivious on oil. Maybe the quickest way to lower oil and gas prices would be this: Immediately enroll
every Democratic member of Congress in an entry-level economics class. The lack of even a basic grasp of economic
concepts has led Democrats to oppose sensible policies that would begin to lower oil and gas prices. Instead, they
push hair-brained ideas that make no sense.
We're Not Addicts!
It's a confused and confusing debate but it can be boiled down to this: On one side are those who believe
the answer is for us to slash our demand for energy. On the other side are those who believe the answer
is to greatly increase our supply.
What Do The Democrats Take Us For?
The public wants more oil, but Democrats keep offering the same solutions, not one of which includes drilling and all of
which are asinine. Do they think the American people are fools?
Dems
Oppose GOP Call for Increased Domestic Drilling. Democratic senators are skeptical about new
efforts by Republicans and the Bush administration to increase offshore drilling, despite a government report
by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management showing that there are 139 billion barrels of
oil in the United States (onshore and offshore combined).
Countering Democrats
on Drilling: The Democrats have a standardized talking point against any domestic drilling (in
ANWR, the Midwest oil shales and off-shore), settling on the comeback: "It won't help us today." … If
the voters see environmentalists, tree-huggers, and their Democratic political minions as causing $4 or
$5 a gallon gasoline, along with the rise in consumer prices across the board because of the increase of
the cost of oil used as an ingredient in many products, they will blame the Democrats. And frustration
with environmentalism is starting to show up in the polls, which are indicating an increasing call for
domestic drilling from the American public.
Domestic Drilling OK, Just
'Not in My State,' Senators Say. "There may be places that make sense, I am not saying, 'Let's not drill
anywhere,'" Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in response to the question. "But do I want to drill off the
California coast? No. Do I want to drill in the Arctic in endangered areas? No."
The Editor asks...
Uh, Senator, I have a question: What is an "endangered area?" Is that a place that might disappear
if we drill for oil there?
Fuelish Democrats:
[Democrats] promised in the 2006 campaign to offer a "common sense" plan to curb gas prices. They have yet to produce
one, and the price per gallon of gas has risen by more than $1.60 since Democrats took control of Congress in January
2007. … [But] John McCain is a problem. He opposes drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve
(ANWR), though he has come around on increased domestic production in other areas (except off the coast of Florida).
Obama Unlikely
to Support New Oil Drilling in U.S.. A recent report by the Interior Department shows that there
are about 139 billion barrels of undiscovered oil on U.S. territory, onshore and offshore combined, much
of it restricted from extraction because of environmental regulations. Further, indications are that
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) does not support drilling for that oil and would not take steps to do so if
elected president.
Senate votes
to halt strategic oil stockpiling. Jittery about a political backlash over gasoline costs as
prices set yet another record Tuesday, Congress voted to halt deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in
defiance of President Bush. The action was expected to have a modest effect on pump prices, saving
motorists from 2 to 5 cents a gallon, backers said.
Democrats and High Oil Prices:
Investor's Business Daily has a continuing series on "Breaking the Back of High Oil", and today's edition
has a fascinating breakdown of some of the actions that the Democrats have taken over the last three decades or
so to ensure that our country has no defense against the effects of rising oil prices. While doing so,
they've made us all captives of OPEC and such tinpot dictatorships such as Venezuela.
Blame Congress for
High Oil Prices. If there is a villain in all of this, it is Congress itself. That
venerable body has made it impossible for U.S. producers of crude oil to tap significant domestic reserves of
oil and gas, and it has foreclosed economically viable alternative sources of energy in favor of unfeasible
alternatives such as wind and solar. In addition, Congress has slapped substantial taxes on gasoline.
Clinton: Drilling
not the answer. Exploring new sources of oil in the United States is not the solution to the nation's growing
energy crunch, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton said last week. There are places where
exploration and drilling can take place, such as the Gulf of Mexico, but it doesn't make sense to open up the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Clinton said during an interview with the Argus Leader on Friday.
The Editor says...
In other words, Hillary Clinton wants to leave the oil in the ground and depend entirely on conservation to
achieve "energy independence." Anyone with an ounce of critical thinking will see immediately that her
plans cannot succeed, and that she will blame someone else when the ideas flop.
Turning Voters Into Morons:
Consider the Democrats' cruel exploitation of their supporters' hopes and fears regarding rising gasoline
prices. Both Clinton and Obama have talked as though those prices can be lowered. Clinton
specifically talks of lowering federal gas taxes during the summer. That will do it, but only for the
summer. The problem is that oil demand worldwide has exceeded supply. … Likewise the candidates are
deceiving their supporters when they promise to make the country "independent of foreign oil."
Obamanomics:
[Scroll down] It should be possible on the straight-talk express to devise some alternative to the patently cynical
promise of "energy independence." No such "independence" is within reach, as the successive failures of Presidents
Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and two Bushes to attain it should demonstrate.
Striking Out
on Energy. President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain went to bat on energy policy this
week. And guess what? They both struck out. Mr. Bush went hat in hand to the Saudis to
ask for more oil production in order to bring down world prices. He whiffed. They said no for the
second time this year. ExxonMobil chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson said it's "astonishing" that Mr. Bush
keeps asking Saudi Arabia to pump more oil, rather than working harder for increased oil production at home.
Bush gets oil but no credit for
jawboning Saudis. President George W. Bush walked away from a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah
on Friday with a prize he has been seeking for months: a commitment from the world's big oil exporter to
boost output. But the news — which came the same day that U.S. crude oil futures hit a new record
of $127.82 a barrel — speaks less to Bush's success at "jawboning" the de facto OPEC leader on oil prices
and more to the kingdom's worry that high oil prices will dent demand for their own supplies, analysts said.
Dems 'Oil' Wet About
Gas Prices. Have you noticed that ever since the Democrats took control of Congress, oil and gas prices have
been going through the roof? The Dems won control of the House and Senate last year in part on the notion that sinking
billions of taxpayer dollars into corn-based ethanol would combat global warming; itself a dubious superstition that some
scientists say is part of the Earth's natural environmental changes over many eons.
Democrats Fumble Ball On
Energy. The price of oil has risen sharply since the Democrats, with their government-heavy
energy schemes, took control of the House. Since January 2007, the first month for the Democrats in
office, oil prices are up by more than 113%. … Congress, led by Democrats since January 2007, has
steadfastly refused to do anything constructive to bring down the price of oil. What truly is
frightening is Pelosi shows no sign of running out of bad ideas to ruin our energy-dependent economy.
Feckless To Reckless, Pelosi
Should Resign. Any leader with an energy record as derelict as Speaker Pelosi's ought to step
down. Where she once was just incompetent and irresponsible, she has now — with her latest
scheme to fix oil prices — become dangerous. Despite polls showing Americans in favor of
drilling more oil from America's huge untapped supplies, Pelosi won't allow it. She just wants to empty
our Strategic Petroleum Reserve for a short-term fix to get through Election Day.
Ann Coulter is a little sarcastic, but she has a point... This is Not a Drill. [Speaker of
the House Nancy] Pelosi announced that the Democrats also plan to push for "an historic investment in
biofuels, efficiency, conservation and the rest." The "rest" is apparently what she called our
"important and essential" investment in alternative energy. That certainly would be historic: We
would make history by throwing our money away on unproven energy boondoggles that have eaten up untold
billions since the 1960s without producing a single net kilowatt of power while we all starve to death.
Over to You,
Speaker Pelosi. Gas is still at $4 a gallon, but the good news is there's an emerging consensus
on a measure that would help: Drill for more oil here at home. President Bush dropped the
executive ban on offshore oil and natural gas exploration last week, and House GOP leader John Boehner
plans to lead a congressional delegation to Colorado and Alaska to highlight America's abundant energy
resources this week. Polls show more than two-thirds of the public support increased domestic
energy exploration and production. Guess who stands in the way.
Power of one: Pelosi vows
to block offshore drilling vote. A plan to lift the ban on coastal drilling is stalled on Capitol
Hill, for one simple reason: A Californian who opposes President Bush's proposal is calling the shots in the House
of Representatives. Despite growing public support for ending the ban, even in California, Democratic
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won't allow a vote. "I have no plans to do so," Pelosi said Thursday
[7/17/2008].
Pelosi: 'I'm trying to save the planet'.
After promising fairness and open debate, Pelosi has resorted to hard-nosed parliamentary devices that effectively
bar any chance for Republicans to offer policy alternatives. "I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to
save the planet," she says impatiently when questioned. "I will not have this debate trivialized by
their excuse for their failed policy."
Drill Through The Floor.
Led by Reps. Mike Pence, R-Ind., Tom Price, R-Ga., and Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., and fully backed by House
Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, this GOP attack could smack unwary Democrats as hard as the blast of a
Texas oil gusher, because what Republicans are demanding is nothing more than a simple up-or-down vote on
drilling for domestic oil in a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Five
Myths About Going It Alone on Energy: The idea that the United States, the world's single largest
energy consumer, can be independent of the $5 trillion-per-year energy business — the world's
single biggest industry — is ludicrous on its face. The push for energy independence is based
on a series of false premises. Here are a few of the most pernicious ones.
An awful oil bill. If you're
wondering why the Democrat-controlled Congress has lower approval ratings than President Bush, then look at the bill
that the House passed on mostly a party-line vote, 236-182. It scraps the tax deductions given to the nation's
oil companies, such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and ChevronTexaco. In light of the record profits these firms have
been racking up, not many folks will shed any tears for them. But perhaps they should.
The U.S. needs a
good oil plan. Americans in both parties need to get on board. That means opening up the
coasts of Florida and California to new offshore drilling for the first time in a quarter-century. That
means tapping into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. That means easing regulations to allow
the industry to build its first new refinery in three decades. For too long, partisanship and
environmental demagoguery have blocked progress toward easing the nation's ever-growing reliance on
foreign oil.
The Oil Dependency Myth: To say that
the people of the United States are "dependent" upon foreign oil is also a misnomer. Individuals choose
to purchase oil from overseas producers because such an action is preferable to other alternatives. I
am "dependent" upon overseas oil in the same way that I am "dependent" upon Proctor & Gamble for my laundry
detergent or the local butcher for my meat. (This is not to absolve the U.S. government for engaging in
bad foreign policy in the hopes of convincing overseas producers to sell oil to Americans at cheap prices.
My purpose is simply to point out the absurdity of saying that voluntary economic exchanges are acts of "dependence.")
A Cartel Worse Than OPEC: This year
a very large reserve was located in the Gulf of Mexico, some distance from the shore line of Texas. There
is no shortage of oil or gas around the coast of the United States. Some 20 years ago, Phillips
Petroleum sought permission to drill wells in the Bridger-Teton National Forest (gasp!) in Wyoming. The
wells were to be capped and used only in case of a national emergency. Wyoming is one of America's
richest states in energy resources. The request was denied.
Mind their own
business. Global energy giant BP has been a leader of the so-called "corporate social
responsibility" movement. … Two weeks ago, the campaign broke down. BP shut down its Prudhoe Bay
oil field in Alaska's North Slope after discovering what a company press release called "unexpectedly severe
corrosion" in the pipeline. The company says it will replace 73 percent of the Prudhoe Bay
pipelines. The shutdown will cost the nation 8 percent of its output — 400,000
barrels of oil a day — at a time when consumer gas prices are hitting record highs and world
oil prices are soaring.
Addicted to
what? The first part of last Tuesday's State of the Union — on national
security — was tough, clear, principled, well reasoned. The second part was a
laundry list, reminiscent of the worst of Bill Clinton. I was nodding off when I heard the
President Bush say, "America is addicted to oil." Addicted to oil! That woke me
up. America is no more addicted to oil than it is addicted to bread, to milk, to paper, to
water, to computers….
America's Oil Weapon: President
Bush has bemoaned what he calls the United States' addiction to oil. He has demonized America's oil
use in speeches, and talked about the need to move beyond the petroleum-based economy. The president
is certainly correct to point out harmful side effects to our use of oil and the need for us to address
them. But in using the expressly negative language of addiction, the President not only cast a dark
cloud over the fuel that presently underpins a huge portion of our economy, he badly confused a set of
issues that demand clear thinking and fair analysis.
Editor's Note:
That America is "addicted to oil" is something you would
expect Al Gore to say,
not George W. Bush.
Addicted to Regulation. In
his State of the Union Address, President Bush said that "America is addicted to oil." But it would be
more accurate to say that America is addicted to opportunity, and oil and its products help us seize
it. … Some 40% of our oil consumption is for cars and light trucks; 32% for buses, railroads, ships,
trucks and agricultural machinery; and another 17% goes into petrochemicals to produce products
from plastic to paint. These uses represent opportunities, not addictions.
Oil Addiction Fiction: Bush's
"Addiction" May Be Rational Choice. In spite of President Bush's dire warning in his State of
the Union address that America is becoming "addicted to oil" — followed by "rehab" policies to
include renewables, hybrids and now CAFE standards — most Americans do not wish to break the
habit. Far from it: Americans want their government to find new sources of oil to increase
domestic supplies.
Nelson: Oil
rigs would interfere with military training in Gulf. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson says the Bush
administration is "hell-bent" on offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, with some gas rigs as
close as 25 miles from Florida's shoreline. But he says the military may prevent
it. Nelson told reporters in Tallahassee that the Pentagon needs restricted air space
south of Eglin and Tyndall Air Force Bases, to test new types of jets and even secret weapons. He
said the Navy also does some weapons testing in the area, and can't have oil rigs in the way.
Energy
insecurity — unreliable supply at an unreasonable cost — took
years to create. Solutions will take years as well. In the meantime, working with
the international community, Washington must develop better knowledge, more tools and greater
will to effectively address international petroleum supply issues in foreign and economic
policy. Focused activities, skillfully executed, in producing countries could bring
millions of barrels more to world markets. We would then have less to fear from Iran
or other threats.
The
21st century Boston Tea Party. On Aug. 1, Speaker Nancy Pelosi — without addressing
gas prices that continue to hover near $4 per gallon — adjourned Congress for five weeks, dimmed
the lights, turned off the microphones and C-SPAN cameras and attempted to remove the press and visitors from
the House chamber. Republicans refuse to leave the chamber because the issue is about much more than gas
prices. It is about much more than energy. It is about the U.S. economy, jobs and national
security. It is about who we are as a people.
How to lower gas prices: Produce more oil!
A Declaration of Energy Independence.
How can we achieve the energy independence which every President since Nixon has said is a matter of national
security? Stop wringing our hands and moaning about our situation, stand up like our ancestors have and
boldly declare our Energy Independence! In practical terms we should: take the shackles off our
domestic oil industry, build new refineries, develop better distribution of natural gas, expand the use of
nuclear, wind, solar and every conceivable form of energy, and drill baby drill!
Drill.
Given that we're spending billions of stimulus dollars to rebuild our highways, it makes sense to think about
what we'll be driving on them. For years to come, most of what we drive will be powered, at least in part,
by diesel fuel or gasoline. To fuel that driving, we need access to oil. The less use we make of our own
reserves, the more we will have to import, which leads to a number of harmful consequences. That means we
need to drill here and drill now.
Let's Drill Our Way To
Lower Taxes. Opening our vast domestic resources, both on- and off-shore, to responsible oil and gas
development would produce an influx of tax revenue from additional lease sales and royalties, as well as from income
and excise taxes. These additional collections could be used, for example, to offset the alternative minimum
tax (AMT). The Congressional Research Service recently estimated the potential federal revenue from Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) oil development at $191 billion over 30 years — roughly $18.36 per
barrel, based on projections of recoverable reserves.
All Falling Down... [Scroll
down] While Obama was right to stiffen efficiency standards and promote alternate energies, he is
neglecting the only mechanisms that can tide us over for the next 20 years — more natural gas,
domestic oil, shale, tar sands, clean coal, and nuclear energy. We should be on a dash to build nuclear
plants for the coming demand from plug in hybrids and spikes in electricity usage. We should be
leasing as much natural gas lands as possible, to gain the supplies to run energy plants and to power
vehicles. There is plenty of oil in the Dakotas, California, Texas and in the Gulf and we should be
drilling there like mad. Sorry, even Santa Barbara should either ban SUVs or have oil derricks on the
horizon.
Drill and
Save, Now. The nation, it seems, now favors developing new sources over "saving the planet" by a hefty
3-2 margin. And get this: The biggest shift came among — yep! — liberals. Seems
sanctimonious tree-huggers and caribou-coddlers have their price: $4 gas.
What Part of 'Drill Now' do they Not
Understand? Out here in West Texas we love our guns, we support our troops, and we treasure
our freedom. … We also walk around on top of oil: yes it's far beneath us, but it's there.
And all these aspects of West Texas come together to our astonishment and anger over the fact that our
independence is limited by an intrusive federal government that tells us what oil we can and can't access
through drilling, and ultimately makes us dependent upon other nations for our own fuel supplies.
Most Americans support more U.S. oil
drilling. A push by U.S. President George W. Bush and Republican presidential candidate
Senator John McCain to lift a ban on U.S. offshore oil drilling could find plenty of support from Americans
weary of rising energy costs, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll. Some 59.6 percent of Americans
surveyed in the poll released on Wednesday [6/18/2008] said they would favour government efforts to boost
domestic drilling and refinery construction to cool record prices.
It's Time for Rage. We have a right to be angry,
but anger is no longer enough. It's time for rage — good, old American rage aimed at those elitist
Democrats who prefer to see the folks beggared by soaring fuel prices rather than take the action this very real economic
crisis demands. Drill.
Drill, Already.
High gas prices are finally curbing America's demand for the open road. Transportation Department statistics for
March indicate that the country just experienced its first year-over-year decline in miles driven since 1979. A
decrease in demand is one natural market response to rising gas prices. The other natural response —
an increase in supply — has not been as forthcoming, and the price of oil continues to rise even though
Americans are driving less.
Drill! Drill! Drill!
At this point in time, is there another country on the face of the earth that would possess the oil and gas
reserves held by the United States and refuse to exploit them? Only technical incompetence, as in Mexico,
would hold anyone back. But not us. We won't drill. California won't drill for the estimated
1.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil off its coast because of bad memories of the Santa Barbara oil
spill — in 1969. We won't drill for the estimated 5.6 billion to 16 billion barrels
of oil in the moonscape known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) because of — the
caribou.
A Time to Drill.
In a remarkably short time, the public has changed from supporters of environmentalism to advocates of
drilling for oil and natural gas in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and/or in the ocean.
For the first time since the 1970s, liberals in both parties have found themselves responding to significant
demands for drilling. Their responses are meant to confuse the electorate in order to turn public
opinion back to their position on the environment.
Energy Myths: Many
in Congress seem either disconnected from reality or intentionally disingenuous about our energy crunch.
They have well-honed negative responses to common-sense ideas about solving our energy crisis, particularly
drilling for more oil. These responses are based on a number of widely held myths. Sadly, they've
become the backbone of the Democrats' energy policy. They include: "We can't drill our way out
of our energy crisis." Actually, we can.
Who
wants to help me start drilling for oil? I'm tired of this nonsense. I am not addicted to oil. I'm
not psychologically or compulsively compelled to pump gasoline. If my truck ran on maple syrup I'd use that instead.
But it doesn't. It is not my fault that the automobile runs on gasoline. I didn't invent it. I only bought
one because I need it for work like most of you do. I tolerated paying $2 per gallon, and I could handle $3. But
word came down on Wednesday that $4-a-gallon gas will be the norm through 2009.
'Just Drill,
Baby' — Governor Palin. Yes, my friends on the left, there are responsible ways to
drill for oil that will help us with our energy needs and not disturb your precious caribou. It's time
we started to look to solutions like this rather than Obama's wind farms….
Oil Crisis is
Solvable. There is only one way to drive down the rising cost of gasoline for the long term:
significantly increase the domestic supply of oil. We are the only nation in the world with access to
known oil deposits on our own land or off our shores that essentially refuses to tap those resources. The
main stumbling block is a lack of political consensus, which is in especially short supply in an election
year. Instead of coming up with real solutions to our growing energy crisis, the Democrats in Congress
would rather rail against the oil companies.
Just Drill, Baby.
Washington politicians will tell you this is an "energy crisis," but America's energy challenges are far more
political than substantive. First, we are not running out of oil. In 1920 it was estimated that
the world supply of oil was 60 billion barrels. By 1950 it was up to 600 billion, and by 1990 to
two trillion. In 2000 the world supply of oil was estimated to be three trillion barrels. The
U.S. has substantial supplies of oil and gas that could be accessed if lawmakers would allow it, but they
frequently don't.
The drill-nothing
Congress goes home. Democrats' insistence on blocking a vote on drilling has more to do with protecting
environmental special interests than really protecting the environment or solving the energy crunch. And for
that, they should pay a political price.
Everything but oil is subsidized.
Wind
($23.37) v. Gas (25 Cents). [Scroll down] An even better way to tell the story is by how much
taxpayer money is dispensed per unit of energy, so the costs are standardized. For electricity generation,
the EIA concludes that solar energy is subsidized to the tune of $24.34 per megawatt hour, wind $23.37 and "clean
coal" $29.81. By contrast, normal coal receives 44 cents, natural gas a mere quarter, hydroelectric
about 67 cents and nuclear power $1.59.
D1 Oils says
US subsidies have forced it to shut UK refineries. The enormous damage being done by "splash-and-dash"
imports of American biodiesel was highlighted yesterday when one of the UK's leading operators, D1 Oils, said
it was closing down all its refining operations in Britain after running up a £46m annual loss.
Big Oil: Hero or Villain?
Dems
propose 'Reasonable Profits Board' to regulate oil company profits. Six House Democrats, led by
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits. The
Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as
high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no
specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.
Debunking the
big-oil subsidy myth. The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan used to warn against "semantic
infiltration" — employing less-than-accurate words in an effort to shape the debate. Moynihan's
caution is often ignored, but it's still worth calling out the offenders. Among them is a favorite think
tank of the Obama administration, the Center for American Progress (CAP), which regularly insists that taxpayers
are "subsidizing big oil companies." That's simply not true.
Gasoline and Onions. Oil companies
today are no more greedy or clever than they have been all along. We have to look for a better
explanation — and it isn't hard to find. Demand for oil rises with the growth of China, India
and other developing countries. When poor people get a little richer, they buy cars, computers and
refrigerators. They burn more fuel to make them and to run them. Rising demand, other things
being equal, increases prices. And other things have not been equal.
The
Administration's Big Oil Lie. The hearing was called ostensibly to support the Democrats' Close
Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act, a bill with no chance of passage. Its purpose was to once again deflect blame
for rising gas prices caused in large part by the Obama administration's ban on increasing domestic supply of
fossil fuels. Shell Oil President Marvin Odum laid the blame for high gas prices at the administration's
feet, where it belongs.
Krauthammer
rips oil company congressional 'show trials': 'A disgrace'. Beating up on oil companies has
always been low-hanging fruit for politicians when gasoline prices are high. And as the country is
headed into the summer driving season, gas prices are certain to go higher, giving Democrats the opportunity
to play that card. But such politicking isn't going unnoticed or without criticism.
Myths
About Oil and Gas: Instead of facing the reality of his owned failed policies, President Obama
is calling for an end to the "tax giveaways" he claims amount to $4 billion in "subsidies" to the
energy industry. This tactic isn't surprising given the effect that rising gas prices have on the
President's approval ratings and his obsession with re-election. But, less than truthful innuendos
and political spin hardly helps American working families that are getting hammered at the pump.
About Those Oil Subsidies:
Everyone wants to end subsidies to oil companies, from President Obama to John Boehner and Paul Ryan.
My question was "What subsidies?" Remarkably enough, CNN Money provided the answer. It
turns out that they are all tax "breaks." I even hesitate to call them "breaks" because some of them
amount to little more than Congress defining accounting terms such as "capital equipment." And the
total amount of earnings not collected in taxes (which liberals define as a "subsidy") is about $4 billion
per year.
Oil industry profits:
[Scroll down to page 7] While large in absolute dollar amounts, oil industry profits are modest when
measured as net income on each dollar of revenue. Over the past five years, the industry's net income
was only 5.7 cents per dollar of revenue, hardly different than the 5.5 cents average for all
industries. Oil industry profits are also highly cyclical. The oil industry goes through repeated
boom and bust cycles as prices vary but high levels of investment in capital and exploration must be
maintained. Today's high profits pay for investments made in the past that did not generate returns
for investors because of low gasoline prices. Finally, the oil industry pays high taxes already.
ExxonMobil reported net after-tax earnings of $40.6 billion in 2007, paid $30 billion in corporate
taxes that year, and had an effective tax rate of about 40 percent, much higher than other industries.
Other oil companies reported similarly high tax rates.
Facts versus Myths about the US Energy Industry.
Most people seem to have a misunderstanding as to the nature of the oil and gas industry, their impression being formed
only by the large multi-national integrated oil companies who make "billions of dollars of profit". In actuality,
the industry consists of thousands of companies ranging from one-person independents to the large multi-national
integrated oil companies. Another long standing misunderstanding is that the 5 super-large companies work
together to control the price of oil. If that were true, then the companies would not have allowed the low prices
of 1996 to 2000, nor would they allow the current unstable oil prices.
Big Oil Democrats: Here is
how you know Republicans are on the winning side of the oil drilling issue. It's not that two-thirds of
the American people support offshore drilling. It's that the Democratic response has been to simply
point at Republicans and shout, "Big Oil!"
Extorting Big Oil. On the surface,
it has all the makings of a classic David vs. Goliath tale — an ostensibly exploitative multinational oil
company plundering the pristine rain forests of impoverished, indigenous inhabitants. ... In short, this
lawsuit is nothing more than a politicized attempt by the Ecuadoran government to extort money from a
deep-pocket, American oil company.
The
Onion Ringer. Congress is back in session and oil prices are still through the roof, so pointless
or destructive energy legislation is all but guaranteed. Most likely is stiffer regulation of the futures
market, since Democrats and even many Republicans have so much invested in blaming "speculators" for $4 gas.
Congress always needs a political villain, but few are more undeserving.
An Energy Sarbox.
While some kind of crackdown on the U.S. oil futures market is inevitable after so much political agitation, Congress has
begun to believe its own demagoguery. The Senate may vote on a bill this week that will drive commodities trading
overseas and decrease oversight and market transparency. Call it a Sarbanes-Oxley for energy.
Oil Rally Topped Dot-Com Craze
in Speculators' Mania. Crude rose 697 percent since trading at $17.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile
Exchange in November 2001, and reached 28 record highs this year. The last time a similar pattern was seen in equities
was eight years ago, when Internet-related stocks sent the Nasdaq Composite Index up 640 percent to its highest level
ever, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Bespoke Investment Group LLC.
In Defense of Oil and Gas Speculators:
Despite Congress' periodic hauling of weak-kneed oil executives before their committees to charge them with
collusion and price-gouging, subsequent federal investigations turn up no evidence to support the charges.
Right now oil company executives are getting a bit of a respite as Congress has turned its attention to crude oil
speculators, blaming them for high oil prices and calling for tighter control over commodity futures trading.
Dems
willing to criticize oil despite holding stock. More than a dozen Democratic members of
Congress critical of oil companies have investments in the industry, according to a review of lawmakers'
financial assets. At least 14 Democratic members of the House and one senator have holdings ranging
from several thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars in companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and
Chevron Corp. or partnerships such as Schlumberger and Hornbeck Offshore Services.
Why Big Oil is not to
blame for fuel prices: Anyone with an understanding of basic supply and demand economics knows well enough
that Big Oil is not the big player in the energy market. More often than not the oil majors are just as helpless in
the face of global market forces as any other consumer. Why are energy prices sky-high? In a word:
geopolitics. The rapidly expanding economies of China and India, with a joint population of over 2 billion, have
become increasingly voracious consumers of energy. China's economic growth alone is running at nine percent and, over
coming years, will only accelerate.
Unleash America's Energy Potential.
As any driver can tell you, the pain at the pump is pretty acute right now. It's a simple matter of
supply and demand. Demand is up (thanks, in part, to an increasing appetite for fuel in China and
India), and supply is low. And if there's one thing that makes the pain worse, it's knowing that supply
doesn't have to be this low. Are the ridiculously high prices we're paying the fault of the big, bad oil
companies? No, the lion's share of the blame goes to politicians, who have locked away vast amounts of
American energy — both oil and natural gas.
The 'Idle' Oil Field Fallacy.
Anyone with even the most basic understanding of how oil and natural gas are produced — and this
should include many members of Congress — knows that claims of "idle" leases are a diversionary
feint. A company bids for and buys a lease because it believes there is a possibility that it may yield
enough oil or natural gas to make the cost of the lease, and the costs of exploration and production, commercially
viable. The U.S. government received $3.7 billion from company bids in a single lease sale in March
2008. However, until the actual exploration is complete, a company does not know whether the lease will
be productive.
Idle Leases —
Or Addled Minds? Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Rep. Nick Rahall, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members
of Congress who oppose producing more American oil are in a bind. They know voters are hurting from high
gas prices and overwhelmingly want the government to allow more American oil production. But they can't side
with the American people and risk upsetting their left-wing base. So they needed a way to make us think
they support more drilling — while effectively preventing us from ever drilling a single new well.
Obama's
Dry Hole: "I want you to think about this," Barack Obama said in Las Vegas last week. "The oil
companies have already been given 68 million acres of federal land, both onshore and offshore, to drill.
They're allowed to drill it, and yet they haven't touched it — 68 million acres that have the
potential to nearly double America's total oil production." Wow, how come the oil companies didn't think
of that? Perhaps because the notion is obviously false….
The Editor says...
The oil companies haven't been "given" anything. Oil companies have spent billions of
dollars for those leases.*
Oil Leases on '68
Million Acres' No Guarantee of Oil, Experts Say. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says a
Republican plan to expand domestic oil drilling — instead of forcing oil companies to drill on
the 68 million acres they've already leased — is a "hoax" and "unworthy of serious
debate." But the nation's oil producers say Pelosi is being disingenuous, because federal
regulations restrict their exploration on the leased land, while much of the 68 million
acres is already "tapped out" of oil.
Who's Hoarding America's Oil?
The truth is, over 96% of the lands that belong to the taxpayer haven't even been leased by the government so
that energy exploration might occur. Consumers are paying for this failure at the pump and in utility
bills. Some are even paying for it with their jobs. But instead of opening new areas to energy
exploration and production, some in Congress have taken to diversionary tactics. Take, for example, the
mysterious "68 million acres" myth.
Congress
returns to gridlock over oil drilling. Mrs. Pelosi last month said she will introduce energy
legislation in the coming weeks that might include opening portions of the outer continental shelf for
drilling — a provision Democratic leaders previously had opposed. The measure also would
include a "use it or lose it" provision that would force oil companies to surrender oil and gas leases on
federal land they're not drilling on, and prohibit these companies from acquiring new leases.
The Editor says...
In other words, "Find oil on the land you have leased, or you won't be permitted to look
elsewhere." The logic escapes me.
Facts beat talking points. The
problem with the energy debate is that most of the "facts" we hear on the radio and cable news are really just
talking points from folks who mostly don't know what they are talking about. The Democrats — as if
they all received the same e-mail Wednesday — are arguing that the oil companies have plenty of
places to drill, and isn't it very curious that they aren't?
Some wonder if speculators are fueling oil run-up.
With American motorists struggling to pay record-high gasoline prices, a debate rages in the halls of Congress and across the Oil
Patch over the role speculators may be playing in driving up oil prices. Crude prices have rocketed nearly $70 a barrel in
the past year. Some energy experts suggest speculation could account for $20 to $30 of that run-up.
Should the Oil Company
Executives Go on Trial? Obama science guru John Holdren isn't sure. Michael Egnor,
writing for the Science & Public Policy Initiative, reports on a television show last year when Holdren
was asked about trying company executive for "crimes against humanity" for doubting global warming...
Oil firms'
profits keep dropping as recession shrinks demand for energy. The world's biggest oil companies
are reporting sharp declines in quarterly profit as the recession continues to weigh on consumer demand,
driving down energy prices. Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company by market value, said
Thursday [10/29/2009] that its third-quarter profit slumped 68 percent, to $4.73 billion
(98 cents per share).
"Windfall profit" taxes
Only the stockholders of an oil company are entitled to share its profits.
What
Is a 'Windfall' Profit? To pay for "stimulus" checks of $1,000 for families and $500 for
individuals, the Senator says government would take "a reasonable share" of oil company profits. Mr.
Obama didn't bother to define "reasonable," and neither did Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat,
when he recently declared that "The oil companies need to know that there is a limit on how much profit
they can take in this economy." Really? This extraordinary redefinition of free-market success
could use some parsing.
Please
define what a "windfall profits" tax is. Liberals like to bleat about the oil companies making
"windfall profits" as if there is some point when making a profit is bad. So the Wall Street Journal
asks what the definition is of a "windfall profit." This is important to know because Senator Obama has
proposed giving each American family a stimulus check of $1000 paid for by a windfall profits tax on the oil
companies.
More Taxes Will Mean Less Oil.
Democrats say there should be a limit to the profits oil companies can make. Should there also be a
limit on the taxes government can take? Just who's the profiteer here?
Windfall taxing big oil: how
to make the gas crisis worse. Yes, it's true that Exxon's recent quarterly profits were, at near
$12 billion, big. It's also worth noting that turnover was $138 billion, giving them a margin
on sales of 9 percent: which isn't really, anything much to write home about. … The reason the
profits number is a huge one is because the business itself is a huge one.
In Defense of 'Big Oil': Senate
Democrats last week sought to ingratiate themselves with voters, while doing nothing to produce more energy,
with a familiar attack on "big oil." They want to repeal $17 billion in tax breaks for the oil
companies over 10 years and on top of that impose a windfall profit tax on companies that don't invest
in new energy sources. This is political expediency at its worst.
Energy charade: There's no
way to put this politely. Raising taxes on U.S. oil companies and calling it an energy plan is just about
the dumbest idea the Democrats have come up with yet. Democrats call it "a windfall profits" tax, and it
is at the heart of their plan to deal with punishing oil prices nearing $140 a barrel and skyrocketing gas
prices that have crossed the $4-a-gallon threshold at the pump. Their proposed tax increase will not
produce a drop more oil. In fact, it will reduce supplies. And it will not lower oil prices, either.
It will make oil more expensive, because oil company costs would rise as a result of higher taxes.
Things I Don't Believe:
Didn't we try this with the Carter administration at the tag end of the 1970s? … The windfall profits tax of the Carter
years was, however, a dandy way to cap every small well in the country. And reduce production in general. (Why
produce more in order to have the profits taxed away?) A tax is a great way to cut down on supply and therefore
increase demand and, with it, prices.
The "Big Oil" Witch
Hunt: [Members of Congress] — themselves guilty of thwarting American energy independence — are
poisoning the minds of gullible Americans against the very oil companies that reliably supply us with essential fuels, and
would be producing even more (resulting in lower prices) if Congress weren't blocking them from doing so. When it comes
to energy, Congress is the problem and Big Oil is part of the solution. The longer it takes Americans to perceive
this, the longer our energy woes will continue.
Dumb or Ill-Informed?
What assumptions do congressmen make about the American people? Do they assume that we're dumb or
ill-informed about the energy problems we are experiencing? Every time there has been a huge spike in
gasoline prices, Congress hauls oil company executives before their committees to accuse them of greed,
obscene profits and price-fixing. One federal investigation after another of supposed oil company
misconduct turns up nothing to substantiate congressional allegations.
Out of
Energy. Colorado's $23 billion-a-year oil and gas industry is keeping the state's economy
afloat, but Governor Bill Ritter and his fellow Democrats are promoting new rules and tax hikes that would
drive business elsewhere. … Ritter and his allies in the environmental movement are also seeking to raise
taxes on energy producers. In many mineral-rich states, energy producers have to pay what is called a
severance tax on any oil or gas they take out of the ground.
Phony 'Emergency'. [Scroll
down] Sen. Obama seems to be trying to take advantage of reports that Exxon Mobil reported record second-quarter
income — indeed, the highest quarterly profit for any corporation ever. But the reality is
that as Obama and his equally unknowing friends push windfall taxes, Exxon Mobil has already given the U.S. a
massive windfall. As economist Mark Perry has noted, Exxon Mobil will pay more taxes this year to the U.S.
Treasury than the bottom 50% of all taxpayers — combined.
Obama and
McCain Spout Economic Nonsense. Why should we stop with oil companies? They make about
8.3 cents in gross profit per dollar of sales. Why doesn't Mr. Obama slap a windfall profits
tax on sectors of the economy that have fatter margins? Electronics make 14.5 cents per dollar and
computer equipment makers take in 13.7 cents per dollar, according to the Census Bureau. Microsoft's
margin is 27.5 cents per dollar of sales.
The Wrong Way
to Kick An Oil Habit. High oil prices, like a walk under the summer moon, can drive normally
rational people to do foolish things they later regret. For Barack Obama, it is a fling with a windfall
profits tax on American oil companies — one of the most thoroughly discredited economic policies of
the past few decades. A 2006 Congressional Research Service report found that Jimmy Carter's version of
the tax generated less than one-fourth of expected government revenue while depressing domestic oil output
between 1.2 percent and 8 percent and increasing dependence on imported oil between 3 percent
and 13 percent.
Putting Up The 'For Shale' Sign.
Democrats will say Exxon and its unindicted co-conspirators still make obscene profits. The fact is that American oil
companies in 2007 had an 8.3% profit margin, compared with 8.9% for all U.S. manufacturing. The cigarette and beverage
companies' profit margin was 19.1%. Drug companies made 18.4%.
Thank you, Big Oil. Before you
get all excited about tearing down the energy industry, stop and think for a moment about what makes your comfortable life
possible. Your heat and most of your electricity are provided through the burning of oil and natural gas. The
thousands of plastic items in your home, car and office are all made from crude oil. Much of your clothing is woven of
fibers made from petroleum. Without the hard work and ingenuity of the men and women who work for the energy companies,
we would be living in the 17th century….
Windfall-Profit Nonsense:
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to raise the price of oil, as well as most everything else, and lower the value of the pension
and mutual funds that union members and retirees depend on. Of course, they don't describe their plan that way.
Instead, they call for a windfall-profits tax on the oil companies. But it's the same thing. Taxing a "windfall"
sounds appealing, but stock prices are based on expected profits.
GOP nixes Democrat-backed tax on oil
companies. Senate Republicans today successfully blocked a vote on a Democratic- written energy
package intended to slap the major oil companies with a new windfall profits tax and roll back other tax breaks
the industry now enjoys.
$4
Gasbags: Anyone wondering why U.S. energy policy is so dysfunctional need only review Congress's
recent antics. Members have debated ideas ranging from suing OPEC to the Senate's carbon tax-and-regulation
monstrosity, to a windfall profits tax on oil companies, to new punishments for "price gouging" — everything
except expanding domestic energy supplies. Amid $135 oil, it ought to be an easy, bipartisan victory to lift
the political restrictions on energy exploration and production.
Stop Whining And Blaming Oil Companies.
First, the bad news: Nothing — and I mean nothing — the U.S. government does can stop the rise in the
price of oil in the short run. Stopping buys for the emergency stockpile will have no effect at all. These
purchases are less than one-tenth of one percent of daily worldwide demand. Cancelling the purchases is precisely
the same as not paying life insurance premiums when you're worried about money. It is nonsense.
The
"Problem" Of Human Freedom: Could it be that a foolish and abusive use of governmental power is a causal factor
with our energy woes? Could it be, as [Bill] O'Reilly suggested, that our government's (and Mrs. Clinton's) prohibition
of domestic energy development is part of the reason we are now held hostage to the "monopoly" of OPEC? Not so, for
Hillary. In her leftist world, the problem is that American citizens are enjoying too much freedom. "Consumers"
and "drivers" behave badly, they drive too much, and they drive the "wrong" vehicles; and American oil corporations (just
as President Carter told us in the 1970's) are once again raking in "windfall profits."
Oil companies spend more on
taxes than on oil supply development. Over the last several the major oil companies have been driven away
from investing money in future exploration and production. The so-called Supermajors, Exxon, BP, Shell, Chevron.
Conoco, and Total have paid more in taxes than they have invested in the oil business. For the three year period, 2005 to 2007 these companies have paid $292 billion in
taxes and invested $265 billion in capital projects.
No
such thing as obscene profits. Profit isn't a shameful accident for corporations — it's
their very reason for being. Big profits help them do more of what they did to make the profit in the
first place. In the case of oil companies, that means more exploration, development, drilling, pumping,
refining, transporting and marketing of the oil that fuels every aspect of our economy. … Of course,
at the moment it's frustrating to pay more at the pump, but oil profits aren't the culprit, nor would
punishment of the energy companies help to bring down the cost of fuel.
Strangling Oil:
As any economist will tell you, "price-gouging" per se doesn't exist. There is only supply and
demand. … To add more dependable sources, the U.S. should be developing oil in the Alaskan National
Wilderness Reserve (sic) and on the continental shelf, where literally billions of barrels of oil await. But
we aren't. That's the supply side.
The Editor says...
Good article, but ANWR is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Is Oil the Root of All Evil?Lives
per Gallon gratuitously excoriates the oil companies and places blame for every conceivable ill facing the
world — from air pollution to thievery — on their product. Replete with homilies to past
civilizations, such as the Rapa Nui, and fearsome examples of devastated ecosystems like Pacific
Ocean kelp beds, Tamminen assaults not only petroleum, but modern technological-based life.
Oily
politicians. If there is anything worse than partisan demagoguery, it is bipartisan
demagoguery. Republican leaders have now joined the Democrats in blaming the oil companies
for the fact that prices rise when demand expands more than supply. Prices have been rising
under these conditions for thousands of years, long before there were any oil companies. This
has happened with everything from food to furs and it has happened among people in every part of
the world.
Oily
politicians: Part II. World demand for oil has risen out of all proportion
to the amount of oil supplied. That is the problem and prices are a symptom of that problem.
Oil Is Well. I see that the
media and the left-wing foundations are in a state of hysteria over oil company profits. Exxon Mobil
reported profits of about $10 billion for the last quarter of 2005, and this has driven certain people who
don't really know a lot about the oil business … insane.
Governmental Viscosity
Breakdown: Members of Congress, such as Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, who … manages to
exude split-atom energy when it comes to cheerleading for bad ideas, are calling for a windfall profits
tax on the oil companies. Of course, the tax would be passed on to consumers, but Congress will deal
with that later — it'll be good fodder for calling for the federalization of the oil
industry. In a Beltway culture that confuses motion with action, windfall profits
taxes are but flailing victims in the quicksand of lunacy.
Clinton
Seeks 'Energy Revolution' Fueled by Tax on Oil Profits. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) Tuesday
[5/23/2006] called for an "energy revolution" based on greater fuel efficiency and a $50 billion
research fund financed largely through higher taxes on oil company profits. A GOP spokesman responded
that the plan is just "partisanship, political pandering and yesterday's mistakes."
Control Freak:
Hillary Clinton says our trade deficit and reliance on foreign investors are big problems, and wants to fix
them. But her cure would be far worse than the disease, and should be rejected out of hand.
We are all Marxists
now. National Public Radio's Juan Williams, appearing on Fox News Sunday, insisted repeatedly
that "supply is at an eight year high" as proof that the oil companies are cheating us. He kept
repeating the phrase, as if that would make it a more sensible statement. It didn't. … Frustrated
by his inability to convince others of his nonsense, Williams then insisted that there is no connection
between supply and demand.
Big awl and
gasbags. Though some of the stated bases for the alarmism of the Sixties and Seventies may have
changed (example: from global cooling to global warming), their bogeymen/targets remain the same.
No matter what environmental scare they have sported from time to time, the culprits are always the same.
The foremost villain, of course, is America, home of the rich, greedy, and voracious consumers of the earth's
resources. Next, are big corporations, whose favorite sadistic pastime is to pollute.
You Can't Always
Get What You Want. Calling for a probe of oil companies for possible manipulation of gas
prices is Bush's latest nonconservative position. … He could have said, no, the free market is working
properly. That, while basically true, would no doubt have further injured his political standing.
Instead, he moved to take control of the issue and protect himself politically. Two days later, the
president conceded he had "no evidence that there's any ripoff taking place." Of course he
hadn't. That wasn't the point of his intervention.
Punishing
big oil: Intended to punish the oil industry for making so much money, the provision
actually would increase American dependency on foreign oil producers.
Senate Approves $5 Billion in New Oil
Company Taxes. The U.S. Senate on November 17, 2005 voted to impose nearly $5 billion
in taxes on oil companies in response to record oil company profits. The Senate rejected three
amendments that would explicitly assess "windfall profits" taxes on the oil industry, but nevertheless
changed longstanding accounting rules in ways that are expected to add $5 billion to the oil
companies' tax burdens over the next two years.
Oil Industry Posts Record Profits
in 2005. "You need to make money to spend money," said oil industry analyst John
Parry, senior vice president of John S. Herold, Inc. of Norwalk, Connecticut. "If we
go back to the 1990s, the oil companies were making less than 5 percent on their
capital. If you were to average profits over about a 10-year period, which
is the cycle of investment, they have not earned excessive amounts. This is a
cyclical industry. You may have seven or eight down years and two or three good years.
MoveOn Targets McCain on Offshore
Drilling and 'Obscene' Oil Profits. MoveOn.org, the liberal grassroots group, has unveiled a
television ad campaign on energy that is an attack on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John
McCain and his support for offshore drilling. But free-market critics say the ad reflects more about
MoveOn's ignorance of economics than it does politics.
Refineries
Republican
Bill Would Encourage New Refinery Building. House Republicans [are trying to] drum up
support for a bill that would "expedite" the construction of new oil refineries in the United
States. … But environmental groups and others oppose the bill….
Our Thorny Oil Patch.
When America's biggest oil refiner contemplates putting almost a third of its refineries on the market, Congress
should sit up and take notice. The business climate it has created is hurting our economy.
Kuwait
May Build Oil Refinery in Louisiana, Boost U.S. Capacity. Kuwait, the Middle East's
fourth-largest oil producer, is seeking a "mid-sized" U.S. partner like Marathon Oil Corp. to build a
refinery in the U.S. with as much as 400,000 barrels a day of output….
Blended fuels may spike the price at the
pump. Record crude oil costs are largely responsible for today's $4 gas prices, but regulators
continue to study another factor blamed for regional price spikes in the past — the high number of
unique fuel blends used to fight air pollution. These so-called "boutique" fuels arose from various
federal and state laws enacted since the early 1990s. The blends — more than a dozen
nationwide — are designed to help curb emissions in some of the largest U.S. cities, including
Houston.
Why
I'm Voting for John McCain: Democrats insist that we shouldn't drill off the Pacific coast or
in Alaska or in the Dakotas because they claim we wouldn't get a drop of oil for at least 10 years.
And that's true, but only if the same left-wing idiots who are more concerned with moose than with people
won't allow the oil companies to build new refineries. Also, even if it were true that we wouldn't be
any better off for an entire decade, what do you suppose they'll be saying in 2018, when gas is going
for 25 bucks a gallon?
