Obama does it again….
Yesterday the Obama administration announced a delaying tactic which will put off the possibility of new offshore oil drilling on the Atlantic coast for at least five years:
The announcement by the Interior Department sets into motion what will be at least a five year environmental survey to determine whether and where oil production might occur.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell notes that a planned lease sale, which the administration cancelled last year, will now be put off until at least 2018. As you might expect, Republicans were not impressed with the decision:
“The president’s actions have closed an entire new area to drilling on his watch and cheats Virginians out of thousands of jobs,” said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee. The announcement “continues the president’s election-year political ploy of giving speeches and talking about drilling after having spent the first three years in office blocking, delaying and driving up the cost of producing energy in America,” he said.
But hey, during “his watch” oil drilling is at an 8 year high.
Sigh…
He complained about subsidies to oil companies but was promptly shut up by his own Party.
He attacks drilling offshore, he blocked the Keystone pipeline, refuses to drill in ANWAR, all the while he funnels millions upon millions of our dollars into obviously flawed green energy companies who promptly go bankrupt and THEN tries to take credit for drilling permits issued long before he took office.
Presidents can affect gas prices, at least in the long term, by exercising budgetary discipline resulting in a currency that buys more oil per dollar, by approving or rejecting federal oil leases, and by adding or curbing regulations that affect oil exploration and development. In all of these cases, Obama has supported policies that contribute to higher gas prices.
The point about the lag time between finding and pumping oil is valid. But that reality is precisely why presidents must green-light exploration for future generations — and why Obama is now bragging of record U.S. production only because of his predecessor’s granting of federal oil leases. Obama’s “it takes too long” argument is absurd — as if farmers should never plant new orchards since they won’t see fruit on their trees for three years or more.
And now he is ensuring a 5 year moratorium on drilling on the Atlantic coast.
The man is a joke.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sJgKX1pgHA[/youtube]
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