Jeff Dunetz @ The Lid:
According to President Obama anybody who claims that we can drill our way out of the present high cost of energy is a liar. However a report created by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (published at a time when the Democrats Controlled both houses of Congress) says it is the President who is being less than honest with the American public. Our oil and other energy reserves are much larger than he claims and history shows that just the threat of new drilling serves to depress oil prices pumped up by speculators.
Today, Mitt Romney travels to Hobbs, New Mexico, where he will deliver an address explaining his energy proposed energy policy and unlike his opponent, Romney believes the United States should exploit its vast energy producing natural resources as a path toward energy independence and a way of creating jobs.
Romney’s approach is a true “all of the above” which opens up federal lands, allows for off-shore drilling, streamlines regulation and opens them up to be examined, and encourages private industry to take on the task of developing new energy resources (as opposed to the government picking winners and losers).
The GOP candidate isn’t simply looking to make the United States energy independent, he is looking for the country to once again become a superpower in the energy industry.
The basic elements of his policy include:
Federal Lands-State Driven energy policy:
- States will be empowered to establish processes to oversee the development and production of all forms of energy on federal lands within their borders, excluding only lands specially designated off-limits.
- State regulatory processes and permitting programs for all forms of energy development will be deemed to satisfy all requirements of federal law.
- Federal agencies will certify state processes as adequate, according to established criteria that are sufficiently broad, to afford the states maximum flexibility to ascertain what is most appropriate;
- The federal government will encourage the formation of a State Energy Development Council, where states can work together along with existing organizations such as STRONGER and the IOGCC to share expertise and best management practices.
Open Offshore Areas For Energy Development
- Establish a new five-year offshore leasing plan that aggressively opens new areas for development beginning with those off the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas;
- Set minimum production targets for each five-year leasing plan, requiring annual reports to Congress on progress in reaching goals and implementation of new policies to compensate for any shortfall.
- Guarantee that state-of-the-art processes and safeguards for offshore drilling are implemented in a manner designed to support rather than block exploration and production.
Almost anything is better than Obama’s “crony capitalism” efforts to pay off campaign supporters and fundraisers.
Right. This will also give us time to develop usable alternative energy sources, rather than the patchwork of unproven money pits that the current administration is embracing, to our cost and his supporters’ profit.
With time, alternative energy can be a viable alternative to fossil fuels, but we must have time for the new technologies to mature.
The left will claim that Romney will halt alternative energy research. The full release belies that claim:
I am curious whether he will continue to subsidize Ethanol (I’m not a fan).
Why should control of resources on federal land that are of national importance be turned over to state officials? Such resources are not property of a particular state and its residents. They’re property of the nation and all of its people.
Further, pollution and environmental damage that results from irresponsible activities within a state’s borders don’t automatically stop at the state line. That hasn’t changed. It’s the reason Nixon established the EPA to begin with.
Romney’s supporters are once again citing the 2010 CRS report–U.S. Fossil Fuel Resources: Terminology, Reporting, and Summary–that republicans rolled out previously, and are once again building their pitch on the same seriously flawed interpretations of what the charts, graphs, and figures presented therein actually mean. Unfortunately the labels reading Undiscovered technically recoverable resources and Discovered and undiscovered sub-economic resources still mean exactly what they meant 2 years ago: resources that you might hope to figure out how to economically get at, and resources that cost more energy and/or money to recover than what is recovered could be made to pay for. The report does not disprove Obama’s observation that we cannot drill our way out of our problem. It didn’t before, and it doesn’t now.
I can only hope after Romney wins he puts some competent people in the DOJ and starts to put the current administration cronies in a jail cell where they belong for the plunder and self dealing that is going on. That alone would eliminate any possible lay offs of correction officers.
@Greg: Understood, but it seems that Romney’s plan is truly “all of the above.” Oil, Gas, Nuclear, Solar, Wind, it’s all there. The media was quick to cast Romney as an evil oil guy, but that’s not true. The “this or that” mentality needs to go away, and I’m concerned about how much the dems need that thinking to form their platform.
The private sector can and will do a great job of developing innovations and allowing for free market capitalism to drive it– that is what many want to see. I see lots of solar panel banks on houses here in Denver, and that’s a good thing.
Obama’s error was to bypass free-market capitalism with state capitalism (what China employs).
CURT
GOOD FOR JOBS AND MORE JOBS BESIDE THEM JOBS AND MORE JOBS BECAUSE OF THE JOBS AND THE JOBS BESIDE THEM JOBS AND MORE JOBS BESIDE THOSE BECAUSE OF THE JOBS AND THE JOBS BESIDE THEM JOBS, AND MORE JOBS ON SECURITY TO PROTECT ALL OF THEM
WOW THAT IS IS NEEDED,
BYE
@Nathan Blue:
I also support a broad approach. Unfortunately, I fear that Mr. Romney’s endorsement of a broad approach is actually cover for sweeping industry deregulation, that would allow the most easily accessible domestic oil reserves to be pumped as rapidly as possible and sold as quickly as possible in the international marketplace. The nation would rapidly lose it’s most accessible domestic petroleum reserves in exchange for a few years of greatly inflated private sector profits, while American consumers would see no significant decrease in gasoline prices. China would essentially be using their huge dollar holdings to buy our most easily recovered oil.
One would hope we’re not that stupid. If we want to sell them a national energy resource, maybe we should sell them coal and keep the oil and natural gas for ourselves. Apparently no one is going to worry about the long-term consequences of CO2 emissions anyway.
GREG
don’t ever think that MITT ROMNEY IS STUPID ENOUGH TO FALL FOR SCAM LIKE OBAMA DOES,
MITT ROMNEY IS VERY SMART AND HIS SUCCESS TALK FOR ITSELF,
ALTHOUGH HE DOESN’T DO THE SAME OUTRAGEOUS TALK BACK TO OBAMA’S ATTACKS,
HE HAS MORE CLASS THAN THAT.
@Greg:
Except for when you don’t. Such as when you continue to defend Obama’s record regarding energy.
I have no problem with Obama’s record regarding energy. So far we’ve kept our national petroleum reserves for our nation’s own future use. There haven’t been any major new drilling disasters. Alternative energy has received funding and the technological advances that resulted remain, even if a few of the companies that made them don’t. Someone will continue their development. Biofuel development is further along than it was. Gas prices are high, but that’s got nothing to do with the Obama administration.
I don’t see anything in Mitt’s Master Plan concerning the deteriorating national electrical grid.
@Greg:
A “few”? Raser Technologies, ECOtality, Nevada Geothermal Power, First Solar, Abound Solar, Beacon Power, SunPower and Brightsource, not to mention Solyndra, ALL received federal loans(how many were paid back?) steered to them by Obama, or people within his administration. And what do they all have in common? The owners, or company officers, were (and probably still are) fundraisers for the Democratic party in general, and Obama specifically.
Say it with me, Greg. CRONY CAPITALISM.
And what about the attempted destruction of a segment of the electrical generation industry? Coal plants are threatened by the hundreds with not being able to operate and still make a profit, either for shareholders in the companies, or in reduced rates for the co-ops, because of increased regulation from the EPA threatening to shut them down, many of them for good.
It won’t matter much about the electrical grid itself, if their isn’t anywhere near enough power to keep the lights on.
It would be humorous, if it wasn’t so sad, seeing someone approve of Obama’s raping of both industry, and the green movement, in order to enrich himself and his friends. Obama’s getting a twofer and you are cheering him on.
The truth behind high gas prices:
Finding #1: It’s the value of the U.S. dollar
By far, the devaluation of the U.S. dollar is the most important and significant contributing factor that explains why we are all paying more at the gas pump.
Finding #2: The current administration is hiding evidence
Finding #3: Media ignorance & lies
Finding #4: the Obama administration is not telling the truth about U.S. oil production
Finding #5: the Obama administration’s war on domestic oil
So yes, it is not only Obama’s policies but also politicians of the past.
Finding #6: Corn, growing gold
Obama’s “double-tap” to domestic oil production
Investigative Summary
(Ditto – For brevity I condensed the article to the main points. it may be read in it’s entirety here): Source: Investigation: The Truth Behind High Gas Prices