Much is abuzz on the rising fuel prices, but Obama says “there’s no silver bullet that can bring down gas prices right away," so let’s chat…
Rush had an interesting call yesterday, which involved a discussion of how Obama is encouraging the rest of the world to drill for oil, so we don’t have to:
“Obama doesn't want the price of gasoline to come down too much. Obama hates oil. Look, folks, let me find it here in the story. Get this. If this doesn't say it, I don't know what does. Reuters story: "President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged world oil producers to lift crude output, as he sought to deflect public anger over high gasoline prices that has hurt his popularity among voters." Now, the original headline for this story was "Obama Presses Oil Producing Nations to Boost Output," but the editors realized that "presses" was a little too bellicose for our courageous president. So "urges" became the word. But here he is and if you read the whole story, Reuters is trying to make it out like the Republicans are using high gasoline prices to hurt Obama. Never mind they hurt everybody. But what about the hypocrisy here? How come if all these foreign countries increase their output of oil -- in other words, if foreign countries do their own "drill, baby, drill" -- that will lower the price of gasoline, but it won't lower the price of gasoline if we produce more domestically? "Obama Urges Oil Producers to Increase Output to Lower the Price." Would you ever read, "Obama urges domestic producers to increase..."? No! He is hamstringing domestic production, and he also knows that these foreign producers are not gonna do it just because he says so.
Look, his entire economic plan -- green energy and all that -- depends on rising energy prices.
So we can't drill our way out of the problem, but they can. They can drill our way out of the problem. All these foreign producers, yeah, if they just drill more, if they just up their output, yeah, baby, yeah, that helps us. Obama says there's not a silver bullet to lower gas prices. But there is. It's called boosting production. It's worked every time it's tried.”
And then of course to add his media tweak, he continued, “In 2008 when Bush announced the end of the Gulf drilling moratorium -- this was after Katrina -- folks, the barrel price literally fell off of a cliff. I have the chart. I could show you on the Dittocam. The price just fell. So the caller could be right. This could be a giant scam Obama's setting up to end his drilling moratorium in the Gulf a year from now causing the oil price to plummet and gas prices to do likewise. It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened in politics.”
So, we’re importing more oil, but we can’t drill for our own? We can’t drill for our own, because the mask of our State religion (a.k.a. "Environmentalism") must be used to force a transfer from fossil fuels to alternative energies. What and where are the alternative energies? Exactly…they don’t exist. So as we’re significantly limiting our own sources of energy, and we’re unable to replace them with nonexistent alternative energy sources, we continue to import more oil from other regions of the world. Nevermind that in a majority of cases, these countries care little for America…I guess as long as we keep the façade of eco-friendship cycling on our own monitors, while continuing to encourage, and even help stimulate, the “drill, baby, drill” philosophy in other parts of the world, contributing to their economies and their job markets, not our own, then somehow that should make us feel better about our part in a perceived ‘cleaner’ world? And surely that’ll bring ‘peace to the Mid-East’ as well, right? Meanwhile in the real world, fuel prices are skyrocketing as a result of all these despotic actions, or inactions, depending on how you look at it.
Continuing the discussion, yesterday in the second hour of The Mark Levin Show, Mark takes this all too familiar topic of rising fuel prices, discussed in prior shows (here, here and here), and sheds further light on how the Obama Administration has created no new sources of energy, while simultaneously obstructing old sources: “Obama’s out there, you can see the fuel prices, unbelievable, unnecessary and unbelievable, he’s out there taking credit for ‘the most oil production ever’. That’s what he says, have you noticed that? ‘It’s not a production problem, we have the most production ever’…every interview. And then we have an interview right here where he says we need to do what? We need to increase oil production.” [skip to 1:53]
Levin continues, “All you liberals must be so damn confused. You got the talking points yesterday, and that was to blame speculators. Now here we have the President today talking about we need more production, while he obstructs production. So in other words, we’re never gonna get out of this until we change presidents, I can tell you that right now.”
Red State reports that the White House is falsely taking credit for an increase in oil production:
It is categorically true that, while the numbers may be factual, Obama Administration policies had nothing whatever to do with the production buildup in late ‘09 into early 2010. That production growth is due almost entirely to a handful of large deepwater fields, notably BP’s Thunder Horse, which came on production during that time frame. So Thunder Horse by itself accounts for almost all of that abrupt ramp-up in oil production.
Does Obama deserve credit?
Thunder Horse sits in 6,200 feet of water. The leases date from 1988 (Reagan) and 1994 (Clinton). The discovery well was drilled in 1999, and the platform was set in 2005, during the George W. Bush Administration.
Due to the Deepwater Moratorium/Permitorium and the shutdown of the Offshore Leasing Program, we have essentially stopped looking for the next Thunder Horse.
Instead, half the available rig fleet sits idle due to a lack of permits. The BOEMRE’s current permitting backlog is comprised of 270 shallow-water and 52 deepwater wells. The Obama Adminstration threatens to reject seven of the outstanding deepwater permits rather than comply with Judge Feldman’s order to approve them or show cause within 30 days.
Production elsewhere in the U.S. has also increased, but no thanks to Obama’s policies. It is industry ingenuity and competitiveness that has led the production growth, in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota, the Eagleford Shale of South Texas and in the Permian Basin of West Texas. This increase is driven by technology (horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing) and by product prices. None of these areas are primarily on Federal lands; they have excelled in spite of hostile Federal policies, not because of them.
Levin wraps up the topic: “Obama has absolutely nothing to do with increased production last year and at the end of the year before, and everything to do with the inability to drill new wells, expand on old ones, to expand refineries and build new ones. THAT is the Obama Policy! Now, this is consistent with how Obama behaves. All these things, whether it’s NASA, whether it’s the great American military, whether it’s oil rigs and leases to drill in certain areas, they’ve been done before Obama became president. And so what he does is uses them and destroys them. He hasn’t created any new sources of energy. I want you to listen to me: Obama and his administration haven’t created any new sources of energy, period. And they’re obstructing old sources of energy. They are crippling NASA. They are slicing and dicing the United States military. They’re destroying our currency; they’re destroying our credit rating…
…Obama is a serial liar (that’s right, I said it)…whether it comes to Medicare or Medicaid, whether it comes to the deficit, what he ‘inherited’, whether it comes to oil production, he has to lie, not only because that’s the nature of his philosophy, but he has to cover up the disaster that is his presidency. So he has to take credit for what’s come before, even though he hates everyone and everything that has come before. Neat trick?”
Combine all of this and you get a grand receipt, not only at the pump, but for broad suppressive failure. And we’re supposed to buy that this somehow gives him an edge in the next election?! Even if this administration were to lift the ban preceding his re-election bid, are you that gullible to think he’d actually keep it lifted afterwards and not return to his same destructive policies? Right…he’d go right back to reloading those silver bullets for the werewolf he sees as America.
And just to cover all the basis, here's a conclusive reality check for our eco-friends:
