Yesterday’s cartoon by Tony Branco and President Barack Hussein Obama saying he will accelerate the southern part of the Keystone XL pipeline got me started on some research about oil production in the US. And guess what – oil production is down on federal lands where Obama can exercise authority. While Obama is technically correct when he says US oil production is up, the increase has occurred on private lands where Obama has no authority. We have a word for what Obama is doing: dissemble.
About 96% of the increase in oil production since 2007 took place on non-federal lands, while production on federal lands fell in 2011 by 275,000 barrels per day. A new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on domestic energy production finds that while total domestic oil production is up by 230,000 barrels per day since Obama took office in 2009, none of that increase has come from federal lands.
On Thursday, March 22, 2012, Obama told a crowd in Cushing, OK, that his administration was pro-drilling, saying his administration had opened up “millions” of acres of federal land to increased oil production. Obama also said that his administration was opening up increased areas off-shore, saying that “we are drilling all over the place” and that America was producing more oil than it could handle. But he did not say how such production that he claimed and rising gasoline prices could go together. His appearance in Cushing was nothing but a photo opportunity. If we are to believe Obama, the oil companies are receiving millions of dollars of subsidies that they don’t need. He would like to convince us that oil is the “old stuff” and we should stop subsidizing them and start giving money to the “new stuff”, which would be anything to do with clean energy.
The day before stopping in Cushing, Obama stopped at Copper Mountain Solar, near Boulder City, NV, who’s parent company, Sempra, has received about $42 million of our tax money in subsidies to build a solar energy facility. There he touted his “clean energy” initiative. Obama said that solar energy represents the future and chided Republicans for being backward rubes, unwilling to embrace the exciting “new” discoveries that he assures us are just around the corner. He has also said that critics of his agenda are members of the Flat Earth Society. It must have taken massive amounts of chutzpah to show up in Cushing.
Here are four specific actions he took to stop and/or hinder domestic oil production:
- Withdrew 61 oil and natural gas leases in Montana as part of a lawsuit settlement over climate change.
- Finalized rules, first announced by Secretary Salazar on January 6, 2010, to establish more government hurdles to onshore oil and natural gas production on federal lands.
- Cancelled lease sales in the Western Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast and delayed exploration off the coast of Alaska and kept other resource-rich areas off-limits.
- Withdrew areas offered for 77 oil and gas leases in Utah that could cost American taxpayers millions in lost lease bids, production royalties, new jobs and the energy needed to offset rising imports of oil and natural gas.
All of this illustrates what we already know: Obama is shameless! He will talk out of both sides of his mouth, saying ANYTHING in his effort to get reelected.
But that’s just my opinion.
