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The Energy Spectator
Obama’s Jokes Are On Us
After the Largo Laugh-In, rising gas prices are bound to appear hysterically funny.
Before President Obama chose him to be his Secretary of Anti-Energy, Berkeley Professor Steven Chu said what America needs is the same gas prices as Europe. That is $8 to $10 a gallon. He believes that because he thinks that is good for the environment. Higher gas prices will force people to drive less, and turn to what he sees as enviro-friendly biofuels (like algae) and electric cars, reducing the use of oil, which he thinks is bad for the environment. The much higher gas prices of Europe are necessary to make these more costly alternatives economically competitive, even if they can be technologically produced some day in enough volume to power our modern economy.
Why did President Obama choose Chu for his Energy Secretary? Because Obama agrees with him. Obama told us as much in his 2008 campaign, saying that the only problem with the soaring gas prices of early 2008 was that they were too sudden. The increase should be more gradual so that American pocketbooks can get used to them.
Notice the careful, calculated deception Obama used in answering a question recently asking isn’t it true that he wants higher gas prices. Obama said, “Do you think a President running for reelection wants higher gas prices? Does anybody here think that makes sense?”
But that is not the question of interest to the American people. Chu recently answered that question, telling a Congressional panel that he no longer believes European gas prices would be good for America. But Newt Gingrich responded with the right question the American people are asking, “How many weeks after the election do you think it will take for him to go back to being who he is?” Ditto that for Obama.
When Obama was sworn in, the price of gas was $1.89. Today it’s $3.83. They told us they wanted higher gas prices, and why, and now gas prices have more than doubled. So what do you think the answer is to the question, doesn’t Obama want higher gas prices?
It’s the Supply and Demand,
Stupid
President Obama produced quite a
laugh riot in his speech last week at Prince Georges Community
College in Largo, Maryland. The handpicked audience clearly loved
it. As Newt Gingrich said in his response two days later, “So now
we get to the President, who has just been more fun on this topic
for the last 2 weeks.” Obama said:
Every time prices start to go up — especially in an election year — politicians dust off their 3-point plans for $2.00 gas. (Laughter) I guess this year they decided, we’re going to make it $2.50. (Laughter) But they tell the same story. They head down to the gas station…and they start acting like we’ve got a magic wand and we’ll give you cheap gas forever if you just elect us. (Laughter). Every time. Been the same script for 30 years. It’s like a bad rerun. (Laughter). Now here’s the thing. Because we’ve seen it all before, we know better. There is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to high gas prices. There’s no silver bullet.
Obama explained to the audience supposedly why there is no quick fix, no silver bullet. “America uses more than 20% of the world’s oil. If we drilled every square inch of this country — so we went to your house and we went to the National Mall and we put those rigs up everywhere — we’d still have 2% of the world’s known oil reserves. We’re using 20; we have 2.”
Let me be honest with you, rather than falsely diplomatic. If Obama is not outright lying here, if he doesn’t know how confused and misleading this is, then he is too stupid to be President.
Here’s the problem. “Proven reserves” under the federal government’s definition can only exist where the oil companies are allowed to drill. Where there are no leases, and no permits, and no at least exploratory drilling to prove what is down there, there can be no “proven reserves.”
That is why in 1980 the federal government said America had 30 billion barrels of proven reserves, but between 1980 and 2007, we produced 75 billion barrels of oil. Obama can’t not know this. Therefore, he cannot not be deliberately trying to deceive us.
Gingrich again provided the response to Obama two days later (available online), making two effective transnational debates now where Obama has been whipped like a creamy dessert topping. As Gingrich pointed out, due to the development of new technology in the private sector, America has been enjoying an oil and gas boom in the private sector, Obama to the contrary notwithstanding. The technological breakthrough has been to combine the decades old practice of “fracking” to break up shale rock, with offshore drilling technologies that allow horizontal drilling in every direction from one hole.
That is why, as Gingrich has further explained, rather than the “proven reserves” of about 20 billion barrels that Obama emphasizes, “the number of recoverable barrels of oil estimated to be in the United States, waiting to be produced [is 1.44 trillion]. That’s about the amount of oil the entire world has consumed since the first well was drilled before the Civil War.” And that is why Goldman Sachs predicted last year that the U.S. has the potential to be the world’s largest oil-producing country by 2017.
Steve Moore explained the results in just one state, North Dakota, in the weekend Wall Street Journal for March 10-11:
In 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated 150 million “technically recoverable barrels of oil” from the Bakken Shale [the root of the North Dakota boom]. In April 2008 that number was up to about four billion barrels, and in 2010 geologists… put it at eight billion. This week, given the discovery of a lower shelf of oil, they announced 24 billion barrels. Current technology allows for the extraction of only about 6% of the oil trapped one or two miles below the earth’s surface, so as the technology advances recoverable oil could eventually exceed 500 billion barrels.
About the Author
Peter Ferrara is Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Heartland Institute, General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Senior Policy Advisor on Entitlements and Budget Policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (84) | Leave a comment
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oldfart| 3.21.12 @ 6:44AM
1. Obama is too stupid to be President.
2. I don't think it is a supply and demand issue but an inflation issue. The FED printing endless dollars and oil being quoted in the soon to be worthless US $ is generating inflation such as not even Jimmy Carter could dream of. Been to the grocery store lately? Just wait till July - by then what ever trick Mr. Obama has in his back pocket will not work - it will be too late.
benny havens| 3.21.12 @ 7:03AM
During his laugh-in Obama also claimed that additional drilling would not reduce gas prices. “Those are the facts!”
Then two days later he talked about releasing oil from our strategic supply to ease the high gas prices.
Which is it?
albert constantine jr.| 3.21.12 @ 7:51AM
Is Obama stupid? As is noted in Forrest Gump, “stupid is as stupid does”.
I think it is abundantly clear from his remarks at P.G. County, and elsewhere, that Obama thinks that the majority of Americans are stupid. Should he be reelected, he may have the evidence to help prove that hypotheses.
Stan REdmond| 3.21.12 @ 3:18PM
A majority did vote for him.
albert constantine jr.| 3.21.12 @ 4:45PM
While many of us knew about his radical associations and likely agenda, and there were clues out there for those inclined to investigate, my hope is that many of those who voted for him the first time did so out of guilt, curiousity, peer pressure or any other lame excuse. After he has shown what he is capable of during the last 3.2 years, I am hoping that he has educated many of the otherwise previously ignorant what he is about, and only the truly ignorant and socialists will vote for him this time around. I pray they are a minority of the voters who show up on Election Day.
Von Mises Jr.| 3.21.12 @ 8:07AM
It is a combination of inflation (that is running at about 10% for food), and lack of GDP growth.
Here is the economic error I think people keep falling for: it is NOT about the price of gas. It is about producing goods that create jobs and GDP growth.
Example: I grow a garden with tomatoes and beans. It is a good crop and I have all I can eat and some to spare. If you go to the market, my garden does not reduce your cost of vegetables noticably.
But I don't have to buy my vegetables since I grew my own. If I would have spent $1,000 on produce that year, I am one-grand richer since I didn't need to buy them. And if my neighbors brew beer and catch walleye; I can trade with them since we have all PRODUCED and added to the GDP.
This is what drilling will do!!! It will provide jobs and create wealth. That economic activity is called capitalism, and all who produce are better off for their effort.
PJ| 3.21.12 @ 9:55AM
The price of gasoline & producing goods are very much interrelated along w/GDP growth. For a simple example most people do not grow large enough gardens or raise cattle. Farmers & ranchers need gas to transport those goods to a market. Farmers need gas to run their tractors. etc, etc, etc. If the market is small they decrease the amt of product & GNP will decrease.
Yet, gasoline prices are incorporated in the cost of most products. That is why oil prices is 1 major indicator that most economists look at to track inflation & deflation.
So yes I agree with you but there are more variables in the equation that are equally important.
Von Mises Jr.| 3.21.12 @ 12:51PM
PJ, the Core Inflation rate excludes gas and food. That is how they lie statistally to get 2%.
It is like the U3 Unemployment trick of decreasing the universe of jobs. You can decrease the percentage of unemployment by increasing the numerator or decreasing the denominator.
Statistic are easily manipulated. For instance, if I have $1K and lose half, I have $500. But if I increase that by half, I only have $750.
But my point is that "The Wealth of Nations" is not enhanced by hiring lawyers to mitigate or accountants to file reports. It is when someone creates goods, or services that are tied to goods.
PJ| 3.21.12 @ 7:38PM
You're telling me the basket of goods to determine inflation does not include food & oil? Interesting!
But my point is someone in each company is keeping track of the oil prices & it is incorporated in the price of doing business. (Another obvious example is the airline industry.) And that eventually impacts inflation & deflation whether the government is officially keeping track of it or not. It's embedded in those goods officially being tracked. So finally the price of oil does have an impact on jobs & GNP.
Von Mises Jr.| 3.21.12 @ 10:38PM
The core inflation rate is a work of fiction created by government.
You cannot cherry pick industries. Housing is deflated due to the sub-prime housing glut. Airline travel is down as far as I understand. I never owned and don't plan on investing in airlines.
But stocks and commodities are up substantially. Food prices are up 10% per year over the last couple years.
Anthony| 3.21.12 @ 2:04PM
Very well put Von.
Timothy L. Pennell| 3.21.12 @ 9:18AM
I heard a great joke from an Entertainer, who's name will remain Anonymous, and who doesn't have to Apologize because Comics and Entertainers have Extra Freedoms of Speech:
It seems that Michelle Obama went to Harlem to buy a bunch of Leopard Skin Leotards, Doo Rags, 6 inch Heels and Hair Straightener, to update her Black Slut B*tches and Hoes look, and that when she stopped to buy some Watermelons, her daughter was given Crack and Raped by Bobby Brown.
I don't know the Comedian's name, but he sounds hilarious. Who knows, maybe the 1st Lady will go on his Show?
In fact, I just heard that he's giving $1 Million to whichever Republican gets the nomination.
True story.
Mike Rogers | 3.21.12 @ 11:07AM
and the really dumb thing is that with more energy production and royalties, coupled with even modest spending restraint, we could stop printing, stop sending so many dollars overseas, and maybe even export some oil and gas products. Inflation - DEAD.
Do we have any politicians with that courage?
Newt + Paul Ryan?
Johnny Rotten| 3.21.12 @ 4:52PM
Yep: It's not that the price of oil is so high, it's that the price of the dollar is so low. The only thing that saved President Downgrade from losing the dollar's reserve-currency status -- which would be obvious the moment the OPEC cartel decides that its product be bought and sold in another currency -- is that all the other currencies are even bigger basket cases. (The Euro? Really?!? )
jan| 3.23.12 @ 6:38PM
No brains no head aches, simple as that.
Appleby| 3.21.12 @ 6:58AM
Let him keep on talking. Every word out of his mouth digs him deeper in the mire ... and every trip to the gas station reveals to more and more people that the would-be Dear Leader is nekkid as the day he was born.
Let him keep talking, and keep on recording every word he says.
Tom Osterman| 3.21.12 @ 8:41AM
That's not enough. We also need someone to rebut the lies. Newt Gingrich has been doing this. Ehy haven't Romney or Santorum?
The problem with the "give him enough rope so he hangs himself" strategy was illustrated by the Clinton presidency. We can't just wait for Obama to talk himself out of the Oval Office.
Appleby| 3.21.12 @ 9:11AM
Romney hasn't, for the same reason that my old boy-chum Gino couldn't answer the question "What does it cost to fill up your Lamborghini?"
He has no idea what it costs, because he doesn't have to know.
Tom Osterman| 3.21.12 @ 10:15AM
...so what's Santorum's excuse?
c. j. acworth| 3.21.12 @ 7:05AM
Look, if getting the price of gas up to $8-$10 dollars will bring about a new era of biofuels and electric vehicles, then why isn't Europe already there? Is it perhaps because the GreenFuel dream is simply a dream? A pipe dream at that. Alternatives to petroleum are just around the corner. And probably always will be.
oldfart| 3.21.12 @ 8:08AM
Biofuels are a PART of the answer, just like solar and other alternative sources. BUT, as Germany has found out, the hard way - it is not the complete answer. Oil and gas will still be the main suppliers of energy until the development of an a practical fusion reactor.
And that pipe dream you mention is from the aging 60's dope heads who get their cheap stuff off the back 40.
Aces and Eights| 3.21.12 @ 9:15AM
Biofuels typically require more energy to produce than they yield as fuel. This is a net loss of energy and dooms any attempts to mainstream biofuels as motor vehicle fuels. Biofuels will always remain a niche market (and subsidized by taxpayers) until this can be solved.
Electric cars will probably never be practical, simply because of the nature of rechargeable batteries. If you want a high capacity battery you need a high capacity means of quickly recharging it. Note how long it takes to recharge your cell phone battery, and apply that to a car battery. To dump enough electricity into a car battery means that your recharge equipment must be able to handle high current levels at household voltages. Since most homes operate at 220 volts and between 100 and 200 amps, most of your household electrical service would be dedicated to recharging your car. Plus, that electricity has to be generated, which means burning fuels such as coal and natural gas. (Electric cars are for all practical purposes, coal powered.) The infrastructure and generating capacity to deliver that much power to millions of home recharging stations, or even commercial recharging stations, simply does not exist and would cost billions of dollars to construct. Not to mention the copper or aluminum required for all that new wire. One can see one's PG&E or Con-Ed bill skyrocketing just to recharge one's car.
People have been trying to make a practical electric car for over 100 years, and they still can not do it nor provide the infrastructure to support it. If someone wants to research this, he can do so without taxpayer subsidies. For the time being and for the forseeable future, gasoline and diesel are the best fuels.
Paul Nelson| 3.22.12 @ 11:08PM
E;ectric MOTORS to power vehicles makes enormous sense, lugging BATTERIES around to power the motors makes little sense. Most American roads have a nice source of electric power in the power lines on the side of the road. What we need is a way to get the power the fifty feet from the power lines to the moving vehicle. Obiously it is not easy, or it would have already been done. But THIS is the area where a few billion dollars of research could pay real returns.
It takes about 1KW to keep a car moving at 70mph. A KWH costs roughly ten cents. So a true elerctric vehicle would cost about ten cents to travel 70 miles. If gasoline costs $3.50/gal and a car gets 35mpg, it costs roughly seven dollars to travel 70 miles in a gasoline powered car.
Roy N.| 3.23.12 @ 3:36PM
Biofuels, solar, and other alternative sources will be viable in time and it should be left to the market to determine that. It has been proven time and again that bureaucrats and politicians cannot nor should not try to hasten that time. Leave it to the market.
L. Ross| 3.21.12 @ 7:34AM
I just want to know why we aren't converting cars to run on natural gas and gasoline. No refining for natural gas. Just compress it down, and sqeeze it into a tank. You can convert most any car for a few thousand dollars. I am seriously considering doing this for my next car.
chuck| 3.21.12 @ 8:07AM
Lack of filling stations.
Dick Nome| 3.21.12 @ 8:29AM
NG has its own set of problems as it is far more hazardous, highly flammable and explosive. More so than liquid gasoline and does not have the same energy contewnt. It is not as easily transported as to has to be in pressurized containers. Ng has a lot of good qualities, but not in my opinion as a general purpose motor fuel.
Aces and Eights| 3.21.12 @ 9:25AM
There are a lot of buses that operate on compressed natural gas. You can spot them by the large "hump" on the bus roof, which conceals the compressed natural gas tanks. This is essentially a bomb on the bus roof. This is not practical for a car and the accident risk for a car is far greater than a bus, and the consequences far more dangerous.
chuck| 3.21.12 @ 8:30PM
BLEVE
fireman's term....Boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion....
Ever see a natural gas tank, like the one on your grill explode?
Now picture your family in a car after a serious accident.
That's why natural gas isn't used widely to fuel cars.
David W| 3.21.12 @ 2:11PM
Natural Gas doesn't come out of the ground clean. It is a mixture of several different types of compounds - methane, butane, propane, ethane, etc. There are condensates (heard of drip gas? You can run your car on it, but probably not too long before it knocks itself apart).
Unless you have an engine that can handle a wide variety of compounds in natural Natural Gas you are going to have to refine it to some degree.
DatsunMark| 3.21.12 @ 3:00PM
My Father's company converted their delivery trucks to NG during the Jimmy Carter years and found they were burning up exhaust valves and replacing cylinder heads at a high rate. Even going to sodium filled valves did not make the break even calculations work. Gasoline is a wonder fuel in the energy contained per volume and safety.
TR| 3.21.12 @ 10:43PM
In Las Vegas, one taxi company with a fleet of 700 vehicles has been operated entirely on propane for over 15 years without problems. If taxis, not the most gently operated vehicles have been show sfae to operate on this, I would think it is a viable idea for the US.
Mike Rogers | 3.21.12 @ 11:12AM
Bad economics, and as some point out, safety issues, too. If we convert power plants within easy reach of pipelines to run on NG, then we can free up oil for transportation fuel. voila - less pollution, and cheaper gasoline.
Fredx| 3.21.12 @ 8:08PM
Would that be the few thousand dollars that I don't have? You can "sqeeze" it into your own tank. Stay out of mine.
Von Mises Jr.| 3.21.12 @ 8:20AM
"Obama and Chu are not upset about the price of gas, but only that it rose too fast." This is exactly correct.
You see, Obama and Chu have not built the "Smart Growth" apartments and the light rail infrastructure yet. We still need our cars to get to work, stores and recreation. The elites intend to change that placing us in 700 sq/ft 14 story "Urban Zones." But they are not built yet for them to herd us.
Check out Agenda21 for dummies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzEEgtOFFlM
It is not a partisan effort to recreate a Noble Class and serfs. Chris Christie is planning to do so by Executive Order in Jersey. The RINO's like G.H.W. Bush wish to herd us into compounds just as much as the Democrat liberal elites.
numbatdog| 3.21.12 @ 8:38AM
Quite right Von Mises! The fantasy high speed intercity trains completes the picture for their wishlist. No doubt you will also need a special permit to leave your home and travel to another city. Issued by your block commissar, of course.
Von Mises Jr.| 3.21.12 @ 9:23AM
This is how it worked in China when our friends visited. You needed "your papers" like in Nazi Germany to leave the province. This way they had control of you and knowledge of your activities. Since you could not leave your neighborhood, people knew who it was that displeased "Big Brother," and they knew where to find you.
Mike Rogers | 3.21.12 @ 11:15AM
Has anybody ridden on our fantastic intercity trains lately?
Aside from the side to side jolts caused by poor track alignment, there are areas where you get a violent fore and aft shaking. I can't imagine that the increased wear due to the added mechanical stresses are good for the life or safety of the rolling stock, either - remember the Acela brake failures a couple of years back?
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 3.21.12 @ 8:31AM
I'm predicting an oil and natural gas boom starting about this time next year, when we (I pray to God in Heaven) kick out as many Democrats as we possibly can (starting with King Obama), out of Washington D.C., and out of power (hopefully forever)!! Then we'll be on the cusp of a real economic turnaround, and finally see the long awaited death of this lie-based environmental movement!! Just ask the hundreds of dead People across Europe this winter if they believe in Global Warming anymore? Oh yeah, you can't ask them, because they froze to death!! But this coming boom is perfect timing for me, because about this time next year I'm going to be getting out of the Army after a long, and unforgettable 10 years, and I'm hoping to jump right into this industry, just at the beginning of America becoming the largest "Fossil" fuel producing Country the World has ever seen, driving a stake through the heart of OPEC. Now if only I knew something about the oil and natural gas industry? But that's an entirely different problem all together!! "That's an entirely different problem"!!
Come November, Vote out the Party of Death, the Party of higher Taxes, the Party that hates Business, the Party that loves Welfare, the Party of forced Unionization, the Party of Food Stamps, the Party of the KKK, Segregation, and Jim Crow Laws, oh I could just go on, but I've got a formation to get to, and I can't be late, but you get my point!!
Timothy L. Pennell| 3.21.12 @ 8:43AM
I heard a great joke from an Entertainer, who's name will remain Anonymous, and who doesn't have to Apologize because Comics and Entertainers have Extra Freedoms of Speech:
It seems that Michelle Obama went to Harlem to buy a bunch of Leopard Skin Leotards, Doo Rags, 6 inch Heels and Hair Straightener, to update her Black Slut B*tches and Hoes look, and that when she stopped to buy some Watermelons, her daughter was given Crack and Raped by Bobby Brown.
I don't know the Comedian's name, but he sounds hilarious. Who knows, maybe the 1st Lady will go on his Show?
In fact, I just heard that he's giving $1 Million to whichever Republican gets the nomination.
True story.
Fredx| 3.21.12 @ 8:11PM
How funny! I hope he books her. Then books her.
TR| 3.21.12 @ 10:46PM
You stuck on this post? I've seen it repeatedly for the past couple days.
DTOM| 3.21.12 @ 8:49AM
Peter,
Let's add to the description of the ANWR drilling argument. That's 2000 acres of the 19,286,722 acres of ANWR. Or 3.1 square miles of the 30,135 square miles of ANWR.
Obama has not been educated to think or reason for himself. Thus he only knows what he's been told, which is too bad for him and for us.
He's been told all kinds of silly stories that don't even make sense. He then retells them, with no notion of how silly they are.
How can the minority of citizens who actually pay taxes not be paying their "fair" share if most citizens pay none?
Obama cannot reason through even the most basic, elemental arguments to see even the most blatant contradictions. E.G. In one breath he says 'more drilling won't reduce prices,' but then he says he is releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce prices. You've got to wonder if some speechwriter wrote a sentence like this, "Drilling to produce more oil will not reduce fuel prices, but releasing oil from the SPR will!" if he would just read it, smirk, act as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and ridicule those who pointed out the obvious contradiction that makes it hopelessly false?
I say he would - he's just not that smart. But, it's not his fault. The man was poorly educated, fancy-assed schools or not, and too stupid to realize it. Neither of which is his fault.
However 54% of American voters in 2008 were pretty stupid. And the Main stream media, well they still don't have a clue!
Stop watching the major networks - just stop. They'll go away.
Don't Tread On Me.
Wake up people!
numbatdog| 3.21.12 @ 8:57AM
I have 2 points to make on the subject.
Firstly if natural gas is so cheap, why has my heating bill on Long Island, NY not dropped by one single cent? Are we being screwed again?
Secondly I find it stunning that anyone in the USA can still believe in Obama and his warped ideology. After 3 years under his administration the proof of his failure is in our faces- we are going ever faster down the tubes. What was bad is now worse. If he was a successful leader, we would not be having this conversation.
Yet the leftwing herd still believes in him! More than ever!
Are Americans truely so far apart now that we look at the same situation and see completely different things?
Mike Rogers | 3.21.12 @ 10:38AM
on your gas bill, two points:
The market point is that just because it is cheap to purchase at the point of production, does not necessarily mean that it is cheaply delivered to you.
More to the point however, is that most energy utilities are regulated - those comfortable padded prices are set by agreement with your state government, and you can bet that reductions are rare indeed!
Louis Jenkins| 3.21.12 @ 4:33PM
Dear Numbatdog:
Obama has a host of supporters out there. They come in many colors and creeds. The main problem is they're from the 49% that ain't vested in making a living. Remember, he has called it quits on campaigning for the white family class vote. The rest of the country, they're in it up to their necks over Obama. If there isn't enough anti-Obama votes this coming year? Well, we're in for a hard lesson. Call them left wing or whichever, those supporters will vote for him, and we'll be walking.
Tommy Frisco| 3.21.12 @ 9:08AM
As usual, Obama is misleading the American people. Yes, we consume 20% of the world's oil supply because our economy represents 20% of the world's economy. It takes energy to drive our large economy. Obama is choking our economy by limiting our energy supplies. He's doing that purposely because he does not think it is fair that we are so successful while other countries are not. It is wealth redistribution at the global scale, which is what the global warming scam is all about.
As for us having only "2% of the world's known oil reserves," that, too, is very misleading. The term "reserves" has multiple meanings. The meaning that Obama is using is proven developed reserves which is basically wells that have already been drilled, proven to provide oil flow, and then capped in place. Obama is not including any other type of oil reserve. If he were to include proven undeveloped reserves, probable reserves, and possible reserves, we'd learn that we have the capacity to be totally oil/gas independent for the next 200 years (minimum).
We could, in fact, pay off our national debt by allowing drilling on federal lands. I cannot think of a more painless way of paying off the debt than with oil royalties.
Mike Rogers | 3.21.12 @ 10:43AM
More than just the national debt. Consider:
We stop printing money and use the oil royalties to balance the budget and pay down the debt - the dollar rises.
We stop sending so many dollars overseas to buy oil - the dollar rises.
We increase refining, and sell oil/products overseas - the dollar rises.
Voila! inflation risk gone as the world scrambles to buy dollars, and for the coup de grace we reduce and simplify business taxes and regulations, and manufacturers flock to the USA - the dollar rises!!
Vox populi| 3.21.12 @ 9:18AM
However much oil there is, it will run out sooner or later. We should be planning NOW for both nuclear power and the conversion of synthetic gasoline from coal as Germany did in World War II
Aces and Eights| 3.21.12 @ 9:30AM
Agreed. Nuclear power is the wave of prosperity for the future. And we already have the technology to make gasoline from shale. But these technologies are suppressed by Leftists like President Bozo and his flacks. Their purpose is not prosperity for the people, but control of the masses for their own egos and wealth.
Bob| 3.21.12 @ 10:17AM
Unfortunately, Obama will point to Fukushima to say that nuclear technology is not safe, even though Fukushima is one of the oldest reactors in Japan and nuclear technology has advanced tremendously in the past decades.
Tommy Frisco| 3.21.12 @ 12:59PM
Yeah, and we'll probably start seeing re-runs of The China Syndrome starring Jane Fonda. There hasn't been a single nuclear plant built here in the U.S. since that movie came out twelve days before the Three Mile Island incident.
A few years ago, I was trying to de-program a colleague about global warming. I swear, he referred to The Day After Tomorrow as being evidence that man-made global warming is real.
Gary B| 3.21.12 @ 2:08PM
More people have died in the back of Ted Kennedy's car than from nuclear power.
I may be mistaken, but wasn't the Fukushima problem a result of their diesel generators being flooded?
TR| 3.21.12 @ 10:52PM
Unless the theory that oil is a naturally produced by-product of mother earth that is continuously formed. I have read several reports of dry oil wells that have not produced for years being reopened and found to be refilled with oil. Where did it come from? Does earth make oil? Is it not really formed from dinosaurs? Just wondering.
davelnaf| 3.21.12 @ 9:26AM
After three years it is no longer a question of deliberate deceit on Obama’s part. He has operated in this way since the first day he entered office. It isn’t just his inner-Alinsky that tells him to deceive to get ahead, according to the twisted way of radicals. Obama apparently derives considerable satisfaction from telling whoppers in front of large crowds—there is really no other explanation for his serial and very public lies about nearly everything under the sun.
That Obama’s one term presidency will go down as the strangest and most destructive in history is established fact. The question now is: what is this unmitigated misfire of a president going to do during his remaining time in office? His capacity for harm is well-established. His enjoyment in causing it is beyond dispute.
jfor| 3.21.12 @ 9:38AM
"We're using 20%; we have 2%" is completely misleading and irrelevant as Obama is comparing apples (our percentage of the global amount of oil used) to oranges (our percentage of the global amount of reserves). According to him, in 5 years we will have used up "100%". Ridiculous!!
louisvuitton | 3.21.12 @ 12:57PM
It is a combination of inflation (that is running at about 10% for food), and lack of GDP growth.
George S| 3.21.12 @ 9:56AM
Obama is not too stupid to be president. A lot of us are too stupid to understand sovereignty lies with the people. Obama is taking a gamble that Americans are ready for serfdom and he is the only one with the balls to let us know he's ready too.
albert constantine jr.| 3.21.12 @ 10:14AM
I don't think Obama is ready for serfdom for him; he is ready to be the king.
Bob| 3.21.12 @ 10:16AM
For such a forward-looking President, Obama is stuck in the '70s with regards to energy policy. Technology has made leaps and bounds in that time. We can tap the full spectrum of America's energy potential. Obama's policies want to pretend that didn't happen and that we can only tap 2% of the oil in the world. He's willing to deliberately deceive people so they go along with him.
Mike Rogers | 3.21.12 @ 10:34AM
Obama and Chu have found the Philosopher's Stone - they can transmute base fuels like oil and coal into exotic substances like "unobtanium"! (IE something you can't obtain)
Wash Magic| 3.21.12 @ 10:37AM
What I don't understand is how domestic gas production really benefits America. We live in a somewhat global energy market, as much as petroleum is concerned. If we increase drilling in America, the producer could just as easily sell it to the highest bidder elsewhere instead of to America. Can someone expand on this?
Tommy Frisco| 3.21.12 @ 11:38AM
Wash Magic,
1. Domestic crude oil is typically traded at the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price which is usually a little lower than the global market price (Brent).
2. The oil companies prefer to send their crude oil to the closet available refinery to keep their transportation costs to a minimum. The refineries also prefer to minimize their gasoline distribution costs by serving their local area.
3. We, Americans, benefit through royalties, high-paying jobs, a better economy, etc..
4. Royalties received from drilling on Gov't -owned lands can be used to pay off the national debt.
Anthony| 3.21.12 @ 10:38AM
This is not complicated. Obozo is a Marxist. He is also a member of the far left radical flat earth, no growth, enviornmental movement seeking to eliminate all forms of energy that are not wind, solar, or algae.
Obozo despises capitalism, the private sector, and the economic prosperity that has made America the greatest nation in the world.
He and his radical nut job of an energy secretary are both on record calling for European gas prices because, according to their warped perspective, America has only "2%" of oil reserves yet uses "20%" of the world's supply, both figures of which are a complete lie.
In other words, Americans are greedy and are using a disproportionate amount of energy resourses in order to support our "luxurious life style".
Of course, this does not apply to the radical leftist elite, as Obozo sends his daughters, 20 of their friends, replete with 25 Secret Service Agents and their equipment, to Mexico for the kids spring break at tax payer expense.
Obozo is out to destroy America as we know it. Now either we throw his ass, and the rest of the radical left out of office, or America is finished.
MainelyGer| 3.21.12 @ 10:58AM
When Obama says that we can't drill our way (increasing supply) out of high oil prices, then why does the price drop when Saudi Arabia increases its production? Why does the price drop when the strategic oil reserves are released?
Mike Rogers | 3.21.12 @ 11:21AM
Peter wrote: "Moreover, because of the evil 'speculators,' just a change in policy now will start to produce a drop in prices today, as the change in future supplies is anticipated in the market."
As was amply demonstrated when prices spiked 4 years ago, and the moratorium on offshore drilling was allowed to expire. Markets price in the news - news of planned production is all that is required.
Jill Johnson| 3.21.12 @ 11:42AM
Right -- speculators will go long or short. All they want to see is direction.
Resist We Much! | 3.21.12 @ 11:23AM
Obama "inherited" a "AAA" credit rating and $1.84/gallon gas.
Jill Johnson| 3.21.12 @ 11:40AM
"Obama said, "Do you think a President running for reelection wants higher gas prices? Does anybody here think that makes sense?"
Golly, I thought he said .."is going to say that he wants higher gas prices." At any rate, that was teh clear impression I got.
Dixie Pixie| 3.21.12 @ 11:46AM
So Obama expects to ride to reelection on a wave of lies, snark, open deception and complete disdain for the American public outside his own liberal circle.
Has the Socialist love of “Revolution” become so great they would try to create the conditions for a revolt against their own government?
Can the Democrats be that arrogant and stupid?
Or did the dye from the Che Guevara tee-shirts go straight to their heads?
Gary B| 3.21.12 @ 2:14PM
They're on a roll. Perhaps the Silent Majority will fix it in November.
Louis Jenkins| 3.21.12 @ 4:36PM
Dixie Pixie:
Yes they are that stupid, and they vote.
Anthony| 3.21.12 @ 1:11PM
Well said Dixie; not only did the dye from their Che Guevara tee-shirts go straight to their heads, the whole pot smoking '60s Woodstock Nation bull**** fried what was left of their little dyed brains.
Dixie Pixie| 3.21.12 @ 4:26PM
Would that be “their tiny tie-dyed brains” Anthony?
That would explain their fondness for rainbow flags.
playrighter| 3.21.12 @ 3:53PM
Here's a little Obama multiple choice assignment:
Q: How many of the points in this article are valid?
A: The facts say "All of the Above" .
Bonus: There are likely even more, if we "drill, baby drill" a bit deeper.
PattyMor| 3.21.12 @ 4:28PM
Obama is: President of the
Downgrade
Unemployment
Food Stamps
Doubled Gasoline Prices
Massive Inflation
Debt
Deficits
Really, no positive accomplishments that I can think of.
Gary B| 3.21.12 @ 11:08PM
He's no different than a common vandal. How much talent does it take to simply wreck stuff?
Louis Jenkins| 3.21.12 @ 4:40PM
As long as we have Obama in office the market will put its money where it feels the best return is. And we've got hyper-inflation (to be read devaluation of the dollar) so the alternatives are as simple to read as a road map. Obama's mere presence has caused this confusion.
Derek Leaberry| 3.21.12 @ 5:23PM
The Democratic voting base is not as sensitive to gas price hikes that the Republican voting base is. Democrats are largely urban and inner-suburban with a scattering of black rural votes in the South and Indians in the Western reservations. The Republican outer-suburban, exurban and rural vote is being hammered by high gasoline prices. The situation probably amuses President Obama. And the Democratic Green vote loves to stick it to Republicans.
George| 3.21.12 @ 7:58PM
The higher fuel prices are working in the Dallas area. The poor and unemployed are staying off the highways. My drive times on the local freeways have decreased dramatically.
Indiana Alex| 3.21.12 @ 9:04PM
Enough of the damn "global marketplace" nonsense. This became a lefty parrot point during the pipeline debate.
How do you think Saudi Arabia can impact the price of oil by simply announcing an intention to ramp up production while selling it in the "global marketplace"?
POST American| 3.22.12 @ 4:46AM
AS latest online research is even casting doubt
on Obama's ---maternity!
Like we said ---possible Averell Harriman stealth
clone and EUGENICS homage to the Globalist
who managed Stalin's Russia and betrayed,
awesomely, not only the people of that land,
but the good people of China,
half of Korea and ----America itself.
Surely some kind of record worthy of
warm homage---from such quarters.
AGAIN---IF--- it is true -----it would be the
PERFECT FIT for this, the final act of the
11th hour of the CFR Globalist US takedown
op.
Upgrade your lenses and check out
the footage for yourself.
beejeez| 3.22.12 @ 2:40PM
Why, when he is so electorally vulnerable, wouldn't Obama undertake any measures he could that promised to bring gasoline prices down significantly and make him the most beloved man in America?
Oh, that's right: Because he's dumb, hates America and doesn't care whether he's re-elected.