* Cancelled five lease sales off the Alaska coast that were planned over the next 2 years. One of the areas is estimated to hold up to 77 billion barrels of oil, or more than 3 times US reserves.
* A study of the southern Atlantic OCS, with the findings due back next year....no leasing.
* Delayed a planned lease sale off Virginia until at least 2012.
When I first heard about Obama's proposals and saw the reaction on the left with planned protests and their lividness that Obama would dare consider it, I also said, and I quote "If I were the cynical sort, I would entertain the idea that Obama is proposing this to garner a little more support from the Independents and Moderates that he and the Democrats alienated over the last year with his Obamacare.
Just because he proposes it, doesn't mean it will happen, doesn't mean Congress and the Senate will approve it and doesn't guarantee anything other than the optics would look good for him and perhaps help some vulnerable Democrats in November."
I am not the only one who see it this was as Sarah Palin pens a piece with some more facts about what she calls "stall, baby, stall"
Today the president said he’ll “consider potential areas for development in the mid and south Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, while studying and protecting sensitive areas in the Arctic.” As the former governor of one of America’s largest energy-producing states, a state oil and gas commissioner, and chair of the nation’s Interstate Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, I’ve seen plenty of such studies. What we need is action — action that results in the job growth and revenue that a robust drilling policy could provide. And let’s not forget that while Interior Department bureaucrats continue to hold up actual offshore drilling from taking place, Russia is moving full steam ahead on Arctic drilling, and China, Russia, and Venezuela are buying leases off the coast of Cuba.
Read the whole thing.
More from IER:
Thomas J. Pyle, president of the market oriented Institute for Energy Research, issued the following statement:
“America’s offshore energy resources belong to the American people. Not a company, not a special interest, and not a single administration. And a clear majority of the American people supports the commonsense strategy of producing more oil and gas here in America. Unfortunately, today, and to our economic detriment, the President once again ignored the will of the American people.
“Just as he did in his State of the Union Address, President Obama cited the imperative of offshore energy exploration. But words alone will do nothing to move this country’s energy policy forward in a meaningful way. It’s similar to his announcement on nuclear loan guarantees—the President talked a good game, then eliminated funding for the only nuclear waste repository in the nation.
“In 2008, when Congress and then-President Bush retired the decades-old moratorium on the safe and environmentally sound practice of producing energy miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the American people, and our economy, scored a huge victory. Unfortunately, what President Obama outlined today puts part of that moratorium back in place. Kicking the energy can further down the road is not a change in policy.
“Canada drills for oil in the North Atlantic. Cuba, Brazil, and Venezuela produce energy in the water to our South. The Russians do the same to our West. Yet, America, the most technologically advanced nation in the world, with the most stringent environmental policies on the books, remains the only nation that imposes burdensome regulations and endless streams of red tape on domestic production. Americans want to stop embargoing our own oil. The president’s plan expands that existing embargo, and Americans will pay the price. ”
The passage of Obamacare did not turn around the poll numbers for Democrats in the 2010 elections as some predicted it would, in fact, polls conducted over a week later shows worse news for Obama and vulnerable Democrats in the 2010 elections and moderates and independents should not allow themselves to be conned into thinking Obama has "compromised" anything in his statements about offshore drilling.
As has proven true with his other major legislative initiative, Obamacare, the more details we find out, the more we see Obama's game for what it is.
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