Three years ago the expression Drill, Baby, Drill was hammered home, but under Barack Obama regime's lack of action in opening Alaska up, drilling for natural gas, building the Keystone pipeline, just to name a few, we are still dependent on unfriendly nations for most of our oil supply.A popular liberal argument back in 2008 would take years for the drill, baby, drill policies to actually make a difference in our oil supply and becoming less dependent on others and more self reliant.
Had we started a balls-to-the-walls implementation of opening our own reserves up, drilling in ANWR,for example, we would be three years closer to that energy independence now.
Sarah Palin has taken to her Facebook page to explain that very thing.
President Obama doesn’t have an energy plan. He has an energy speech that he continues to give regardless of the facts or his obvious failures. He likes to take credit for actions initiated by the last administration (without telling you that he’s reversed or stymied many of those successes).We should not be surprised by his detached attitude about America’s pain at the pump. He’s not interested in lowering the price of gas because exorbitantly high gas prices are one of his campaign promises. In September 2008, candidate Obama’s Energy Secretary in-waiting said: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” That’s one campaign promise they’re working hard to fulfill!
President Obama notes that instability in the Middle East causes short-term spikes in the price of oil. But that is precisely why we should take every opportunity to drill here and drill now to lessen our dependence on these dangerous foreign regimes. President Obama’s lack of action simply invites the next oil crisis. It’s as if the White House is purposefully making us more dependent on foreign countries – from running up an unsustainable debt that must be financed by foreign debtors, to constantly apologizing and walking on eggshells around dictators who control oil supplies.
When it comes to our energy security, the only thing holding us back is the lack of political will. We have the resources, the ingenuity, and the manpower. And we need the jobs! Any economic recovery will be hampered by these rising gas prices. And I guarantee the rising prices will only get worse and will halt job growth further.
We must never forget that energy development, job creation, and national security are inextricably linked. Access to affordable and secure energy is the key to economic growth, which is the key to job growth. Securing a stable domestic supply of energy will lead to a more peaceful and prosperous America – an America that’s not subject to the whims of dictators who can cut off energy supplies or shut down the Strait of Hormuz to exports passing through.
President Obama repeatedly claims that there is no “silver bullet” to lower gas prices. But, in fact, we do have proof that the promise of future drilling does lead to immediate price relief as oil producers plan to expand their production.
So what are Obama’s solutions? As luck would have it, they coincide with subsidizing his friends and campaign donors. What a fortuitous coincidence in an election year! While you’re paying $5-a-gallon for gas, President Obama has been picking “winners” and “losers” in the free market. He’s decided that conventional resource development that produces the fuel we use to drive our cars and power our economy are “losers.” His “winners” are the bankrupt green energy companies that his campaign donors invest in. Unfortunately his real “losers” are the American public who are once again hit with massive gas prices (at least those who can’t afford luxury electric cars like the Obama-subsidized Volt that gets 40 miles per battery charge, or like the Obama-subsidized Tesla that turns into a “brick” when the battery completely discharges and then costs $40,000 to repair.)
What are the real solutions? Well, whether you support Newt in 2012 or not, he makes a lot of sense in this video, which is why President Obama targeted it for mockery yesterday. Newt is right that we need to “stop bowing and start drilling.” And not only can’t a gun rack fit in a Volt, but the government will take away our pick-up trucks when they pry the steering wheel “from our cold, dead hands.” Newt explains in this video some commonsense, pro-American solutions to the problems President Obama causes with his terrifyingly naïve assault on U.S. energy production.
With just the stroke of a pen, President Obama could lead us in the direction of real energy security and reduce our oil imports threatened by Iran’s threats to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Here are just a few commonsense measures we can do right now and most of them don’t require any new legislation or regulations:
Open Alaska to drilling. Billions and billions of barrels of U.S. crude (and hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of clean natural gas) sit untapped up here in the far north, my friends. We have the TAPS pipeline and infrastructure; we invite the development! Open ANWR. Think of how much safer and secure we would be if we had done this decades ago.
Build the Keystone Pipeline. President Obama doesn’t understand we live in a land woven with untold miles of pipe to carry safe energy supplies to protect and prosper America. Common sense dictates we need another one now to secure our energy future. It is key. It is the Keystone. If we’re worried about instability in the Middle East, it makes no sense to shun safe and reliable oil from Canada. Obviously, China understands this, and we should too.
Drill for natural gas. Natural gas is the future. It’s clean, it’s green, and we’ve got lots of it. Whether we use it to power natural-gas cars or to run natural-gas power plants that charge electric cars – or ideally for both – natural gas can act as a clean “bridge fuel” to a future when more renewable sources are available.
There are many more steps we need in order to establish a true energy plan to secure our future. But these three steps, plus increased resource development in the Lower 48 and reversing President Obama’s nonsensical, knee-jerk, anti-American energy shut down of off-shore developments would create hundreds of thousands of jobs as millions of barrels of oil every single day would flow under American control, and lessen our dependence on the Persian Gulf.
It’s time our country had a real energy plan that include a genuine all-of-the-above approach that doesn’t ignore conventional resource development. We need the jobs, we need the energy, and we need the security.
- Sarah Palin
Obama mocks Republicans that believe drilling is one important factor in bringing down gas prices in the long run, but his own policies have done nothing but drive gas prices higher and higher. Obama blocks Gulf drilling permits. Obama administration's regulations are so onerous the process is crawling and jobs are lost. Obama rejects the Keystone pipeline, three years after the initial applications were submitted and claims Republicans gave him an "arbitrary" deadline.
Obama blames the soaring gas prices on tensions in the Middle East, but if we were less reliant on oil from the Middle East then the events there would not effect our pumps as severely.
No one claims that gas prices will go down the day we open up our resources but the sooner we start, the sooner those prices and our reliance on others go down.
[Update] New Chart Shows White House Plan for Higher Gas Prices & Fewer Jobs
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