Obama: another Day, Another Lie

In his weekly radio address, president Obama focused on clean energy. He spoke from a plant which makes hybrid engines and discussed the need for energy independence. Obama said that by promoting clean energy development, there would be jobs created. The essence of the remainder of what he said is in this quote:

"We know there are no quick fixes to this problem. In the short term, we’re doing everything we can to boost safe and responsible oil production here at home..."

Of course, this is a lie! There are quick fixes to the problem and he and his administration are not doing anything to boost oil production. To the contrary, Obama and the Obamacrats have managed to cut domestic oil production by at least 10% from where it otherwise would have been without their actions.

First, the quick fix: Were the president to announce that the US was going to exploit all of its oil deposits and then to announce that all requests for drilling permits would be expedited and that off limits areas like those in Alaska were being opened to exploration, the speculators in oil around the world would start selling to get out of the market ahead of the inevitable decline. Within a month, the price of oil would decline substantially. No one can say exactly how much the decline would be, but if the recent speculation drove prices up by $25 per barrel, it is fair to assume that the exit of the speculators would cause a decline by at least the same amount. In other words, gas prices at the pump could go down from $4.00 a gallon to about $3.00 a gallon. That seems like a pretty quick fix to me.

Second, since Obama took office, he has (1)placed a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, (2) continued that moratorium even after a federal court declared it illegal, (3) proceeded at a snails pace in approving drill permits once he was forced to lift the moratorium -- with permit approval taking 5 or 6 months rather than the 5 or 6 days that previously was the case, (4) slowed drilling to the point that many large drill rigs moved from US waters to other places like the coasts of Brazil or West Africa so that even once drilling begins agsin there will be an equipment shortage here, (5) threatened all sorts of environmental restrictions and tax restrictions on energy producers so that their efforts were reduced, and, (6) put in place continued restrictions on drilling on all sorts of federal and other lands. Just the restrictions in the Gulf of Mexico is estimated to have reduced oil production from that area by about 600,000 barrels a day, a reduction to total domestic oil production of around 10%.

It is annoying that the president is taking these steps which reduce energy production with the result that the economy grows more slowly and fewer jobs are created. It is doubly annoying that Obama thinks he can blatantly lie to the American people on this point and get away with it. Indeed, Obama's lying is almost pathological.