Is Obama Kidding or Does he think All Americans are Brain Dead?

President Obama has put out a campaign video in which he gives a preview of the State of the Union address coming later this week. Two of Obama's major themes are going to be 1)promoting more production of domestic energy and 2) helping manufacturers increase their markets and production in the USA. Three years into a term during which he has done exactly the opposite, Obama is either kidding or he thinks that Americans are brain dead and will not remember what he had actually done.

First, Obama will say that he wants increased production of energy here at home. There needs to be energy independence. but what has Obama done since taking office? 1) He put on a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico started leaking. Many folks believe that the moratorium was imposed in order for Obama to appear to be doing something since his response to the actual oil leak was so slow, disorganized and ineffective. Nevertheless, wells in the Gulf and elsewhere in offshore waters were stopped. Even after the moratorium was lifted, pemits needed for drilling to proceed were slowed down dramatically. It used to take about a week to get such a permit. Under Obama's new "expedited" procedures, it now takes approximately nine months to get that permit. Drilling slowed down to such a great extent that the big rigs that do the drilling offshore have moved to Brazil, Nigeria and elsewhere in order to keep working. Once these rigs have moved, the chance to get them back is small. After all, the cost of moving back to American waters is tens of millions of dollars per rig.

2) Obama has shut down nearly all leasing on federal land in the USA. There is supposed to be substantial deposits of oil and natural gas on these lands, but Obama has prevented their development.

3) Despite Obama, the technological advances in drilling have brought increased production of oil and natural gas. Essentially the entire increase is the result of the use of fracking to release energy sources in shale. Fields like the Marcellus shale that underlie Pennsylvania and the surrounding states have begun producing enormous amounts of gas and the price of natural gas is now lower than it has been for a long time. So what is the response from Obama? He has the EPA begin preparing regulations that will stop the use of fracking! In other words, Obama is threatening this entire new industry with a shutdown. Can you think of a better way to discourage investment in production that needs fracking? Why would a company want to invest millions to drill a well if Obama suddenly has the federal government make that investment worthless.

4) Obama has attacked the coal industry as well with new regulations both with regard to production and use of that fuel. So far, utilities have announced the closing of seven different coal-fired power plants. This reduction in production of electrical energy from coal just means that the price of energy will move higher.

5) Obama has also done nothing to allow for increased use of nuclear energy. When he ran in 2008, Obama promised action on disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Obama has done nothing. No new nuclear plants have been built in this country in the last three years. Sure, no one wants to build a plant like that in an earthquake zone or next to the coast after what happened to the Fukashima plant in Japan, but there are plenty of locations that could house such a plant. Remember, nuclear plants do not pollute and they produce energy at competitive prices.

6) Even solar and wind energy have suffered under Obama. Obama has promoted these "green" energy sources as the wave of the future. If so, it has been all talk and graft. Where is the major federal effort to fast track the wind farms needed to bring wind energy to the fore? Obama could have gotten Congress to pass a bill that established national wind energy policy and took jurisdiction from the states. Instead of having local folks in Massachusetts bowing to the will of the Kennedy family which did not want to see a wind farm from their Hyannis compound, a national agency could have greenlighted the project long ago. The same is true all across the country as the NIMBY attacks stop one project after another. On the solar front, we have all seen the way Obama has "supported" domestic energy by shoveling cash to his cronies and contributors. Think of Solyndra. There Obama rushed half a billion dollars to a company despite an analysis by the Department of Energy that concluded that despite the cash infusion, the company would inevitably fail. Of course, it helped that the main investor in Solyndra was a big Obama contributor. These types of "investments" to make Obama contributors richer are the usual not the exception. Obama rails against Wall Street for taking bonuses even after losing money, but those bonuses are small change compared to the taxpayer funds that Obama channeled to his cronies. It is not "money for green energy" but "green for no energy".

Even more outrageous than Obama claiming to want to increase domestic energy output, is a claim that he wants to "help" American manufacturing. Think about it. Obama has dealt with American business like a terrorist; he constantly creates new sources of fear in the business community which prevents new investments from occuring. Remember, investment is the most important component of economic growth. Without investment, there can be no growth. So Obama passed Obamacare which places huge new costs on businesses. Then he passed Dodd-Frank which makes it nearly impossible for smaller banks to make loans to smaller businesses. Can anyone explain why freezing small and middle-sized business out of bank loans is good for manufacturing? Of course not! The list here goes on and on.

The point really is this: Obama can come forward now and talk about increasing energy production or helping manufacturers, but Obama has a record on these points and it says just the opposite. In 2008, Obama ran to end partisanship only to be the most partisan president of my lifetime. In 2008, Obama ran to have the most transparent administration ever only to act in secrecy over and over again. Even a meeting about promoting transparency was held in secret; remember that? Obama said that he would listen to Americans once in office only to ignore the people time and time again. In short, the man lied in 2008. He is trying to do the same thing in 2012. Don't get taken in.