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Here’s Geraghty’s piece on this from yesterday:

Picking Apart Obama’s Energy Speech

This EIA report that, when calculating the time it would take for oil from domestic sources reaches the market, presumes that nothing happens in terms of exploration until 2012 is getting cited quite often. Obama, yesterday:

George Bush’s own Energy Department has said that if we opened up new areas to drilling today, we wouldn’t see a single drop of oil for seven years. Seven years.

Obama’s speech yesterday was terribly defensive, with two major policy reversals. Mark Impomeni notes that Obama is touting a release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which he calculates would provide each licensed driver with about 40 percent of a tank of gas... when he had previous argued that McCain’s proposal for a gas tax holiday was a “gimmick” because it would only save consumers about “half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer.”

Half a tank is a gimmick, but 40 percent of a tank is a “genuine way in which we can provide some short-term relief from high gas prices.”

Obama continues:

“Even Texas oilman Boone Pickens, who’s calling for major new investments in alternative energy, has said, “this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of.”

T. Boone Pickens also believes the U.S. should drill offshore on both coasts and ANWR, declaring, “You’re drilling and whatever you are able to find and put into the domestic system will help us.” Let me guess, he’s an expert when he agrees with you, but a fool when he disagrees. Everyone does this to a certain extent, but Obama should avoid the “even T. Boone Pickens” line unless he’s willing to concede Pickens might not have such a selective area of expertise and judgment.

“But we should start by telling the oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres they currently have access to but haven’t touched.”

This argument makes perfect sense if you believe that oil is perfectly evenly distributed across every acre off U.S. shores. If some acres have lots of oil, and some have none, suddenly the oil companies’ decision to not drill in some places makes more sense.

“And if they don’t, we should require them to give up their leases to someone who will.”

If oil companies won’t drill on those 68 million acres, we’ll give those leases to... who? Who besides oil companies will drill for oil?

08/05 09:49 AM

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDM5NTk5MjgzOTMzZjFkODQ1NWMxNThmMDY0MjkzMmU=

From yesterday's show:

Keep talking, Senator Obama. America isn't laughing.

RUSH:...This kick that they're on to replace oil, where does this come from, even politically? Is there polling data out there that says a majority of the Americans hate oil, that the way to the White House is to demonize oil? Where did this come from? This is irrational. It borders on the insane to hate oil. A lot of things can damage things just like oil can, if it's not properly contained and used. I just don't understand this.

Well, I do, but I mean I'm trying to express my incredulity here at the absolute stupidity of assuming a position. This is like coming out against oxygen, or it's like arguing against rain. It's just silly! What is the damage? How has oil destroyed America? How has it destroyed people's lives? It's done just the opposite. Where does this come from? What in the world is the political calculation these people have to construct a presidential campaign based on the hatred of oil, as though oil itself is a conservative Republican? They're treating oil as if it's no different than Bush. They hate Bush; they hate oil. And both are irrational. (cont.)

Barry Mocks "Drill Here. Drill Now."

RUSH: ...Well, I don't know about that, but I will tell you why Obama is quoting T. Boone Pickens. And there is one reason he's quoting T. Boone Pickens, that's 'cause T. Boone is a Republican, and T. Boone has said two things that Obama likes, and he's ignoring everything else that T. Boone has said. Obama loves it when T. Boone used that $700 billion transfer of wealth figure. We're sending $700 billion over to enemies. He loves when T. Boone says that, but it's not as T. Boone describes it. It's not a transfer of wealth. It's an exchange of wealth. We've been through that. Second thing he likes is when T. Boone goes through this notion of we are 3% of the world's population using 25% of the world's resources. Liberals have been using that since Paul Ehrlich back in the seventies. What T. Boone wants and what Obama doesn't mention, in addition to natural gas, and in addition to T. Boone's dream of his massive wind farm business, T. Boone wants to drill out the wazoo, T. Boone wants to drill for oil anywhere we can find, but T. Boone is saying we can't drill our way out of this, and T. Boone says we can't drill our way out of this because if we drill our way out of it, his wind farms are going to be less attractive.

"Energy Independence" Insanity