Posted on 01/21/2011 6:03:38 AM PST by Kaslin
On Tuesday, the president will deliver his State of the Union message.
The conventional wisdom is that Barack Obama will continue his "move to the center." The quotation marks are necessary because some people think he really is moving to the center, while others think he just wants to appear like he is.
Either way, this undoubtedly means Obama will try to seem as if he's meeting Republicans halfway on their "reasonable" demands (quotation marks for the same reason as before) while drawing a stark line against their "unreasonable" ones.
As much as I may enjoy it, this sort of strategizing leaves most Americans cold. As far as I can tell, these days they are less concerned with "triangulation" than they are with the creation of good jobs that aren't bogus make-work, or paid for with money borrowed from China or our grandkids.
If that's the case, the solution is right in front of the president's face. To echo a chant from the 2008 Republican convention, "Drill, baby, drill!"
The objective case for developing our oil and gas wealth is pretty straightforward. With the exception of climate change, pretty much everything the Obama administration considers a major problem would be improved by opening the floodgates to new exploration.
The deficit? The oil industry already pays the U.S. treasury more than $95 million a day in taxes, rent, royalties and the like. If you expand exploration, you expand revenues. According to estimates, if America unlocked its oil and gas reserves, the government could take in somewhere between $1 trillion and $2 trillion in additional revenue over the coming years. And that's not counting the increased revenues from the stimulus of lower fuel and energy costs.
Trade imbalances? Domestic oil and gas is, by definition, not imported. The more we produce here, the less we import, or the more we can sell overseas. Either way, the trade deficit goes down and GDP goes up.
Jobs? You can't drill for American oil or natural gas in China, Saudi Arabia or anyplace other than America. Oil and gas exploration jobs pay more than twice the national average.
Just take a gander at North Dakota, where oil production is up 138 percent since 2008. The boom "has helped make its economy almost recession-proof," writes American Enterprise Institute economist Mark Perry. North Dakota's "jobless rate never exceeded 4.4 percent even during the Great Recession when the U.S. rate hit 10.1 percent." North Dakota, with a $1 billion surplus, and the lowest unemployment rate in the country, has more jobs today than it did when the recession started in 2007. Perversely, as AEI's Steve Hayward notes, if trends continue, North Dakota may well outproduce California and Alaska (it's already zoomed passed Oklahoma), not because California and Alaska are running out of oil, but because the feds keep it under lock and key.
All in all, the American Petroleum Institute believes we may have 100 billion barrels of untapped oil -- that's 10 million barrels a day for 30 years, or the equivalent of our total imports of foreign oil.
Meanwhile, it's quite possible that the United States could be the Saudi Arabia of natural gas, with an estimated 100-year supply of the stuff, and more being discovered every day.
But what about global warming? Well, even if you agree that climate change is a real problem, the simple fact is that we're stuck with fossil fuels for at least a generation longer, in part because "green energy" isn't ready for prime time. Moreover, the developing world will not significantly curb its emissions until they're developed.
President Obama is fond of saying that we need to look to China's example. They're allegedly leading the way on solar and wind power. Maybe that's true, though I think there's a lot of hype there. But, OK. What people leave out is that China is hardly curbing its fossil-fuel development.
Why can't America have a similar do-it-all strategy?
As part of a grand bargain, the president could, in his State of the Union address, propose quintupling the amount of money we spend doing basic research on alternative fuels, the revocation of subsidies for the oil and gas industry, and a hike in the gas tax to pay for that infrastructure bank he wants. Throw in a ban on mountaintop-removal coal mining while he's at it. All of this in exchange for creating good jobs here at home, lowering energy costs, reducing our reliance on foreign oil and cutting the deficit.
Sure, the base of the Democratic Party and the editorial board of the New York Times would scream bloody murder. But for a guy trying to get re-elected, that's a bonus.
America fails the national IQ test when any believes that the Girly-Man President and The Wookie are anything but radical, leftist community organizers.
His black voterbase will be kissing his feet, and those white guilt-ridden voters who elected him will say "see...he's bringing the Country together...."
I won't be watching, as I have NEVER watched this phony Communist plant in the past 3 years....he's ruined this once-great Nation, and it will NOT return to Constitutionally-based freedoms in my lifetime....
Mostly makes sense JG, but you must be hallucinating if you think this is anywhere near possible.
Give him enough rope and he will hang himself. He can’t help it because Marxism goes to the marrow of his bones.
But I've said from the beginning--every obvious thing that an administration could do for this economy--Barak Obama has done the exact opposite. He may pay temporary lip service, but when it comes time to deliver, he'll find a way to halt it.
He is Iago.
“Window Dressing”
Exhibit 1: His article in the WSJ this week saying he wants to cut regulations to foster business growth...after forcing the most onerous regulations in the history of the Republic on us.
Exhibit 2: His enlistment of Immelt at GE to head a special government panel to create jobs
Exactly. Obama is merely a symptom of whatt’s wrong with America. That’s why i expect him to win reelection in 2012. Voters believe they can get something for nothing.
With the exception of climate change?
With the East Anglia e-mail scandal, we find evidence that Carbon dioxide simply couldn't be convicted without withholding evidence and fraud. Meanwhile, the science has advanced to the point that solar activity is the most likely cause of warming. Third, it's not warming. It's cooling. In short, CO2 is INNOCENT. CO2 has not been proven to affect climate to the point that we need to worry about burning fossil fuel.
Drill baby drill.
Now you’ve (the author) done it. You’ve painted a bull’s eye on ND oil industry.
Obama will never ramp up drilling on his own - his actions in the Gulf demonstrate that, and his attitude to fossil fuel use in general was expressed in the election in his comments about coal use - that he’d make power generation using coal so expensive nobody would build new coal-fired generators. Plus his EPA is throwing every roadblock they can in the way of energy generation using fossil fuels.
So the GOP needs to use what it’s got to force the issue. Have the House pass whatever legislation it can to open up drilling - the Gulf, Alaska, off-shore Atlantic, California, whatever. The Democrats can go along - that would boost the economy exactly as described by Goldberg.
Or (much more likely) they can fight it. And then when gas goes to $5 a gallon, they can spend the entire election campaign explaining to the voters why we’re sending money to Saudi Arabia instead of drilling our own oil
Those who suffer from Alinskyiitis will never change their political stripes.
IMHO
Under the “Paragraphs Are Your Friends” policy, here’s an actual readable version:
_______________________________________________________
Here’s an astonishing read.
Important and verifiable information:
About 6 months ago, the writer was watching a news program on oil and one of the Forbes Bros. was the guest. The host said to Forbes, “I am going to ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; how much oil does the U.S. have in the ground?” Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, “more than all the Middle East put together.”
Please read below:
The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn’t been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota, western South Dakota, and extreme eastern Montana ..... check THIS out: The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska ‘s Prudhoe Bay , and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels.
Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5...3 trillion. “When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea..” says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst. “This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years,” reportsThe Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin , but is more commonly referred to as the ‘Bakken.’ It stretches from Northern Montana , through North Dakota and into Canada .
For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the ‘Big Oil’ companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves..... and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL! That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years straight. And if THAT didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it’s from 2006!
U.. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?
They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth..
Here are the official estimates:
8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
18-times as much oil as Iraq
21-times as much oil as Kuwait
22-times as much oil as Iran
500-times as much oil as Yemen
and it’s all right here in the Western United States .
HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy.....WHY?
James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.
Don’t think ‘OPEC’ will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It’s all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to. Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists? Got your attention yet?
Now, while you’re thinking about it, do this: Now I just wonder what would happen in this country if every one of you sent this to every one in your address book.
By the way...this is all true. Check it out at the link below!!! GOOGLE it, or follow this link. It will blow your mind.
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911
You might want to save the article... it might disappear.
Exactly and there is absolutely no reason for us to buy oil from OPEC. We can not listen to the lame excuses of the left
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Palin is the way.
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