Posted on 03/11/2011 12:12:38 PM PST by jazusamo
With gasoline prices at the pump topping $4 a gallon in some parts of the country, President Obama on Friday said he will tap into a government’s emergency oil stockpile if he has to, but said the U.S. is already producing more oil now and the current crisis is one of demand, not supply.
Mr. Obama told a news conference that domestic production has climbed under his watch, reaching its highest level since 2003 last year even as the one-year anniversary of the Gulf Coast oil spill approaches.
“Any notion that my administration has shut down oil production might make for a good political sound bite, but it doesn’t match up with reality,” Mr. Obama told reporters.
Still, Gulf state lawmakers, congressional Republicans and even a federal judge have excoriated Mr. Obama’s Interior Department for slow-walking new deepwater drilling permits, and said the higher production Mr. Obama cites is the result of decisions the George W. Bush administration made.
The Obama administration this month issued its first new deepwater drilling permit, despite lifting the moratorium Mr. Obama imposed after the 2010 BP oil disaster more than four months ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
But.....
the current crisis is one of demand, not supply
WTF?
Another of Obama's outrageous lies but the enemedia will back him up.
Salazar shut down oil and gas exploration in his own state of Colorado. Ghost towns where there used to be full employment.
Obamao is a damned liar.
Deep water drilling. NONE
He wants to put more of ANWR into a NO DRILL NO EXPLORE category.
Obama's national economic strategy - lie.
Obama's WOT strategy - baldface lie.
Being presidential isn't as hard as its cracked up to be.
If it requires him making a decision, forget it.
Sure it matches up with reality. If the latest production numbers were good the market would take that into account. But when you have a communist administration working in straight jackets and 5-year plans, it's hard to figure out whether it will last.
Good grief! It's supply and demand! Not supply or demand. Obama, you are a blooming economic idiot! God help us! :(
It’s quite amazing. This guy just lies and lies.
I mean Clinton would at least nuance and slice and dice his words.
This guy just flat out lies... and then walks away.
He seems to be leery of everything
Americans better be leery of anything Barry does. Using reserves to lower prices is an admission that we should be drilling and exploiting our abundant resources.
Shocker: Domestic Oil Production Down, Foreign Imports Up
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/03/11/shocker-domestic-oil-production-down-foreign-imports-up/
The same liberals that oppose drilling always call for tapping this reserve when the prices go up. They just want to look like they are doing something to their voters.
Yep, and those same libs say we have to invest in renewable energy to solve the problem. That isn’t going to solve the problem, drilling and nuclear power will solve the problem and we already know how to do it.
Strategic reserves or oil fields in the gulf or ANWR?
President Obama held a press conference today to discuss rising gasoline and oil prices. Gasoline at the pump now costs an average of $3.50 per gallon nationwide, and experts project prices to eclipse $4 per gallon this year, possibly by the beginning of the summer driving season.
But instead of providing a solution that most of America wants -- more domestic drilling -- President Obama used his presser to recite misleading talking points to justify his anti-energy policies, arguments that have all been thoroughly debunked. Here are the three biggest myths from President Obama's remarks this afternoon:
* "We can't escape the fact that we control only 2% of the world's oil." This is a common refrain among anti-drilling Democrats and environmentalists, and it's repeated enough that many people accept it as true. In reality, it's 100% false. The number comes from a highly conservative estimate from the Energy Information Administration totaling America's proven reserves where we are already drilling. It does not include the 10 billion barrels available in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It does not include most of the 86 billion barrels available offshore in the Outer Continental Shelf, most of which President Obama has placed under an executive drilling ban. And it does not include the 800 billion barrels of oil we have locked in shale in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. Those shale resources alone are actually three times larger than the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia, so the claim that the U.S. only has 2% of the world's oil is clearly false.
* "Industry holds leases on tens of millions of acres both offshore and on land where they aren't producing a thing." President Obama adds to this whopper by saying he wants to "encourage companies to produce [on] the leases they hold." While this sounds like a common sense fix, it's actually just blind rhetoric reserved only for people with a shocking ignorance of drilling. You can read more about this here and here, but it basically boils down to this: A lease is for exploration and production, not just production, and because oil is not equally distributed across the globe, one parcel of leased acreage may not hold any oil. Moreover, due to the circuitous and needlessly complicated permitting process, it can take years for companies who own a lease to complete their exploration activities. To get to the production phase, it could take as long as ten years. Ironically, President Obama wants to tax companies for not producing on their leases, even if the federal government's refusal to grant permits is the reason why those companies are not drilling.
* "Last year...our oil production reached its highest level in 7 years." This is pure spin. President Obama is deliberately trying to take credit for actions unrelated to his policies. The increased level of production is due to the actions of previous administrations and production in the Dakotas where most drilling is occurring on private land. By contrast, the Energy Information Administration projects that there will be a decline in production of 220,000 barrels of domestic oil per day in 2011, and in 2012 America will produce 150 million fewer barrels in the Gulf of Mexico, all because of President Obama's policies to discourage or ban domestic drilling. In addition, President Obama's drilling moratorium (and subsequent refusal to issue drilling permits) has forced at least 7 rigs to leave the Gulf and sign contracts in other countries, taking much needed jobs and revenue with them.
As gas prices skyrocket, Americans are reminded every day that the federal government's refusal to allow responsible domestic drilling can have an incredibly destructive economic impact. Instead of trying to fix this problem, the Obama administration has worked every day to make sure that America produces less oil and has to rely more on OPEC for our energy needs.
No amount of White House spin or misleading talking points can change that tragic fact.
http://www.americansolutions.com/drill/2011/03/top-3-myths-in-obamas-lecture-on-gas-prices.php
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