Obama Offers Misleading Statements and Campaign Politics Instead of Viable Energy Policy

The Campaigner in Chief just can't stop repeating the same phony election year rhetoric no matter how absurd he appears!

Ask your Obama loving friends this question: How many years of domestic supply of oil exist in the United States?

A. Less than 20 years.
B. Less than 50 years.
C. Less than 100 years.
D. More than 100 years.

If they answer anything but D they have likely been listening to Obama's speeches on energy. On Thursday Obama gave yet another energy speech to a hastily assembled crowd at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. For this handpicked audience he got the crowd all fired up with the same recycled rhetoric he has used on countless other occasions.

He repeated his now famous "no silver bullet" solution line. It's one he has used over and over and over again (see the video). You'd think he could come up with some new material but apparently repetition is easier for Obama than actually coming up with effective policy to address critical challenges like high gas prices.

Once again, Obama claimed that his Administration has opened up vast new areas for oil exploration but ignores the fact that agencies under his control have slow walked permit approval to the point where energy companies are handcuffed in their search for new resources. Behind the scenes, the Obama Administration is doing everything they can to restrict development of new petroleum resources. The fact is that the only area in which U.S. production of energy is growing is in the private sector where government is less of a factor.

Next Obama launches into his favorite milieu, the setting up of phony straw men arguments that are designed to make his critics appear ridiculous even though no one is actually suggesting what he is saying. Here's an excerpt:

So do not tell me that we’re not drilling. (Applause.) We’re drilling all over this country. (Applause.) I guess there are a few spots where we’re not drilling. We’re not drilling in the National Mall. (Laughter.) We’re not drilling at your house. (Laughter.) I guess we could try to have, like, 200 oil rigs in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.

But this straw man is just the set up for a whopper that Obama is doubling down on in speech after speech. The latest version:

There’s a problem with a strategy that only relies on drilling and that is, America uses more than 20 percent of the world’s oil. If we drilled every square inch of this country -- so we went to your house and we went to the National Mall and we put up those rigs everywhere -- we’d still have only 2 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. Let’s say we miss something -- maybe it’s 3 percent instead of 2. We’re using 20; we have 2.

Saying we only have 2% of world reserves is misleading. It gives the impression that we have very little oil when the fact is we have more than Saudi Arabia. Obama's own Energy Information Agency (EIA) describes known reserves this way: "proved reserves are an accounting concept that is based on known projects and is not an appropriate measure for judging total resource availability in the long-term." Perhaps the EIA needs to send the White House a note on the subject.

The Washington Post Fact Checker couldn't bring themselves to say Obama lied about U.S. oil resources. But in a rather tortured explanation they found his claims to be "True but False." Sort of like Dan Rather's "fake but accurate?"

Investor's Business Daily put it all in perspective with this story and the following chart:

American oil use has leveled off at somewhat less than 20 million barrels per day. With TRILLIONS of barrels in petroleum resources we have a supply that can last for hundreds of years. Plenty of time to develop Obama's favorite alternative, algae, as a long term replacement. That is unless by then we are all flying spaceships using air for fuel.

For Obama, Gas Price is a Political Football

One last point from Obama's speech:

OBAMA: And every time prices start to go up -- especially in an election year -- politicians dust off their 3-point plans for $2.00 gas. (Laughter.) I guess this year they decided, we're going to make it $2.50. (Laughter.) I don't know where -- why not $2.40? (Laughter.) Why not $2.10? (Laughter.) But they tell the same story. They head down to the gas station; they make sure a few cameras are following them -- (laughter) -- and then they start acting like we've got a magic wand and we will give you cheap gas forever if you just elect us. (Laughter.) Every time. Been the same script for 30 years. It's like a bad rerun. (Laughter.)

Obama's "bad rerun"

From a 2008 campaign event in Kokomo Indiana:

Candidate Obama Uses Kokomo, Indiana gas station as campaign prop in 2008. Check out the sign. Gas then was $3.55. At the same station now gas is over $3.80

"Everywhere I go in Indiana and across this country, I'm talking to folks who are working harder and harder just to get by," said Obama.

"We need a president who's looking out for families in Indiana, not just what's good for multi-national corporations. And that's the kind of president I intend to be," said Obama.

"At a time when our economy is in turmoil and wages are stagnant, hardworking families are struggling to meet rising costs, and few costs are rising faster than the ones people pay at the pump," he said.

Now, four years later America's "struggling families" already reeling from record sustained high unemployment are paying even higher prices for gas than four years ago when Obama used Joe's Junction gas station as a campaign prop. And since taking office, Obama's policies have made the situation MUCH WORSE!