Cause and Effect: How Obama's Energy Policy Goes Hand in Glove with Higher Gas Prices

And Obama's only new solution is to do research on pond scum!

In a speech Thursday in Miami Florida Obama recycled once again all the excuses he could muster to say that high gas prices are not his fault. That fact that he's repeated these false and misleading statements over and over again does not make them any more true this time.

House Speaker John Boehner put together the following graphic along with links to examples of how Obama has done his best to choke off efforts to bring new supplies of energy to market that would help alleviate gas prices.

Run your cursor over the points on the graph for more info...

Running on Empty
House Speaker John Boehner's Blog
February 24, 2012
In yesterday’s speech defending his failed energy policies – under which gas prices have nearly doubled and are rising faster than ever – President Obama called for the kind of “all of the above” energy strategy long-championed by Republicans. But far from supporting “all of the above,” the Obama administration has spent more than three years blocking efforts to expand energy production and bring down gas prices, while pushing job-crushing tax hikes and taxpayer-backed loans to companies like Solyndra.

The president even sought to pin the blame for rising prices elsewhere, citing instability in the Middle East as one example. But as this chart shows, the Obama administration simply hasn’t focused on reducing our dependence on foreign energy. In fact, energy production on federal lands has dropped by 11 percent.
While these represent only a fraction of the Obama administration’s efforts to stifle new energy production, here’s a look at some of the key data points from above:

• FEBRUARY 4, 2009 – Just months after President Obama’s Energy Secretary said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” the Obama administration begins “scrapping leases for oil-shale development” and cancels 77 leases for oil and gas production in Utah. Gas is $1.91 a gallon.

• MARCH 7, 2009 – ABC News says the White House is closely monitoring the expedited Solyndra loan project even as it was delaying new American energy production that would help make us less dependent on foreign energy. Gas is $1.94 a gallon.

• JUNE 27, 2009 - President Obama urges the Senate to adopt House Democrats’ “cap and trade” national energy tax, the same one the president once admitted would cause electricity rates to “necessarily skyrocket.” Then-GOP Leader Boehner later said the bill “would raise electricity prices, increase gasoline prices, and ship American jobs to countries like China and India.” Gas is $2.50 a gallon.

• JANUARY 7, 2010 – The Obama administration announces new bureaucratic hurdles to American energy production that Secretary Salazar admitted “could add delays to the leasing and drilling process.” Gas is $2.67 a gallon.

• MARCH 31, 2010 – Instead of opening new areas to energy exploration and development, President Obama blocks deep-ocean energy production on 60 percent of America’s Outer Continental Shelf. Gas is $2.80 a gallon.

• DECEMBER 1, 2010 – The president re-imposes and expands the moratorium on offshore energy production. Gas is $2.86 a gallon.

• JANUARY 2, 2011 – TIME reported that the Obama administration issued the first in a series of regulations on January 2 designed to unilaterally impose a national energy tax. Gas is $3.05 a gallon.

• MAY 5, 2011 – The White House issues a formal statement opposing House-passed Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act (H.R. 1230) and Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act (H.R. 1229), legislation designed to jumpstart American energy production, address rising gas prices, and help create new jobs. Gas is $3.96 a gallon.

• JUNE 21, 2011 - The White House opposes the House-passed Jobs & Energy Permitting Act that would unlock an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Gas is $3.65 a gallon.

• NOVEMBER 8, 2011 – The Obama Administration releases a plan for a five-year moratorium on offshore energy production, placing “some of the most promising energy resources in the world off-limits,” according to the House Natural Resources Committee. Gas is $3.42 a gallon.

• JANUARY 18, 2012 – President Obama rejects the bipartisan Keystone XL pipeline and the more than 20,000 jobs that would come with it. Gas is $3.39 a gallon, and rising faster and earlier than ever before.

• And the list goes on.

Republicans are working to address high prices and create new jobs by removing government barriers to energy production and stopping policies that drive up costs. You can “like” the American Energy Initiative on Facebook and learn more about the GOP Plan for America’s Job Creators at jobs.GOP.gov.

More facts from the House Natural Resources Committee:

• Obama Administration policies are NOT responsible for increased energy production. President Obama is trying to take credit for previous Presidents Clinton and Bush’s pro-energy policies. The President is also failing to mention that the vast majority of increased production is occurring on private lands, not public. For example, North Dakota alone produced almost 16 million barrels of oil in January 2011, compared to only a little more than 2 million in January 2002. The majority of North Dakota’s production is on state and private land where the Obama Administration’s restrictive policies cannot hinder production. Any increase in oil and natural gas production is happening in spite of, not because of, President Obama’s energy policies.
• Last year, the Obama Administration released a new draft offshore drilling five-year lease plan that CLOSES the majority of the OCS to new energy production through 2017. There is LESS offshore acreage open for energy production now than there was when President Obama took office when nearly 100% of the OCS was open for production. The Administration’s draft five-year plan prohibits offshore drilling in NEW areas and only allows lease sales to occur in the Gulf of Mexico and parts of the Arctic, areas that are already open.
• President Obama’s budget shows DECLINING revenue from offshore drilling. According to the President’s own FY 13 budget proposal, in 2011, the federal government collected $1 billion in OCS rents and bonuses from lease sales. In 2012—the last year of the current five year plan, the budget anticipates collecting over $2 billion in rents and bonuses. In the first year of President Obama’s five year plan, rents and bonuses fall by 58 percent to only $852 million. By the last year of President Obama’s five year plan, the government is only collecting $569 million—a 72 percent drop from 2012 anticipated returns.
• Obama Administration has BLOCKED energy production on federal lands. The total onshore acreage leased under the Obama Administration in 2009 and 2010 is the lowest in over two decades, stretching back to at least 1984. Under the Obama Administration, 2010 had the LOWEST number of onshore leases issued since 1984.

Despite Obama's repeated attempt to suggest that drilling won't solve the problem, A November 2010 study from the Congressional Research service shows just how much untapped oil and gas potential exists within the U.S.:

With the U.S. using approximately 7 billion barrels of oil per year, we have enough supply to last for decades as we transition to viable "green" alternatives using market forces, not uneconomical government subsidies.

Obama All In for Pond Scum

The big news from Obama's speech was the initiative to replace lost oil production with algae. Democrats who constantly point to the 5 year lag time in bringing new oil resources online (far less in many situations) haven't yet chimed in to remind the President that any such plan for using algae would take far longer to implement and may not be as economic and feasible as the readily available oil.

Charles Krauthammer had his unique take on it all:

"I was impressed by the president's analysis of this situation where we have no control over the global price of oil," Charles Krauthammer said. "We're dependent on oil from unfriendlies. And he says, as we heard, drilling for oil to relieve our dependency is not a solution, it's not a plan. He said we have to go to clean energy. He talks about something really revolutionary today. Algae. A $14 million grant for the development of algae. It's not oil. His solution is algae. And because we know that the Secretary of Energy is physicist that won the Nobel Prize, the president knowing this stuff said that one of the reasons we should do this is because we can grow algae here in the United States."

"Now, it happens that algae will grow on anywhere on earth. I looked it up while I was away for those three days. You thought I was sunning myself. I did research. It grows in oceans, in lakes and ponds, in your swimming pool when the pool man is on vacation. In snow, in ice, on soil, on turtles, on sloths, the bark of trees and rocks. Why are we drilling for oil? We are the Saudi Arabia of rocks. We have a mountain range called the Rockies and we are allowing ourselves to be dominated by these oil producers. I think he's on to something here that is truly revolutionary. Why would you build a pipeline, the Keystone pipeline with real oil from Canada to put in real refineries and put in real existing cars when you can do algae? I think he is on to something. And I think this shows the vision, the hope and change he promised in 2008."

"Tongue out of cheek," host Bret Baier joked.

"I'm sorry that I brought the level of discussion so low," Krauthammer joked back.

Krauthammer then took Charles Lane to task after the opinion columnist tried to make the case that domestic energy creation has increased under Obama.

"Obama argues against oil because he's right, it's not going to happen overnight. But conservatives and Republicans have argued for 25 years to open up the Arctic. And what do Democrats argue in the '80s and the '90s and the last decade? 'Oh, it will take three years or five.' Well, that was quarter century ago and they blocked it every year. The Clinton administration stopped it every year. And still today, after a quarter of a century, 'Oh, it's not going to happen tomorrow.' Of course not. But there is a history here of reducing domestic production in the United Sates. And that's the reason we're in the hole we are.

"Well, Charles it is a fact that thanks to North Dakota domestic production of oil in the United States has risen in Obama's term. Maybe he didn't do anything to help it but while he was there it went up," Charles Lane said to Krauthammer in an attempt to size him up.

"But why deny the opportunity to double and triple that increase?" Krauthammer shot back.

"I don't know that there's a policy ready in hand to make it happen," Lane answered.

"How about the Arctic Wildlife Refuge? How about drilling on continental coast of the Atlantic or the Pacific? All these are shut down by the Democrats," Krauthammer reminded Lane.

"Well, look, there some Republican governors who have been around called Jeb Bush who weren't crazy about drilling off of Florida either," Lane said.

"Crazy or not, the regulations are made in Washington," Krauthammer said.

It is an undeniable FACT that we have enough fossil fuel resources in North America to be completely independent from overseas producers. The money from American oil and gas could stay in the U.S. and provide jobs and fuel our economy and provide tax revenue and royalites to the government for decades to come. The FACT that Obama is doing everything he can to limit U.S. production means he deserves the blame for higher gas prices and our dependence on overseas oil!