More than 30 oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico have been investigated and found to be in compliance with federal regulations on safety. However due to the one well that we all know poured oil into the Gulf of Mexico no wells, even though given a green light by the feds, will be allowed to drill. Where’s the logic in that?
Judge Martin Feldman, who overturned the administration’s moratorium on deep water drilling ruled last month that the government must act on five applications within 30 days, along with two additional permits. But the Obama administration has appealed the judge’s order. We’re staring at $4.00/gallon gas any day, and the Obama administration wants to starve us of our limited reserves. Why?
The government filed court documents late Friday saying it may have to deny the applications if regulators must make a decision within 30 days as ordered. But the administration has revealed that all the oil wells involved were cleared by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement; so why the resistance?
The government has been leaking, throughout the week, that it may be open to releasing oil from the Strategic Oil Reserves. There seems to be a huge sense of confusion going on within the Obama administration. Economists say that for every penny increase in the price of gasoline $13 billion dollars is extracted from the economy. As tenuous as the situation is in the economy at this time, it seems to make absolutely no sense to not pull out all the stops to at least control the soaring oil prices. Tapping the oil reserves makes sense, but then so does opening up the spigots on U.S. resources.
As I stated in a prior piece, the old canard that the U.S. only has 3% of the proven oil reserves in a complete falsehood spread by eco-terrorists that want us off all carbon-based fuels. It’s the Al Gore rule: if you can’t change the behavior of the public to suit your agenda, hit them in their wallets until they can no longer bear it. Obama himself said several years ago, that it was necessary for fuel prices to skyrocket in order to change the behavior of the American Public. Is the unrest in the Middle-east giving the Obama administration the weapon to use against the people?
Sales of the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf have been anemic to say the least. We are at least a decade away from the infrastructure necessary to make electric vehicles practical. And until a Chevy Volt can be produced for $25,000 rather than $40,000 adoption of the technology will be pathetic.
Those who say, “All of the above,” in respect to energy policy, need to stand up and be heard once again. Perhaps the Tea Party needs to broaden their agenda beyond budget concerns into the area of energy management. The two issues are very closely related. Everything we purchase travels via carbon burning vehicles, be they trucks or trains. As fuel prices soar so does the cost of everything from bread to blenders. As those prices go up, the number of products sold sinks, fewer jobs producing those products are created, or jobs are eliminated, and tax revenue to the government suffers.
It would almost appear as the President is committing political suicide by cutting off domestic resources, but will drain the reserve (which must be replaced) for a short-term gain. In the end, if the price of a barrel of oil tops $150, he will pay the ultimate price as the economy takes another downturn, unemployment rises again and his re-election chances become dimmer.
Has Obama decided that making irreversible changes to the country is more important than his re-election? Would you consider voting for a man who stood by and watched as gasoline prices shot past $5.00/gallon and didn’t do everything in his power to avoid the likely economic tsunami to follow? Is he asleep at the wheel or simply plowing ahead with an agenda to force us off of carbon-based fuels?
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