Obama Calls Republicans Flat Earthers on Energy Policy

President Obama is feeling a bit defensive lately, what with the rising price of gas at the pump and the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans have awakened and blame him for our utter lack of a cohesive energy policy. No longer is he able to simply say that fossil fuels are the fuel of the past or that his green energy initiatives will save the day. Now he is challenged by those listening to his empty words presented solely for his re-election campaign efforts.

There is no there there.

A new report has been released which the House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings says is further proof that the actions of President Obama and his Energy Department have hindered, not helped, energy production for our country's needs.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings released the following statement after the Energy Information Administration, the non-partisan data collection branch of the Department of Energy, released updated data on federal energy production. The data shows President Obama’s anti-energy policies are starting to take effect as total fossil fuel production (oil, natural gas and coal) dropped by 7 percent since President Obama took office and is down 13 percent since 2003. From 2010 to 2011, total federal oil and natural gas production is down 14 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

The reported decline in federal energy production reveals America’s increasing reliance on oil and natural gas production from state and private lands. This increase can be attributed to regulations, red tape and President Obama’s policies that are driving production off of federal lands, which Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey recently admitted is happening.

“These non-partisan statistics show federal oil and natural gas productions are declining as President Obama’s anti-energy policies catch up with him. President Obama has been more than happy to take credit for his predecessors’ actions to advance energy production on federal lands, however, we know that while bringing federal oil and natural gas production online can take the better part of a decade, slowing production can happen relatively quickly.

“House Republicans have passed a bipartisan all-of-the-above energy plan that opens federal waters with the most known oil and natural gas resources to increase American energy production, create jobs, lower gasoline prices and make America more energy secure. If President Obama is truly interested in an all-of-the-above energy plan, he should abandon his policies that are strangling American energy production and embrace this bipartisan plan to help ease the pain at the pump that more American families are feeling every day.”

On the campaign trail Thursday, President Obama devolved into his standard campaign speech - mocking his critics and name calling Republicans. He called those who object to his continued non-existent energy policy while bestowing his cronies with fat government checks to experiment with green energy solutions part of the Flat Earth Society. Nice, huh?

President Obama blasted his Republican critics Thursday for their resistance to investing in alternative energy sources, comparing their stance to the beliefs of those who thought that Christopher Columbus would sail off the edge of the world.

In another in a series of speeches defending his energy policies, Obama touted his push for green energy growth — including wind and solar power, electric cars and biofuels — as a way to help wean the nation from a dependence on foreign oil. And he mocked his rivals for failing to embrace his ideas.

“If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they probably must have been founding members of the flat earth society. They would not believe that the world was round,” Obama told an enthusiastic crowd of hundreds of students at Prince George’s Community College in Largo. “Maybe they would have agreed with one of the pioneers of the radio who apparently said, ‘Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.’ ”

Obama’s remarks marked his latest attempt to win public support for what he calls an “all of the above” energy strategy aimed at boosting domestic production of oil and natural gas, while also improving auto efficiency and investing in green energy.

Some reaction from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal:

"I do want to start off with the president's comments. He has said there are no silver bullets many, many times and that is absolutely true but the reality is that we as a country should certainly at least be firing all the bullets we do have. We as Republicans do believe in an all-of-the-above strategy, unfortunately, this administration's actions today have contributed to rising energy prices.

"I want to go through several things the president in his administration could be doing differently to drive down the uncertainty in energy markets and also to increase domestic supply, therefore relieving pressure in prices, increasing our national security, making us less dependent on other countries. We certainly approve of an all of the above strategy but I want to focus on some of the things he's done when it comes to oil and gas, especially natural gas as well as coal, and things they could be doing differently.

"You look at 2011, the average price for the year for a barrel of oil and a gallon of gas it's higher than any time in a hundred and fifty years. That's bad for consumers; it's bad for the economy; it's bad for manufactures.

"The reality is you look at several things: one the president talked again today about how we're producing more energy, more oil today than any time in the last eight years. That's only half the story. What he doesn't say is that much of that production is based on decisions made before he became president. What he doesn't tell you is that much of that production is actually happening on non-federal lands, on private and other non-federal lands. The reality is when you look at the leasing activity, you look at the permitting activity, down here we're certainly impacted by both those policies. When you look at off-shore permitting, that process has slowed down even before the BP oil spill, but even today that permitting activity is still down 30% from the 3 year average, the historical norm prior to the spill. You look at onshore leasing, it is now down to the lowest amount since 1984 for leasing on federal lands for onshore drilling. So, the president likes to take credit for production that's due to decisions made before he took office. What he's not saying is the slowdown in granting permits, the slowdown in granting leases is helping to create uncertainty in the marketplace and again is contributing to the rising prices.

"There's clear bipartisan local support for additional domestic energy production. For example, in the Eastern Gulf, in Anwar, along certain parts of the Mid-Atlantic coast, at the very least the president should be telling his agencies to open new fields to allow more energy production in those areas..."

Here is the truth - Obama's claims of supporting an all of the above approach to energy independence is a hoax. He and his administration have clearly made it their mission to destroy the oil and gas industry in our country and concentrate solely on green energy sources.

There is no energy policy coming from Barack Obama. There is only political ideology. Think about that the next time you fill up your car or truck's gas tank.