President Obama is playing defense over his disastrous lack of a coherent energy policy. While it is not fair to blame any president for the price of gas at the pump, solely, it is fair to criticize all presidents when there is no viable energy policy that will allow America to travel on a path to energy independence. There is no quick response but if decisions are made and followed through, the results will be felt down the line. That is what we see now with the amount of drilling and production in the oil and gas industry today. It is not thanks to Barack Obama, these barrels of oil being produced domestically, it is despite him.
Now that President Obama is on the campaign trail and appearing in the crucial swing states, suddenly oil and gas production has no better friend than Barack Obama. Though he is famous for saying such silly statements as drilling will not decrease gas prices and that oil and gas are the fuels of the past, he must try to convince voters that he has something other than windmills and solar panels. Or algae. While there is nothing wrong with pursuing research and development of "green" energy, the fact is that none of the alternative energy sources are capable of making a dent in our energy needs now and will not be for the foreseeable future.
Hope is not a policy.
One campaign stop Thursday was in Oklahoma, a state that will play a part in the southern part of the Keystone Pipeline project. This is the part that Obama is now making speeches about in these swing states and trying to take credit for approval of the southern part of the pipeline project moving forward. He is stretching the truth on his involvement, to put it kindly.
Republicans have cast Obama’s visit here as a political play by the president to head off backlash from the Keystone XL decision. Officials from TransCanada, the company behind the project, have said that Obama’s call for a faster review would not alter the timeline.
The southern leg of the project is awaiting final permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the company plans to break ground on it as early as June. Republicans have said Obama should focus on the project’s other stages, where the administration will be decisive.
If it benefits him in any way, the president does enjoy providing a shell game for the voter and his campaign audiences. The fact is, this segment of the pipeline was going forward and President Obama had no control over the process. What he did have control over was the northern section of the pipeline and the agreement with Canada. You may remember he made a great show of vetoing that and caving into bogus claims from his radical environmental left supporters in this election year. Never mind that three studies have been completed on the environmental effects of the pipeline and all have come to the conclusion that it can be safely done.
There are pipelines all across our country. The technology is there.
The president has no energy policy, only political ideology. He now reverts to the standard liberal Democrat position of taxation to help solve our problem at the pump - he wants to increase taxes on oil and gas companies. This is further proof the man does not understand how the economics of energy work. After three years in the office, after being touted as the smartest man ever to hold the office, one would think that he would have some understanding of how the energy sector works by now.
The southern section of the Keystone Pipeline will continue on. It is, however, despite the actions of Barack Obama, not because of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment