In my E-Letter on Tuesday, I focused on the recent congressional decision to lift the ban on exports of US crude oil that has been in place for the last 40 years. In that discussion, I mentioned only briefly that President Obama opposed lifting the ban and only agreed to it after he won some major new environmental and renewable energy concessions.
While I reluctantly decided not to tackle Mr. Obama’s long-standing opposition to oil and gas in my latest E-Letter, I really do believe that most Americans (especially my readers) should know that this president has been dead wrong in his thinking and policy actions regarding oil and energy since he was inaugurated in early 2009, and even before.
President Obama and his “green energy” environmentalists have been warning for years that oil and gas usage on the planet is coming to an end. In typical, left-wing scare tactics, the Obama Administration has been urging all Americans and the rest of the world to “go green” with higher priced renewable energy sources. Why? Because oil and gas will be running out soon, and we won’t have gas to run our cars or oil to heat our homes.
In fact, it would be hard to find anyone in all of America who has been more wrong on the American energy story than President Obama.
Oil prices have fallen from $105 a barrel in the summer of 2014 to hovering just above $35 a barrel today. In many areas of the country, gas is now less than $2 a gallon and it could fall further in the weeks ahead (I saw gas at $1.59 on my way to work today). That’s a two-thirds reduction in the price, and the biggest factor is shale oil brought to us by “fracking,” which Mr. Obama opposes.
Our reserves of oil and natural gas are double or more than double what they were in 1945 as you can see in the chart below.
The collapse in oil prices over the last year-and-a-half has come as a result of enhanced drilling techniques and production increasing to record levels in the US and elsewhere. Yet Obama has downplayed and criticized these advancements for years.
During a 2011 weekly address he referred to oil and gas as “yesterday’s energy sources.” Earlier in 2010, he declared: “We’re running out of places to drill,” and he cynically jeered that the oil and gas industry might want to start drilling near the Washington Monument.
Even before he was elected, in a 2008 speech in Lansing, Michigan, presidential candidate Obama was all doom and gloom about oil, advising: “We cannot sustain a future powered by a fuel that is rapidly disappearing.”
More recently, during a speech at Georgetown University, Obama pontificated: “The United States of America cannot afford to bet our long-term prosperity, our long-term security on a resource [oil] that will eventually run out.”
And let us not forget that President Obama has steadfastly blocked oil and gas drilling on federal lands since he took office. According to Obama’s own Energy Information Administration, daily crude oil production from federal lands actually dropped between 2009 and 2013 (latest data available).
The above comments and points are but a few examples of how Mr. Obama has been dead wrong about oil, natural gas and energy in general. Yet he continued to lecture the nation on energy as if he were one of the top experts – that is until recently.
Even President Obama and his advisors eventually recognize when they are dead wrong on issues that matter a lot to the American people. Earlier this year, Obama changed his energy message significantly.
At the beginning of this year, Obama stopped making the claim that we have to use green energy because we are running out of oil. Instead he now says we should keep our super-abundance of oil “in the ground.” But does he mean for future use or permanently?
Not long after, the president began trying to take credit for today’s super low oil and gas prices. At a Democratic National Committee meeting on February 20, Mr. Obama crowed, “Today, America is number one in oil; number one in gas; and number one in wind power “ – as if his energy policies were somehow responsible. Nothing could be further from the truth!
So when you hear the president make such dishonest statements, just know that our oil and gas industry is the strongest and most innovative on the planet, and has succeeded beyond our expectations – despite Obama’s onerous energy policies.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!
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