President Barack Obama has continued his morphing into George W. Bush this week with a speech today calling for expanded oil drilling — a departure from his promise to focus on renewable energy. Tell me who this sounds like: “Producing more oil in America can help lower oil prices, can help create jobs and can enhance our energy security.”
This of course follows his controversial decision to open up the pristine areas on our East Coast to offshore drilling — just before the BP disaster. Then his Administration was accused of misleading the public on the “miracle” claimed by people like Carol Browner in the disappearance of the oil. Now, the Obama Administration is being criticized by the Coast Guard for its poor response to the spill. The latter story has largely been ignored by the mainstream media. The Coast Guard called the response “muted” — which sounds like a description that went back and forth among Administration officials with a Thesaurus in hand. I can see it now: “is there another word for “failure” or “negligent”? Something not so negative or comprehensible? . . . Hey how about ‘muted’?!”
This follows earlier reports criticizing the Administration for this response, which were also largely ignored.
Imagine what we could do with the $1 billion that we are about to spend in Libya alone in the development of renewable energy sources. We just literally burned it on the deserts of Libya — an oil rich nation which will turn around and sell us the oil that we need in the absence of renewable energy.
Source: Investers
Way OT but I didn’t know where else to post … further evidence that the Constitution loving teabaggers are just the smartest people in the room!
Eric Cantor rewrites the Constitution
According to the majority leader, House Republicans don’t need the Senate or the president to create new laws
By Andrew Leonard
AP/J. Scott Applewhite
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.Vice President Joe Biden says Democrats and Republicans are close to a deal on the budget. Speaker of the House John Boehner says no, we’re not. Blue Dog conservative Democrats and Nancy Pelosi are in agreement: Controversial political policy “riders” are going nowhere. But environmentalists are alarmed at an AP report citing a Democratic lawmaker’s assertion that the EPA is going to get squashed. And even as I write these words, a paltry band of Tea Partyers are holding a protest in Washington demanding that Republicans adhere to a no-compromise agenda.
With a week to go before the next shutdown deadline, confusion reigns, as usual. So please take any public statement by any politician, named or anonymous, with a freight train’s worth of salt. But the award for most preposterous posturing has to go to Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, who announced on Wednesday that on Friday the House will vote on a “Government Shutdown Prevention Act.”
From the Washington Post:
“What this bill says is it reiterates again the deadline, and that the Senate should act before the deadline, and that’s what the American people are expecting.” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Wednesday morning at a news conference with other House Republican leaders. “The bill then says if the Senate does not act, then H.R. 1 [the House-passed bill that cuts $61 billion] will be the law of the land. In addition to that, it says that if all else fails, and the Senate brings about a shutdown, then members should not get their pay.”
One of the very first things that House Republicans did after winning the midterm elections was to install a new set of “rules” to govern House business. Among those rules was a requirement that each new bill “cite its specific constitutional authority.”
It will be interesting to see whether Cantor bothers to follow this rule with the Government Shutdown Prevention Act. Because, according to the Constitution, for a bill to become “law of the land” it must be passed by both the Senate and the House and be signed by the president. Therefore, the Government Shutdown Prevention Act is unconstitutional, on its face.
True Tea Party patriots ought to be outraged.
Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21. More: Andrew Leonard
http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/03/31/eric_cantor_rewrites_the_constitution/index.html
“Industry: No such thing as ‘idle leases’”
“IF” what the industry is saying is true (and I take this with a BOULDER of salt), then why hang onto useless leases?
Being the skeptic I am, this is akin to the tobacco industry saying that cigarettes doesn’t cause lung cancer …
“This is like leasing an apartment from the government for $20 million dollars and the government refuses to give you the keys to the apartment – then the government proceeds to complain because you are not occupying the premises,” API’s Milito said.
Industry: No such thing as ‘idle leases’
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/03/31/industry-no-such-thing-as-idle-leases/
DigitalDave,
“Shit or get off the pot.”
I’ve always liked that saying … grand-mum’s a smart woman
It’s easy — just tax them as though they were pumping oil, even if they haven’t begun to drill. As my dear old grand-mum used to say, “Shit or get off the pot.”
I am not a proponent of natural gas. Just realize the republican house does not care about better alternatives as they do not believe that climate change is a reality. Obama is not a climate change denier.
“We need a peaceful regime change in the US.”
That’s what elections are for.
“Obama calls for deep cuts in U.S. oil imports
By Alister Bull and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON | Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:25pm EDT
Excerpt:
The U.S. Interior Department estimates millions of acres (hectares) of U.S. energy leases are not being exploited by oil companies and the White House wants that to change.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/us-obama-energy-idUSTRE72S3C820110330?pageNumber=2
——————————————————
I won’t hold my breath – I may die of suffocation …
Natural gas is quite dangerous to extract (see fracking). There is no reason to use either oil or gas as long term energy sources. There are excellent alternatives. In fact, a great deal of private financing is actually being invested in solar and wind.
We are ruled by corrupt people who do not care about most people or the earth. We must quit tolerating their malfeasance in office. We need a peaceful regime change in the US. This govt. is a prime mover on wars and environmental destruction for oil. It isn’t only people who matter, much of life on earth is a stake. Policies aren’t good because Democrats promote them. Policies are good or bad depending on their consequences. The consequences of this Democratic president’s decisions are catastrophic.
SL The House passed cap and trade when Pelosi was in charge.
Grand Oil Party: Doc Hastings Announces Fire Sale Of America To His Oil Overlords
Our guest blogger is Tom Kenworthy, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Announcing new drill-baby-drill legislation today, Chairman Doc Hastings of the House Natural Resources Committee and his GOP colleagues claimed that the failure to develop domestic oil reserves is contributing to the recent sharp increases in gas prices. However, even their hand-picked witnesses at recent show hearings, such as Richard Newell, administrator of the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, testified to the contrary:
Long term, we do not project additional volumes of oil that could flow from greater access to oil resources on Federal lands to have a large impact on prices given the globally integrated nature of the world oil market.
A new report by the Department of the Interior shows that the oil and gas industry has failed to develop the vast majority of the 34 million acres it has leased from the federal government in the Gulf of Mexico. Those areas are estimated to contain 11.6 billion barrels of oil and 59.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
In addition, the report documents that only about five percent of the nearly 53 million acres offered for lease in 2009 in the central and western Gulf was actually leased by industry. In 2010, the comparable figure was 6.4 percent.
The story is much the same when it comes to oil and gas development on federal onshore lands. The oil and gas industry has failed to explore or develop about 57 percent of the 38 million acres that it has leased from the federal government, according to the DOI report to the president. And the industry has taken a pass on leasing about 43 percent of the acreage offered to them over the last 26 months.
None of these facts seem to be reflected in Chairman Hastings’ three new pieces of legislation:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDzZk8Fk64Y&w=640&h=390]
The trio of bills introduced today would give industry more access to places to drill and would expedite processing of the industry’s permits. The bills do nothing to move along the process on the areas already leased. And they’re not about lowering gas prices; they’re designed to increase oil companies’ profits. Fallow oil leases bulk up oil companies’ proven reserves, a key asset class for their market valuation.
This giveaway doesn’t come as much of a surprise when you look at who supports Chairman Hastings and his Republican colleagues on the Committee. Combined, they have received more than $2.5 million in oil and gas contributions. That money has led to multiple hearings about more drilling and none on expanding renewable energy. According to Politico, Hastings is holding an invitation-only briefing for lobbyists on his legislation.
Chairman Hastings says that his bills will “save American jobs by preventing deliberate government inaction and bureaucratic stalling.” Perhaps he should hold a hearing to ask his friends in the oil and gas industry about their inaction and stalling
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/03/29/hastings-drilling-legislation/
A real winner in this energy bill is T.Boone Pickens and his plan to use natural gas as fuel for vehicles. We have plenty of natural gas and it is cleaner than oil.
actually its better and worse than I remembered. Its only 75% (better) but not being used at all (worse)
http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/two-thirds-of-oil-leases-in-gulf-not-1359671.html
I just read (sorry don’t have a link so take it with a grain of salt) that 80% of the oil leases the government has let are not even being explored. Its not like we need to let more.
BTW – Germany has a huge problem with their solar energy initiative. They are producing so much power from their solar arrays that it threatens to flood the system, they can’t handle it all.
I heard somebody say burn baby burn.
“I’m Barrack Obama and this message was brought to you by my corporate massa’s at Exxon, BP and Halliburton.”
Contrast with . . .
Spinning the Sun’s Rays Into Fuel
by Robert F. Service on 28 March 2011, 3:30 PM
found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/03/spinning-the-suns-rays-into-fuel.html?ref=hp
“ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA—Nearly all the energy we use on this planet starts out as sunlight that plants use to knit chemical bonds. Now, for the first time, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge have created a potentially cheap, practical artificial leaf that does much the same thing—providing a potentially limitless source of energy that’s easy to tap.
The new device is a silicon wafer about the shape and size of a playing card coated on either side with two different catalysts. The silicon absorbs sunlight and passes that energy to the catalysts to split water into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is a fuel that can be either burned or used in a fuel cell to create electricity, reforming water in either case. This means that in theory, anyone with access to water can use it to create a cheap, clean, and available source of fuel.
‘It’s spectacular,’ says Robert Grubbs, a chemist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who saw the presentation here yesterday at the biannual meeting of the American Chemical Society. ‘There’s still obviously a long way to go’ to make the new device into a rugged, real-world technology, Grubbs says. But the approach is important because its potential low cost could make it widely available. It ‘has a chance of being scalable,’ Grubbs says.”
“President Obama, would you sleep with me for one million dollar?” asked the Oil Industry.
“Well, Mr. Halliburton, I would have to think about that,” he demurred.
“How about 10 dollars then?” he asked.
Slapping him in the face, Obama retorted, “Dear sir, what do you think I am?”
The Oil Industry replied, “We have already determined what you are; now we are just negotiating the price.”
It seems a price has been settled upon.
Whore is as whore does, Barry.
Oil slips to near $104 after US crude supply jump….
Oil prices fell to near $104 a barrel Wednesday after a report showed U.S. crude supplies rose more than expected last week, suggesting rising fuel costs may be crimping demand.
Ya think…..