Posted on 10/14/2011 6:17:30 AM PDT by thackney
Gov. Rick Perry is set to unveil an energy plan for the country today that he says will unleash 1.2 million jobs while unlocking America’s oil, gas and coal resources.
“We’re sitting on a treasure trove of energy in this country,” Perry said on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” Thursday night. “There’s 300 years worth of reserves underneath the land of America, and that’s how we’re going to get America working again.”
Perry is set to reveal more details during an 11:30 a.m. Central event at a steel plant in West Mifflin, Pa. But the Republican presidential hopeful has already made clear that the energy proposal is the cornerstone of his plan for reviving the U.S. economy.
“Americans want to hear a conversation about who is going to get this country back working again,” Perry said on NBC’s “Today Show” this morning. “We’ve got to get this country focused on getting back to work, and we’re laying out a plan that does that.”
If elected, Perry has promised to use his first 100 days in the White House to roll back Obama administration policies he says have “curtailed energy production,” including “job-killing” regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
He also has vowed to expand oil and gas drilling by allowing development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and along the Atlantic Coast. In a Union-Leader op-ed, Perry also insisted that “we can create hundreds of thousands of jobs and increase our oil output by 25 percent if we fully develop oil and gas shale formations in the Northeast, mountain West and Southwest.”
Perry has repeatedly stressed that his energy goals can be imposed swiftly and unilaterally — without any sign-off by Congress.
But a statutory ban blocks drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Although lawmakers got rid of a statutory moratorium blocking drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in 2008, a federal law still bars that exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico through 2022.
And much of the nation’s shale gas resources are on state — not federal — lands, limiting how much power any president would have to spur production there. For instance, New York residents and policy makers have been divided over how — and whether — to allow natural gas drilling of the Marcellus Shale in that state.
Before the 2010 oil spill, President Barack Obama was on track to sell oil and gas drilling leases along the Atlantic seaboard and in Arctic waters near Alaska. But he has since reversed course, and his Interior Department is now finalizing a 2012-2017 leasing plan for the outer continental shelf that does not include auctions of those areas.
The Obama administration has pledged to sell leases in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve by the end of this year — responding to criticisms from congressional Republicans and industry leaders that the 23-million acre territory has gone untapped for too long.
Perry is including development of the ANPR in his energy plan.
Although presidents enjoy wide latitude to decide what federal lands and waters should be auctioned off for oil and gas development, there are legal constraints on the process. For instance, federal law requires offshore lease sales be included in a broader outer continental shelf lease plan before those auctions can take place. The current plan expires June 30 next year, after two more auctions of Gulf of Mexico leases.
Under a federal law known as the National Environmental Policy Act, the government is also required to study the environmental implications of proposed sales before those auctions can take place. Skipping those studies could invite lawsuits that might delay exploration for months, if not longer.
That’s exactly the kind of problem that snagged the government’s 2008 sale of nearly 500 leases to drill in the Chukchi Sea near Alaska. After conservationists and native Alaskan organizations successfully challenged the sale as invalid — because sufficient environmental studies weren’t done beforehand — a federal district court ordered the government to redo those assessments. Obama’s Interior Department just decided to uphold those leases earlier this month, clearing the way for Shell Oil Co., and other companies to pursue drilling in the Arctic waters.
Perry brushed aside those legal challenges today and insisted he could reproduce Texas’ “tort reform” efforts on the national stage.
“I’m not sure that you have to have that type of legal system that locks down the opening up of our federal lands and waters,” he said on the “Today Show.”
Perry is also hammering on a popular theme among Republican presidential hopefuls in targeting the Environmental Protection Agency and regulations it has issued or is proposing that govern pollution from power plants, refiners and industrial facilities. He accuses the Obama administration of “being in bed with the environmental activists” and imposing ever-higher regulatory barriers that are killing jobs.
Perry said he would swiftly “pull back all of the job-killing regulations that this administration has sent forward . . . in conjunction with an activist environmental community working hand in hand with this administration.”
Environmentalists say Perry’s energy plan is a dangerous continuation of the “Drill, baby, drill” motto and politics that dominated the 2008 election.
Daniel J. Weiss, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said that in going after jobs tied to oil and gas exploration and rolling back environmental regulations, Perry would be thwarting promising jobs tied to clean energy.
“Gutting health safeguards from air pollution . . . is a recipe for more premature deaths and hospitalizations, with few additional jobs and no investment in the fast-growing clean tech sector,” Weiss said. “The Perry petroleum plan looks backwards by reviving the Bush-Cheney plan developed in secret with big oil companies rather than providing a path to cleaner, more efficient energy production and consumption.”
Speaking at a Politico event this morning, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson warned against proposals to undo environmental regulations.
“Poll after poll shows that’s not where the American people are,” she said. “They do not believe that jobs are tied to weakening environmental protections and taking the environmental cop off the beat.”
I made a point to watch that this morning.
Perry didn't do too badly and laid a lot of blame at the feet of the EPA.
It's was good to hear.
Yeah that's turned out so well.
“Poll after poll shows that’s not where the American people are,” she said. “They do not believe that jobs are tied to weakening environmental protections and taking the environmental cop off the beat.”
BS Everyone has an invested interest in clean air but not taking away Americas energy sources and proven jobs, not some lame brain algore schemes. They just need to be tweaked.
Perry has performed poorly in debates; to defend himself regarding his Texas in state tuition for illegals, he resorted to school yard tactics by saying those who disagreed were heartless. He could not give a convincing argument, but merely resorted to name calling. The man has shown again and again, that his thoughts run shallow, though he may have a big heart. Of course, Obama never had to explain Hope and Change, but then again, things work differently for the liberal than they do the conservative... maybe that's why Perry is having a hard time... he was once a Democrat.
I don't disagree with any of this what I have a problem with is that this is an energy policy not an economic policy. As Zero expected all his “shovel ready” spending to pull the country out of the slide we are in Perry is playing energy the same way.
Drilling rigs, refineries, skilled work force, pipelines etc it's not in place and will take years. The idea oil and Gas gushing out of every corner of the country is something I want to see.
What happens if we could pump 20 or 22 million bbl a day and fill all our needs. What happens to the price of oil when the millions of bbl’s from Canada and Mexico are no longer needed, they're going someplace.
It seems a little more complicated then “Drill baby drill.
And among the desirable outcomes of drilling in the USA, the price of oil per barrel could cause economic chaos and collapse in IRAN. Get oil below $75 per barrel and Iran has big problems.
One way to defeat Iran without war.
That second part is true that it will take years to build up. But I think you need to acknowledge those many years of building up is a lot of jobs and an important part of the economic policy of moving forward.
In the oil/gas/refining industries, there are a lot more jobs in construction of a facility than operating it in the following years.
If you stop and think about it, the cost of energy directly effects the cost of everything. Whether it is a business' overhead, an employee's commute, or a person at home.
You can look at the cost of energy as an unseen tax. It drives or hinders our economy. In addition, energy independence makes our country more secure.
It is a little more complicated, as you say. However, reducing energy costs and making this country independent of market manipulation--should get the ball rolling.
Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat. Do you have a point?
Yeah, that worked out so well with the Solandra clean energy project. The terms "clean energy" or "green jobs" should be banned. I know a solar panel project here that was paid for by tax dollars that puts out zero volts because the panels were laid too flat. BUT, the employees have nice and expensive carports to park under now.
World of difference between the two... Reagan could string together words without sputtering. As to once being a Democrat, that was mere sarcasm, relating to the fact that Perry could not make a convincing argument for his position but rather tried to make his opposition look small (democrat playbook)... get the point now? gees, gotta spell everything out for you guys?
I think Perry’s strategy to focus on energy is to get Palin’s endorsement, which could catapult him to the presidency. Mitt got Christie, Perry gets Sarah.
It’s the RINOs vs. the Tea Partiers. Establishment vs. Conservatives. Politicians vs Constitutionalists. Big Governmentist vs. the Federalists.
ROFL...Seriously? YOU DO realize that Cain was once a democrat, or I guess not.
you still don’t get it...OWMO
Texas Dream Act is not conservative, no matter how you look at it...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.