Posted on 02/25/2012 11:01:43 AM PST by CitizenM
President Obama has proclaimed himself helpless in the face of gasoline prices, which have doubled on his watch. He is just fated, apparently, to be a lousy president. Now that it is a little late to try to blame his predecessor, he is out of ammo. Today Senator Jeff Sessions tried to buck Obama up with a letter containing suggestions as to how the executive branch might take arms against a sea of rising gas prices, unemployment and poverty:
The Honorable Barack Obama
President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing today to urge your Administration to take overdue but necessary action to confront soaring gasoline prices. In the last three years, gas prices have doubled, draining the disposable income of millions of hardworking Americans. In 2011, the typical U.S. household already spent $4,155 on gasoline, almost 10 percent of their income. Yet some analysts now predict prices may rise this year to more than $5.00 per gallon.
In a speech this Thursday, you stated that “there are no quick fixes to this problem. You know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices.” While we should explore a variety of energy resources—most especially those which do not put taxpayer dollars at risk—I respectfully disagree that we cannot utilize our remarkably vast untapped energy reserves to provide Americans with much-needed relief. I reject the defeatist view that says the nation that won two world wars, pioneered space travel, and overcame the Soviet Empire is now helpless in the face of high prices at the pump. We are not at the mercy of dictators, cartels, and events beyond our control.
Simply by removing the bureaucratic barriers imposed by your own administration we can begin to make progress. But we can go much further than that. Powerful action to harness America’s untapped oil and gas resources would place downward pressure on prices and speculation in the short-run and, by surging global supply, would serve to keep prices low in the future. Crucially, it would also provide millions of Americans with good-paying private-sector jobs; produce substantial royalties for local, state, and federal governments; reduce our enormous trade imbalance; and put an end to our huge wealth transfer from America to competitors oversees.
I therefore recommend the following proposals for immediate implementation:
1. Restore the bipartisan 2010–2015 offshore lease plan to ensure that the 31 lease sales called for in that plan are completed expeditiously. Your Administration only directed one lease sale in 2011 and has announced just one lease sale for 2012, far short of the number of sales that would have occurred over this period under the original 2010–2015 plan that your Administration discarded.
2. Take all necessary steps to accelerate the leasing and permitting process for domestic shale oil production. The United States has recoverable shale oil reserves estimated at 800 billion to 1.2 trillion barrels, meaning our nation has potentially three to four times more recoverable oil than any other country in the world except Canada.
3. Maximize energy production from federal lands. As I and 21 other Senators noted in a January 25, 2012 letter to you, actual oil production on federal lands is now just 714 million barrels per year, a 16 percent decline from what was projected just five years ago. This decline must be reversed.
4. End the de facto moratorium on permitting for offshore oil and gas production.
5. Direct the EPA, the Department of Energy, and other federal agencies to grant all necessary waivers and approvals to oil and gas refineries to facilitate maximum production at minimum cost. Refinery expenses comprise 11 percent of the price for gasoline that Americans pay at the pump, but your Administration has imposed numerous regulations that have driven refining costs up, not down.
6. Abandon your proposal to increase taxes and fees levied on U.S. energy production by more than $40 billion. These additional costs would be passed along to consumers, taking money out of their pockets and discouraging needed domestic production.
7. Approve the Keystone XL pipeline and grant necessary waivers, licenses, and permits, where possible, to ensure expedited completion of this important North American energy project. The pipeline would carry 700,000 barrels a day to U.S. refineries, which is nearly half what the U.S. currently imports from the entire Middle East.
America has the potential to fundamentally shift the balance of power in global energy production—to produce more energy, more efficiently and more cheaply, than your Administration has recognized. Such bold steps will broadcast an unmistakable signal to the world that not only places downward pressure on prices in the near-term but helps deliver a future of abundant, affordable energy. Moreover, unlike costly short-term stimulus, achieving energy independence would provide long-term relief to both struggling families and our indebted treasury.
I look forward to working with you on this important matter.
Very truly yours,
Jeff Sessions
U.S. Senator
The sight of Barack Obama confessing impotence in the face of what is really a rather simple problem of supply and demand is pathetic. It used to be that only our enemies considered the United States a pitiful, helpless giant. Now our own president takes that view. November can’t come soon enough.
Recently his campaign sent out an email blaiming the Koch brothers for soaring gasoline prices.
Now in his recent statement he admits to being helpless to solve these rising prices at the pumps.
How anyone can think that a person who blames others, and then admits he is helpless is "leader quality" is beyond belief. With Obama it's everyone else's fault...or...He can't fix it. What a pitiful excuse for a president, and a sorry excuse for a man.
“A Rebuke to Our Rudderless President”
The title is bit misleading. He is firmly in control of the rudder that is steering the ship of state hard to port (left). His destination is a Marxist United States and he is getting us there at breakneck speed.
Not rudderless. Remember WAG THE DOG, the movie about the Clinton strategy? If you want to be prepared for news events this spring ... events that will dominate your political life... then watch it again. I have a strong suspicion that Chicago Mayor Rahm, his Hollyweird brother, and Axelrod are carefully scripting and casting WAG THE DOG II. Bill Ayers understands these protests and could be a consultant on the set. Listen to progressive talk radio supporting both Obama and OCCUPY CHICAGO during the G8 Summit in Chicago and you will get a glimpse of the game plan/the conspiracy/the strategy/the script.
Rahm and Obama host the G8 Summit in Chicago in May. OCCUPY CHICAGO will be their extreme selves. But actually only a small number of pre-selected people agreed to by the police and demonstrators will do the symbolic extreme acts and get arrested. Obama will then come out with a position that he is against the extremists in the movement. He will lump the OCCUPY CHICAGO extremists together with the Tea Party “extremists”. Obama will try to claim the center. Rahm, Stephanopolous and all the media will then claim that anyone who does not support Obama is an extremist. You will see orchestrated support from Oprah and movie stars and DJs on FM and all kinds of people. It will be Obama’s SISTER SOULJAH that will out do anything Clinton did.
Unless someone exposes it and explains it ahead of time, it will be nearly impossible to discredit by those who react after the fact. Our side needs to understand that it is not a conspiracy, it is just a well run campaign.
This is just a suspicion based on what I see and hear. But I suggest you, and your friends BE PREPARED. Better to be prepared and it not happen than to be caught offguard.
The Won is not “rudderless”; he does everything the barbarians on the other end of his Blackberry tell him to do.
When they tell him to “jump”, he asks “How high?” on the way up.
Don’t forget that Obama complains that ‘the job is hard’ and he doesn’t much like it.
Apparently he thought all he had to do was throw parties, vacation, and have a blast on the taxpayer dollar.
Someone in his campaign should have mentioned that there was ‘work’ involved with the job, because he certainly seems surprised about it.
I saw the crap about the Koch brothers. Is there a list somewhere of all the people and groups who are responsible for everything that has happened in the last 3 years?
Put that list next to him saying ‘the buck stops here’.
What a liar he is.
8. End the mandate forcing refiners to produce “boutique blend” gasoline.
These are common sense examples of how to get out of the oil problem, It should have included calling off the EPA from killing coal electrical plants and coal mines.
But lets just remember that what we have in reality is exactly what Obama has been working to bring about. $5.00 gasoline and skyrocketing electric bills. He said it plain and simple. He cannot deny that this is what he promised us.
It will destroy our economy, but how can we say that isn’t why he is doing it. It’s deliberate destruction. He has the Democrats backing him in it.
How Got Damned stupid can those who vote for this CS be?
Jeff Sessions is the best member of Congress! Great on Illegal immigration too.
How stupid? Very stupid.
My militant gay sister has Obama stickers all over her car yet he has done nothing for the gays that he promised to do.
Oh that’s right, he needs another 5 years of evolving on the gay marriage thing.
It’s amazing and very very frightening.
Sen. Sessions brilliant letter, sadly left out a very important point. Utilizing the astonishingly vast energy resources of the United States, oil from all its sources, natural gas, half the world’s total supply of coat, awesome hydro power generation and nuclear power would turn the world upside down.
Also, the building of the pipe line would furnish to us a supplier, closely tied with, allied with, and FRIENDLY to this country.
The many countries, tyrants and dictators who rejoice in hating and loathing the United States would at once lose their power to interfere with the American economy.
The middle eastern countries and those in our hemisphere who critically RELY for their very existence on their diminishing supplies of fossil fuels, could then be invited to use their oil themselves. Put it on their breakfast Cheerios maybe. The question is what do THEY have without the oil revenues? Lots and lots of sand.
Ending the EPA mandates for “Boutique Blends” of gasoline would be the single best thing that could be done today to smooth out prices. Right now refiners aren’t able to shift gasoline to where it’s needed because the blend might be wrong for the area experincing the shortage. The result: some areas have a mini-glut that is reflected in low prices, while other areas are experiencing tight supply with the opposite effect.
You slander empty suits everywhere....
For Obama is not merely an empty suit, he is actually occupying an alternate universe, and his presence is a singularity event horizon which is sucking all the substance out of our universe.
All the while adding absolutely nothing to that alternate universe, either.
I believe the President has done a lot for Gays.
He has done away with DADT in the military which will end in a lot of problems, as gays get more and more aggressive.
He has a lot of Gays in his adminsitration, he appointed two Lesbians to the Supreme Court.
bttt
Someone in his campaign should have mentioned that there was ‘work’ involved with the job, because he certainly seems surprised about it.
Haven't you heard, he does do work - his aides give him policy prescriptions in the form of check-off boxes, and he puts checks in the boxes next to the policies he approves of! No, really!
Something along the lines of ...your pencil-necked, pathetic azz needs to resign and let Plugs have a go at 'er.
We have two republican senators and Senator Sessions is the best of the two. I don’t care much for Shelby. The ex-dim who switched to get himself elected.
Very truly yours,
Jeff Sessions
U.S. Senator
$10 says Obama won’t even see this letter.
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