Free Republic

Energy: The Government Accountability Office tells Congress the Green River Formation out West contains an "amount about equal to the entire world's proven oil reserves." So why are we keeping it locked up on federal lands? Exploding the Big Lie pushed by President Obama that we can't drill our way out of high gas prices because we have but 2% of the world's proven oil reserves, Anu Mittal, GAO director of natural resources and environment, testified before Congress last week that just one small part of the U.S. is capable of outproducing the rest of the planet. That small part...

Democrats on Capitol Hill slammed the Bush administration yesterday over the escalating cost of gasoline as Republican leaders asked the White House to investigate charges of price gouging by the major oil companies. “The same Bush administration that so tragically bungled the response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has now bungled its way to $3-per-gallon gasoline,” Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, said yesterday. “Now it’s clear to anyone who fills up at a gas pump that this administration is also failing in its approach to energy.”

Barack Obama has been promising a green future since before he was president. While we might one day be powered by renewable energy, there's no reason to rush it. Fossil fuels are still abundant, reliable and cheap. Roughly 85% of our domestic energy is provided by fossil fuels. They generate more than 96% of the energy used in transportation and about 67% of the electricity we consume. Despite promises and commands from the Obama administration — the president pledged in 2009 to cut oil consumption 35% by 2030, for instance — these ratios aren't going to change much in coming...

Pushed by Barack Obama’s naked attempts to destroy our economy Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made up his mind: he will look west to China when he is ready to sell his nation’s crude oil. Barack Obama has won this round to destroy America’s economy and we have lost. Anyone who thought this dangerous game of chicken would end in our closest neighbor and one of our strongest allies knuckling under and waiting until Obama was finished using our lives to squeeze more campaign funds from the far Left has been proved wrong. This is really going to happen....

President Obama’s poll numbers are up and the country’s unemployment figures are down — but $4 gas poses a potent threat to the incumbent’s re-election bid, polls show. Voters are giving Mr. Obama an emphatic thumbs down for his handling of gas prices — 68 percent disapprove of his response to the problem in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. The White House and Mr. Obama’s re-election team are acutely aware of the political danger. The president has given seven speeches in March alone on energy and gas prices in an attempt to convince the public that there is no “silver bullet”...

Yesterday the Obama administration announced a delaying tactic which will put off the possibility of new offshore oil drilling on the Atlantic coast for at least five years: The announcement by the Interior Department sets into motion what will be at least a five year environmental survey to determine whether and where oil production might occur.

President Obama supports job creation, economic growth and revenue generation – except when he doesn’t. Official announcements from his Labor Department reported that the nation’s February unemployment rate is still 8.3 percent. That’s a decent decline from previous months. But the reality is far worse. Most of that job growth was in business and professional services, and half was temporary. Millions of Americans are working part-time or multiple low-wage jobs to make ends meet. Overall, 23.5 million are out of work or underemployed. Factor all that in, and the real unemployment rate is 14.9%, according to University of Maryland...

With elections less than eight months away, rising prices at the pump are threatening to derail a tenuous economic recovery. And President Obama, to mitigate political fallout, embarked this month on a four-state swing to promote his "all of the above" energy strategy, a broadly supported approach to increasing domestic development of natural gas, solar, wind, hydro, nuclear and yes, oil. But if the president has begun to or at least talk about some moderate sensibilities on domestic energy production, he hasn't changed a bit on tax policy. Every policy and campaign speech the president has given since taking office,...

Calico Developers Reject Relocation, Choosing Pristine Wild Lands Over Degraded Sites Sacramento, CA - The proposed California-based Calico solar project fails to meet basic environmental protection requirements and threatens imperiled wildlife, according to Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club. The groups are filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior after failing to reach agreement with the developers and the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to move the project to a location without major environmental conflicts. Over the course of three years, the environmental groups met...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is why I have been saying it: More drilling doesn't cut gas price. It's story. And it's a fact-check from the AP. AP's done a fact-check story: "More US drilling didn't drop gas price -- It's the political cure-all for high gas prices: Drill here, drill now. But more U.S. drilling has not changed how deeply the gas pump drills into your wallet, math and history show. A statistical analysis of 36 years of monthly, inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production by The Associated Press shows no statistical correlation between how much oil comes...

<p>WASHINGTON — It's the political cure-all for high gas prices: Drill here, drill now. But more U.S. drilling has not changed how deeply the gas pump drills into your wallet, math and history show.</p> <p>A statistical analysis of 36 years of monthly, inflation-adjusted gasoline prices and U.S. domestic oil production by The Associated Press shows no statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump.</p>

Oil and gas production in the United States and North America is going to skyrocket in the next 8 years due to strides in natural resource extraction, write Citi analysts in a report published yesterday. In fact, they went so far as to call North America "the new Middle East," at least in terms of oil production. This—as well as a trend towards declining U.S. energy consumption—will completely transform both domestic economy and the threats the U.S. will face in the future,  Indeed, Citi economists expect total liquids production to as much as double for the continent in the next...

Guest post by Alec Rawls“President no longer worried about CO2!” That’s what the headlines should have read last week after Obama presented an elaborate argument that alternative energy is the only viable response to high energy prices without ever once mentioning CO2, global warming or climate change. Instead, he presented the need to lessen our reliance on oil purely as an economic imperative.Back when he thought that global warming was a winning concern Obama used to acknowledge that his anti-CO2 policies were going to cause high energy prices (forcing them to “necessarily skyrocket“). Now he is trying to use the...

Seventy-six percent of voters nationwide believe that raising taxes on the energy industry could cost them more at the gas station. The overwhelming sentiment was echoed across political, gender, age, racial, income, educational and ideological lines according to a new “What America is Thinking on Energy Issues” poll released today. “Voters understand that raising taxes is not a solution for high gasoline prices,” said API President and CEO Jack Gerard. “We should instead be encouraging more safe and responsible domestic energy production to help bring more crude oil to American consumers. A true all-of-the-above energy strategy would include greater access...

Newt Gingrich has found a new avenue of influence – the gas station. His campaign stop at a local gas station, holding the gas pump in his hand, decrying the lack of “algae energy” was brilliant. He is correct. There is currently no algae energy available for America’s massive demand and thanks to President Obama, there is no fossil fuel plan, either. He stifles coal. He stifles oil. He stifles natural gas. Fossil fuel production on federal lands is at a nine-year low. His Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, wants gas prices to reach $8.00 a gallon, a la Europe,...

With both President Obama and his chief strategist David Axelrod attacking Newt’s $2.50 gas plan this weekend, it is worthwhile to take a look at who is really trying to sell the American people “snake oil.” President Obama has been traveling the country making demonstrably false excuses for his failures on energy policy. To borrow a line from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, “I won’t attribute motivations…I’ll just say that anybody who says these things doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” “WE’RE DRILLING ALL OVER” FALSE: “Do not tell me that we’re not drilling. We’re drilling all over this...

President Barack Obama and his green energy confederates are determined to scare the public about a declining supply of "fossil fuels." If we accept the idea that oil is produced by the conversion of organic matter -- from plants to dinosaurs -- under extreme pressure, we must also accept the idea that there is a limited supply of oil and that we've got to do everything we can to find a replacement for fossil fuels before we run out. The evidence is mounting that not only do we have more than a century's worth of recoverable oil in the United...

Daniel Fine discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing (two minutes)---> http://youtu.be/4Lbn9diK1PA

"So do not tell me that we're not drilling. We're drilling all over this country. There are a few spots we're not drilling. We're not drilling in the national mall. We're not drilling at your house. " http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/03/15/obama_do_not_tell_me_that_were_not_drilling_were_drilling_all_over_this_country.html

Countering President Obama’s claim that he’s doing everything he can to increase domestic oil production, a top House Republican Thursday released data from the Energy Department showing that fossil fuel production on federal lands has fallen since Mr. Obama took office. The information compiled by the Energy Information Administration shows that total fossil fuel production on federal lands has dropped 7 percent since 2009 and 13 percent since 2003. From 2010 to 2011, total oil production on federal lands is down 14 percent and gas production dropped 11 percent. House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings, Washington Republican, said the new...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Obama has just announced that the United States and Britain are going to release oil from their Strategic Reserves. I didn't even know that Cameron was up for reelection. I did not know that he was up for reelection. That's why Obama's doing this. This is going to have absolutely no impact whatsoever. It is a purely political move from the guy who says, "We can't drill. We can't drill fast enough, can't drill soon enough." What does that mean? If we can't drill what it means is putting more oil on the market isn't gonna matter...

Proposed regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce air emissions from hydraulic fracturing operations would drastically reduce shale gas drilling by 31 percent to 52 percent, or 12,700 to 21,400 wells, over the 2012 to 2015 time period, according to a study by the American Petroleum Institute (API). The API study also found that: 5.8 to 7.0 quadrillion Btu (Quads) of otherwise economic unconventional natural gas would not be developed and produced by 2015, a 9 percent to 11 percent reduction 1.8 billion barrels of otherwise economic unconventional liquids would not be developed and produced by 2015,...

When you include oil shale, the U.S. has 1.4 trillion barrels of technically recoverable oil, according to the Institute for Energy Research, enough to meet all U.S. oil needs for about the next 200 years, without any imports.

Remember that Barack Obama insists that there are "no silver bullets" to fix the issue of high gas prices. So when British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Washington for high-level talks and the discussion turned to gas prices, what did Obama propose? According to Reuters, holy water and a garland of garlic: President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron discussed the possibility of releasing emergency oil reserves during a meeting on Wednesday, two sources familiar with the talks said, the first sign that Obama is starting to test global support for an effort to knock back near-record fuel...

President Obama blasted his Republican critics Thursday for their resistance to investing in alternative energy sources, comparing their stance to the beliefs of those who thought that Columbus would sail off the edge of the world. In another in a series of speeches defending his energy policies, Obama touted his push for green energy growth — including wind and solar power, electric cars and biofuels — as a way to help wean the nation from a dependence on foreign oil. And he mocked his rivals for failing to embrace his ideas. “If some of these folks were around when Columbus...

Gasoline prices are zooming past $4 a gallon and the United States is hardly freer from the grip of imported oil or closer to robust economic recovery. With his approval ratings dropping precipitously, U.S. President Barack Obama is blaming speculators and investigating fraud and at the pump when this mess is the direct result of failed federal energy policies. By word and deed, the Obama administration has sought to limit off-shore oil exploration and development and hasten the commercial viability of solar, wind and alternative vehicle technologies. All this is based on two erroneous but strongly held beliefs among liberal...

Britain has decided to cooperate with the United States in a bilateral agreement to release strategic oil stocks, two British sources said, in an effort to prevent high fuel prices derailing economic growth in an election year. A formal request from the United States to the UK to join forces in a release of oil from government-controlled reserves is expected "shortly" following a meeting on Wednesday in Washington between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron, who discussed the issue, one source said. Britain would respond positively, the two sources said.

Oil spill commission reuniting to press for drilling reformsBy Andrew Restuccia - 03/14/12 10:47 AM ET Members of the national oil spill commission are reuniting to monitor the federal government’s progress in implementing a series of drilling safety recommendations put forward by the panel last year. The seven-member commission, which was tasked by President Obama with investigating the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, is forming what it calls “Oil Spill Commission Action.” The new group will issue a report in April assessing government and industry efforts to enhance safety and environmental standards in the aftermath of the spill, which...

HOW TO RETRUN TO $2.00 A GALLON GAS You know what, I am sick of hearing all of the endless wrangling by the major news media and politicians (particularly of the liberal variety) regarding the price of gas. Yesterday I heard some so-called oil and gas expert on a talk show. He was a guest and clearly an Obama supporter. He launched into this protracted explanation of the price of gold, the value of the dollar, OPEC, the world market and China's purchasing, etc., etc. to explain why the price cannot come down and how anyone saying it can...

When he was running for the Oval Office four years ago amid $4-a-gallon gasoline prices, then-Sen. Barack Obama dismissed the idea of expanded oil production as a way to relieve the pain at the pump. "Even if you opened up every square inch of our land and our coasts to drilling," he said. "America still has only 3% of the world's oil reserves." Which meant, he said, that the U.S. couldn't affect global oil prices....But the figure Obama uses — proved oil reserves — vastly undercounts how much oil the U.S. actually contains. In fact, far from being oil-poor, the...

TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from landlocked Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, is a “no-brainer” that would create jobs and bolster the economy, former President George W. Bush said on Tuesday. The $7.6 billion Keystone XL line would generate private-sector employment and government revenue, he said at an American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers conference in San Diego. The U.S. government’s budget deficit is unsustainable and must be reduced by supporting industry, Bush said. “The clear goal ought to be how to get the private sector to grow,” said Bush, who spoke during a luncheon at...

. . Presented with little comment except to remind all those newly refreshed consumers that for every penny rise in pump prices, more than $1bn is added to the hoousehold spending bill (assuming driving habits are unaffected - which brings its own set of unintended consequential events). For this week of the year, we have never seen higher prices of Gasoline... and we note that gas prices are rising at almost the same analog rate as last year (and well above average) which offers little hope for the notably higher absolute levels which is all important for our pocket-books...

(CNSNews.com) - A new survey shows that rising gasoline prices will force changes in the driving habits of American adults, but only six percent of them said they plan to buy a hybrid/energy-efficient vehicle to alleviate pain at the pump. The online survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of CouponCabin from March 6-8, found that 3 in 4 adults in this country said they are changing their driving habits: -- 61 percent plan to drive less overall to save money -- 9 percent plan to carpool -- 8 percent plan to use public transportation -- 6 percent plan to...

President Barack Obama, arming himself against election-year attacks on his energy policies amid painfully high gas prices, welcomed a report on Monday showing a one million barrel-per-day decline in U.S. oil imports in 2011. Obama is stepping up defense of his record amid concern that rising oil prices may lift the price of gasoline at the pump to $5 a gallon in some parts of the country this summer, which could pose a threat to the Democratic president's bid for re-election on November 6. "Today's high gas prices are a painful reminder that there's much more work to do to...

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama's job approval rating, weighed down by soaring gas prices, has plunged below 50 per cent, giving his political opponents what appears to be an opening in the November election, a new opinion poll showed. The survey by ABC News and The Washington Post indicated that only 46 per cent of Americans now approved of the way Obama is handling his job and 50 per cent disapproved. The situation was a reversal from early February when 50 per cent approved of the president's performance and 46 per cent disapproved. According to the survey, the drop...

American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard went before a Congressional hearing today and blasted President Obama’s double-speak on oil production. “It’s others who have called on the Saudis to produce more. Others, who have called on other sources such as the Brazilians and yet others who recognize that supply matters by calling for release from the strategic oil preserve.”

President Barack Obama on Wednesday dismissed oil as "the fuel of the past" as he made an unapologetic election-year pitch for his alternative energy industry policies and sniped at Republicans over painfully high gasoline prices. "They get out on the campaign trail—and you and I both know there are no quick fixes to this problem—but listening to them, you'd think there were," he said at a Daimler Truck manufacturing plant in the battleground state of North Carolina. Obama said that because the United States accounts for 20 percent of the world's consumption of oil but has only 2 percent of...

President Obama boasted at a United Auto Workers conference last week that General Motors was back in business, producing cutting-edge vehicles like the plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt. He even promised to buy one when his time in office ends “five years from now.” Whoops! Just three days later, GM announced that it would suspend Volt production for five weeks this spring, idling 1,300 workers at a Hamtramck, Mich., factory. Alas, Obama’s endorsements notwithstanding, there’s not much of a market for this little bitty car, at least not at the price of almost $32,000 — after a $7,500 federal tax rebate....

CBS News) President Obama on Tuesday scoffed at the notion he wants higher gas prices, as some of his critics claim. Asked about the charge at his first formal White House press conference of the year, Mr. Obama replied to Fox News correspondent Ed Henry's question with a question of his own. "From a political perspective, do you think the president of the United States going into re-election wants gas prices to go up higher? Is there anybody here who thinks that makes a lot of sense?" Presidents of both parties have historically considered it harder to get votes if...

GOP: Fight high gas prices with more oil drilling, KeystoneBy Justin Sink - 03/03/12 06:36 AM ET Republicans used their weekly address to slam President Obama on rising gas prices, part of what the GOP says is a "coordinated campaign" to push energy to the forefront of national politics. House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) pushed what Republicans are calling their "all-of-the-above" energy approach, which would encourage additional drilling in federally owned and offshore areas, the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and a loosening of regulations on the oil industry. "When we responsibly develop these resources, we don’t...

President Barack Obama says higher auto mileage standards set under his administration and better cars built by a resurgent U.S. auto industry will save money at the gas pump over the long term, a counterpoint to Republican criticism of his energy policy. In his weekly radio and online address Saturday, Obama said Detroit automakers are on track to build cars that average nearly 55 miles per gallon by 2025, doubling current mileage standards. "That means folks will be able to fill up every two weeks instead of every week, saving the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump over...

Gasoline for $5 a gallon? The possibility is hardly far-fetched. With no clear end to tensions with Iran and Syria and rising demand from countries like China, gas prices are already at record highs for the winter months — averaging $4.32 in California and $3.73 a gallon nationally on Wednesday, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. As summer approaches, demand for gasoline rises, typically pushing prices up around 20 cents a gallon. And gas prices could rise another 50 cents a gallon or more, analysts say, if the diplomatic and economic standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions escalates into military...

Finally, after weeks of historically high seasonal gas prices that are squeezing the budgets of millions of Americans, the Obama administration has provided its answer about the fuel's future and relief. Energy Secy. Stephen Chu was asked in a House hearing this week if "the overall goal (of President Obama) is to get our price lower?" Chu replied, "No." He added, "The overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil." Actually, Chu let the administration's real agenda out of the bag back in December of 2008, hours after being named Energy secretary. Raise gas prices high enough to make...

President Obama has serious energy problems — ranging from high gasoline prices, which torment consumers and affect the lifestyle of American families; to Solyndra and the like, where green-energy initiatives have failed to the point where they are not just failures but introduce questions of cover-up and deception within the administration. Obama must also deal with division among Democrats with regard to drilling and doing something affirmative to bring down gasoline prices. No one’s talking about it yet, but Obama also appears to be fulfilling his campaign promise to drive up home power bills by aggressively regulating America’s industries that...

NEW YORK (AP) — Pump prices kept marching toward $4 a gallon Thursday and signs of a stronger U.S. economy helped push the price of benchmark oil past $108 per barrel. Retail gasoline prices haven't fallen in 35 days, rising Thursday to a national average of $3.74 per gallon. Over the five weeks prices have increased 37 cents per gallon or 11 percent. Prices are being driven by the price of oil. They have never been so high at this time of the year. Wholesale gasoline futures rose nearly 2 percent to $3.32 per gallon, suggesting that retail prices will...

• Obama refused, until two months ago, to impose tough sanctions on Iran, increasing the likelihood of an Israeli attack. Already, speculation that such a strike might be in the offing is driving up oil prices. • His anti-Israeli policies have diminished that nation’s confidence that it can rely on the United States to handle Iranian nuclear ambitions. • The president’s veto of the Keystone pipeline and his refusal to drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge makes it crystal-clear to voters that there will be no relief coming from the north. • His stubborn refusal to issue deep-water drilling...

The Energy Department isn’t working to lower gasoline prices directly, Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday after a Republican lawmaker scolded him for his now-infamous 2008 comment that gas prices in the U.S. should be as high as in Europe. Instead, DOE is working to promote alternatives such as biofuels and electric vehicles, Chu told House appropriators during a hearing on DOE’s budget. But Americans need relief now, Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss.) said — not high gasoline prices that could eventually push them to alternatives. “I can’t look at motivations. I have to look at results. And under this administration the...

Going somewhere? It’ll cost you even more this week, with the national average price of a gallon of regular fuel now up to nearly $3.70 and rising 26 cents to $4.29 in California. That’s up 14 cents a gallon from a week ago and a 29-cent increase from a month ago. A gallon is now more than 10% more expensive than the $3.35 it cost this time last year, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. But in California, drivers are wishing prices were still that low. The state’s average cost for a gallon is $4.29, compared to $4.03 a...

RUSH: Michael Janovsky at the New York Times, April 24th, 2006, about six years ago: "Democrats Eager to Exploit Anger Over Gas Prices." This is back in 2006. The Democrats were running for office in the midterm elections trying to talk us into a recession. This is after they had failed at trying to talk us into failure in Iraq. "Democrats running for Congress are moving quickly to use the most recent surge in oil and gasoline prices to bash Republicans over energy policy, and more broadly, the direction of the country. With oil prices hitting a high this week...

Obama's Energy Plan -- Algae By Susan Jones February 24, 2012 (CNSNews.com) - "The American people aren't stupid," President Obama said on Thursday -- as he insisted that drilling for more oil on U.S. territory is "not a strategy to solve our energy challenge." The president's solution? Algae, for one. There are no quick fixes to the nation's eneergy problem, the president said, dismissing Republican calls for more drilling as a "bumper sticker." "We’re making new investments in the development of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel that’s actually made from a plant-like substance -- algae," the president said at...