On Not Drilling and Pain at the Pump

How any person could actually think that Obama feels your pain at the pump is unfathomable to me.  This President has put an unnecessary blanket moratorium on offshore drilling and now his EPA (yes, every person on the EPA is a Democrat and was appointed by Obama) has decided to withhold critical air permits which halts Shell's drilling efforts.   Shell was getting ready to drill in the Arctic Ocean off of the northern coast of Alaska during the summer but now Shell has to scrap their efforts to drill there because of Obama's EPA.  Plus, this has cost Shell a pretty penny.  Oh... that's right, Obama wants to stick it to the oil companies while claiming he has nothing to do with rising oil prices.  That is bull hockey!!  He has a lot to do with our rising gas prices.  There were a number of things Obama could have done to stop the pain at the pump, like lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling and allowing onshore drilling in the United States.  Instead Obama wants to give taxpayers' money to foreign entities such as Brazil, Venezuela, and the Middle East for oil -  to countries that don't particularly like the United States to say the least - rather than create jobs here in the United States,  while at least making an effort to lower the gas prices. 

From Fox News: "Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining similar air permits for a drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico would take about 45 days. He’s especially frustrated over the appeal board’s suggestion that the Arctic drill would somehow be hazardous for the people who live in the area. “We think the issues were really not major,” Slaiby said, “and clearly not impactful for the communities we work in.”

"The closest village to where Shell proposed to drill is Kaktovik, Alaska. It is one of the most remote places in the United States. According to the latest census, the population is 245 and nearly all of the residents are Alaska natives. The village, which is 1 square mile, sits right along the shores of the Beaufort Sea, 70 miles away from the proposed off-shore drill site.

"The EPA’s appeals board ruled that Shell had not taken into consideration emissions from an ice-breaking vessel when calculating overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project. Environmental groups were thrilled by the ruling."



Then we have a three-inch lizard in Texas threatening to completely halt existing oil drilling for at least two years in some parts of Texas if the enviromental whackos get their way. If the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard is listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service then oil drilling will be forced to cease in some parts of Texas.  Alright, I have had it with the welfare of animals taking precedent over the welfare of humans. I'm not a sue happy person but whenever this type of thing happens and these enviro nutjobs endanger our livelihood then I think their needs to be a class action lawsuit brought against them.  We need to stop lying down like dogs and taking this crap from these people anymore.

This is ludicrous!!  The enviro-weenies at the EPA have gone wild!! The Pittsburgh region was just rated an F  on pollution.  Should I stop living here due to that?  This is all fear mongering by the Left.  The Left consistently accuses the Right of fear mongering but the Left need to look no further than in their own mirrors to see who is actually doing the fear mongering in this country.  


In Lee Habeeb's article he informs us that according to AAA gas prices have risen 37% since October but for some reason we haven't heard a peep from AARP or anti-poverty groups.  Obama hasn't even declared a moratorium on gasoline taxes.  Lee says that Obama chooses the Marie Antoinette approach.  '“Let them eat cake!” Stop driving those SUV’s, and start buying smaller cars. Stop drilling, and start plugging in those electric cars.' Then, Lee points out "Some companies are shifting investments out of the Gulf. BP recently said it would move a brand-new rig that was meant to work in the Gulf to Libya. Nice work, President Obama. We are bombing Gaddafi by night, and shipping jobs there by day." '  This scenario is bizarre. 


Larry Kudlow speaks to the Left's hate oil campaign.  Larry Kudlow points out:  "When oil prices blew sky high in 2008, ExxonMobil paid $36.5 billion in income taxes, $34.5 billion in sales taxes, and $45 billion in other taxes, for a total of $116.2 billion in taxes paid and collected in 2008." Either Exxon or the whole oil industry pays more in taxes then the bottom 50 percent of the whole income-tax system.  And Obama wants to stick it to the oil companies even more?  Obama wants to remove tax-subsidies for the oil companies and somehow thinks that doing wouldn't hurt Americans. 


Here is a USA National Gas Price Heat Map: 

You can see that the average price for gasoline across the country is at $3.52 per gallon or above.  The high gas prices are greatly hurting our economy.  We need to start drilling both offshore and onshore.  In addition we need to stop this nonsense coming from the enviro-whackos in their efforts to curtail human flourishing.