Under fire for surging gas prices in an election year, President Obama this week predictably trotted out his three year old energy speech and mocked republicans for their belief that increased domestic oil production would lead to decreased dependence on foreign oil.
Pause for effect.
There are so many ways we could go with this, but let's focus on one way. In his remarks, the president stated:
Now, we absolutely need safe, responsible oil production here in America. That’s why under my Administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years.
It was painful to hear his stand-in press secretary try to explain later that President Obama wasn't really trying to take credit for the increased domestic production.
Which is understandable in light of recent developments, such as:
1. Blocking the Keystone Pipeline. Desperate to keep this loser issue off the table, congressional democrats have thrown all manner of disruptions and distractions into the effort to get Keystone up again, including, strangely, an effort to make sure that none of the Keystone oil goes outside the country. Its not really clear why petroleum exports would be a bad thing... other than it involves US oil companies making money... never mind.
2. My personal favorite... the Gulf of Mexico moratorium and slowdown following the Deepwater Horizon blowout, imposed on the industry across the board regardless of the facts. I have blogged about this ad nauseum so I'll stop now.
3. The real reason production is up... Obama and the EPA have been slow to throw up barriers to fracking, which is where all the increases in production are coming from.
Now let me be clear. All of this tripe sounds great rolling off the teleprompter, but the same plan rehashed over the course of three years is not a plan, it is a speech. And time has borne that out.
If only he were serious.
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