House Republicans to put pressure on the Obama regime to reinstate offshore drilling
With the price of oil skyrocketing and the gas prices quickly escalating–in part due to the “turmoil” in Libya–two House committees have scheduled hearings with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about Barack Obama’s ban on offshore drilling.
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee will meet with Salazar on Wednesday and the House Natural Resources Committee will meet with him on Thursday.
Insiders in the Obama regime are claiming that they are close to repealing the ban on offshore drilling that Barack Obama instituted illegally by defying a court order. But that simply is not good enough as more and more Americans are feeling the crunch of rising energy costs every day; we simply cannot afford–literally–to sit around and wait for the Obama regime to admit its mistake and lift a ban which it so whimsically and thoughtlessly put in place. The fact remains that Barack Obama’s ban on offshore drilling has had an impact on the price of oil as the price of oil has been slowly but steadily rising since the ban, and that effect is now magnified by the unrest in the Middle East.
All presidents–both Democrat and Republican–have made the assertion that we must end our dependence on foreign oil, and I agree with that, but neither party has been willing to fight against the environmentalists who have done everything within their power to thwart the United States’ efforts to actually tap into the vast oil reserves that we are sitting on.
Hopefully this “crisis” in the Middle East will be enough to enlighten this regime and make possible the usage of a natural resource which the government has been unwilling to utilize once and for all.
I understand that drilling for more of our own oil is not the complete answer to ending our dependence of foreign oil, but it is part of the solution. We must use all means at our disposal in order to cut back on our foreign oil usage, but this regime has done more harm than good by issuing a drilling moratorium, and it is well beyond time to reinstate the ill-advised ban on oil drilling.
Barack Obama wants to “invest” in alternative energies, but other than oil and nuclear energy, the technology simply is not there yet. Someday the technology may be there, and I hope that it is, but as of right now it is not and we simply cannot keep fooling ourselves about this. The fact that the government needs to subsidize these alternative energy sources in order to keep them operational is proof that more time is needed before these alternative energy sources become a viable option to oil.
So while we wait and work towards alternative energy sources we should not deprive ourselves of the one energy source that we know is available and abundant.
By calling on Ken Salazar to testify in front of the Congress the Republicans will put the issue squarely back in the limelight at a time when Americans need a little relief from the rising price of heating oil and gasoline, and this is a step in the right direction. With the American people being hit so hard in their wallets already this issue is back on the table and it is time for us to start drilling once again.
America's Watchtower 
The sad truth is that America has never really had a meaninful energy policy. We should have made a Manhatten style commitment to reducing our energy dependency years ago. Now, with this Aministration, we have an anti-energy policy.
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Yes, this should have been done years ago–if it was then we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in. But this is the hand we have been dealt and we can no longer afford to ignore this problem.
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I just read that in London they are paying $9.00 per gallon for gasoline. The western world economies are going to collapse. americans will soon be paying $4.00 per gallon. Inflation is going to get ugly.
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It is being predicted that Americans may be paying $5.oo for gas soon. If this happens it will grind the economy to a standstill.
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Agreed. I listened to a local radio talk show who interviewed a commodities broker about the psychology of the price of gas, and it was his belief that we are going to start seeing trouble BEFORE we hit $4. The reason he gave is because the economy is so much worse than it was the last time we had this problem, and people are already hurting with the inflation (which goes unreported on the news, but is nevertheless felt by the people), and the already increased costs of other energy needs, like home heating.
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That is a great point; with the economy much worse than it was a few years ago people are really going to feel these gas prices this time around. I wonder when the MSM is going to start mentioning the gas prices on a daily basis again?
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I agree Steve. This is a step in the right direction. The Republicans do need to start turning up the heat on this clown and force team Obama’s hand. The higher the price for gas, the more people will demand answers, answers this administration is unwilling to provide.
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Very true John, the Republicans must get out in front of this and make it a major issue, just as the Democrats did a few years ago. There is no doubt that part of the rising oil costs is because of Obama’s policies and he needs to be held accountable.
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I’ve talked before about how easy it is to sway speculators. Just the announcement that Obama will end the ban on drilling will cause the price of oil to drop. All he has to do is say it.
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I agree, the announcement alone would do wonders for the price of oil.
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And then if that is all he does– say it– and does not do it– hopefully that will do more damage to his reelection dreams. Do we dare to hope?
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Barack Obama IS best at talking, but when it comes to doing…..not so much. Perhaps if he does nothing to help struggling Americans with the price of oil it will be something that he cannot overcome in 2012.
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Sadly, we will hear about silly “green” energy and the new economy. The only thing that will change is going to be when Obama is voted out of office.
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Yes we will, but we will be waiting a long time for this new green economy to kick in. We don’t have that kind of time. The sooner we get rid of Obama the better off we will all be.
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The green economy only runs when the taxpayer supports it.
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Correct! If it weren’t for subsidies there would be no green energy whatsoever, that tells us all we need to know.
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This is a frustrating syndrome – when the price of a barrel of oil goes down, it’s reflected in the price of gasoline a few weeks or even months later. Let Gadaffi get a boil on his ass, though, and the price per barrel jumps, and within minutes the price of gasoline is skyrocketing. And the fact is that Econ 101 goes out the window here – we actually have a glut in this country’s gasoline supplies, but speculators control the prices far more than we do with our demand.
I agree with the comments about how administrations of both parties have lacked the courage to stand up to the environmentalists. Some of the horror stories, especially about things like wetlands, are frightening.
I heard an interesting proposal yesterday – my friend suggested that instead of a 1-day a week boycott to remind oil companies where the money comes from (remember that?), we should strenuously boycott one oil company until its sales are so depressed that it lowers gasoline prices.
The problem is that even socialists and communists understand that they’ve at least got to recover their production costs; what’s unconscionable to me, especially in a recession, is that oil companies should take a markup on increases in the cost of goods – I’d be a lot more sympathetic if they simply passed those increases along instead of taking a profit on them.
Otherwise – yes, it seems kind of foolish to deny American companies the right to go out and set up oil platforms in the Gulf next to the Cuban and Chinese platforms.
And let’s get cracking on that nuclear power!
Hope everyone’s all set for a great week, and may God bless us all!
TGY
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It’s not just the oil companies. The speculators that get between the seller and the refinery are also much to blame.
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Yeah – that’s why I mentioned them in my first paragraph.
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It certainly is frustrating the way the oil companies manipulate the prices. We see prises rise immediately when an event occurs in the Middle East even though the gas at the pumps is already bought and paid for, yet when something happens to drop the prices the oil companies do not react as quickly when it means less profits for them. There is more at work here than simply free market prices.
Personally I have been boycotting Citgo for years–since Chavez made that speech where he called Bush the devil–and as of yet it hasn’t hurt him. 🙂 Boycotts may sound like a great idea, but unless it is a massive boycott it will accomplish nothing.
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Shame on Citgo and Chavez to supplying all the oil to the poor in our country..not so Christian as Bush
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Yeah, we’ve got a couple of Citgos around here – they used to be about a nickel cheaper than everywhere else, but they’re back up to the average again. I avoid them like the plague.
TGY
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Sarah Palin is not so dumb after all, at least the people each get a % of the oil processed there.
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Wow – I wasn’t aware that the Alaskan system of distributing oil royalties was Mrs. Palin’s initiative – thanks for the info!
TGY
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I didn’t realize it was Palin who came up with this plan either, I am not a Palin fan but it does appear as if she took care of her constituents in this case.
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Sorry, my comment was tongue-in-cheek. The Alaskan Oil Royalty program was negotiated (my, there’s that nasty word again!) when the Alaskan Pipeline was built, over 30 years ago. Mrs. Palin’s only direct involvement with it has been to receive a royalty check every year, plus for a whole half term she was the Governor of Alaska, which administers the distribution of the royalty.
Would she have negotiated anything similar? I doubt it – I think she’d have found a way for oil interests to keep the bulk of the royalty money, or for the state to deposit it into its treasury, perhaps concurrently cutting taxes across the board.
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Doh! Don’t I feel stupid now?! I didn’t think that sounded quite right, but I thought you guys were serious. My bad!
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We may disagree . . . a lot . . . but I hope we can always be friends enough to pull each others legs from time to time.
Hope your week’s shaping up nicely, and may God bless us all!
TGY
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No problem TGY!
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If the tree huggers and the Muslim loving POS in the WH would allow drilling, we could DOUBLE our oil consumption and not run out for 100 years or more… And if the *whiz kids* can’t fix the energy crisis by then, they have not done THEIR jobs…
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Amen! It may take years to get the refineries up and running, but we keep delaying them. It is time to act NOW!
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When GW took office, gas was $.95 cents a gallon.He wanted to raise the profits for the oil co. so he closed some of the refineries, none have opened since. We ship the oil out, and then pay for it when it comes back
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Sad,very sad..according to EIA,the oil that is drilled in the Gulf is shipped out, then sold back to us..how smart is that?
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Not very! As I stated, both parties are to blame for this but sooner or later somone is going to have to stand up for us or we will be doomed.
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