< Part 4 of 4 – see links below >

Barack Obama and the Democrat Party are out there suggesting that drilling for oil off the coastline of the United States and at ANWR is nothing more than “the failed policies of the past.”

Can I be honest with you and tell you what the failed policies of the past are? In 1988, New York governor Mario Cuomo shut down a nuclear plant. That is a failed policy of the past. In 1996, the delightful, the wonderful, the roguish Bill Clinton vetoed exploration and drilling in ANWR.

That is a failed policy of the past. Both of those are failed policies of the past. Changing from these failed policies of the past would be to un-fail the failures, to dis-fail the failures. Building nuclear plants, opening ANWR — and then we could sue Cuomo and Clinton for malpractice, political malpractice, for gumming up the works.

I’ll tell you something else. How many times have you heard that immigrants made us great? We’ve heard that a lot in the last two years, right?

Well, we hear it all our lives. And nobody disputes that when talking about legal immigration.

But let me tell you what made us greater.

You know what really made us greater? Petroleum. Oil.

I’m not talking about greater as individuals of character. I’m talking about what propelled this country.

It was a number of forces coming together: the establishment of a worldwide Navy, which was not possible without petroleum. Petroleum made us greater. You don’t have to be a Nostradamus; to see that reality will get us off the dime and produce the energy we need.

The only question is sooner or later? Will the left help solve this now or wait until the prices at the polls cause enough voters to throw them out of office, which is entirely possible.

OBAMA: The most optimistic assumptions indicate that offshore drilling might reduce the overall world price of oil by a few cents. So this is not something that’s going to give consumers short-term relief, and it is not a long-term solution to our problems.

The guy is dim-witted! He is just an idiot. He is locked into this position because he’s a leftist, radical Democrat.

Have you ever noticed…? Who is it that really makes things happen in this country? It’s the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs of all stripes, all sizes, create business of all sizes. They’re a wide range. And who is it that always sets out to punish them and destroy them? Liberals, the American left!

What does Obama want? Barack Obama wants you to suffer. Barack Obama wants higher prices on fuel, right now. Barack Obama wants a windfall profits tax, right now. Barack Obama wants to raise your income taxes, by the way, right now. He wants to raise capital gains taxes, right no right now. He wants to raise Social Security taxes, right now.

Obama wants you to suffer. The Democrat Party wants you in pain. They want you angry, and they are willing to block any remedy to this problem in order to keep you suffering and in pain and ang. Obama wants prices up, he wants your income down, and he wants taxes up.

“The most optimistic assumptions indicate that offshore drilling might reduce the overall world price by a few cents”?

He’s getting that from Chuck Schumer, but Chuck Schumer is contradicting himself. The world’s going nuts here over the fact the Saudis are going to pump an additional 800,000 barrels a day. ANWR would give us a million — and everybody is talking of 30 to 40 dollars a barrel off the market price if we could just add a million barrels.

But nobody is saying cents except the Democrats.

Obama says, “Offshore drilling will only save a few cents; repealing the gas tax, ah, that will only save a few cents; offshore drilling, ah, it will only save a few cents; ANWR, ah, it will only save a few cents.”

Everything is only a few cents. How much does changing your lightbulb save, Obama?

Here’s the Democrat talking point on this. This is Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, and Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon.

BOXER: Bet you didn’t know that there are 31 million acres leased in the Gulf of Mexico that the oil companies have not drilled.

MCCASKILL: The oil companies have 68 million acres already under lease they’re not using. So why just give them more acres?

NELSON: We have 68 million acres that can be drilled.

DEFAZIO: Come on, guys! They are not developing what they have now! There’s 20 years’ supply out there! They haven’t developed it!

Well, even if this is true — and it isn’t — could we ask all of you Democrats why? Could it be you? Could it be that there are so many ridiculous, stupid environmental obstacles in their way? Could it be that there are so many taxes weighting upon them put in place by you? Could it be that you are the ones impeding them?

The congressional Democrats are claiming that the oil companies are sitting on millions of acres and are not tapping federal leases they own.

Here are some facts for you on this, and this is from the Institute for Energy Research. Now, the Institute for Energy Research is the energy equivalent of the Heritage Foundation.

The reality is that 97% of federal offshore areas are not leased. “Ninety-seven percent federal offshore areas are not leased. Ninety-four percent of federal onshore areas are not leased. Right now only 15% of the Outer Continental Shelf acreage is even available for leasing. With domestic oil production in the US declining since 2000 to the lowest level since 1947, it is clear that we need to tap more domestic oil.” The oil companies have paid money for the leases they own in addition to an annual fee. So it would make no sense to leave them dormant and not drill for oil or even test to determine what oil capabilities are there, particularly at a time of $130 oil. The companies have every incentive to explore, tap the existing leases that they have.

Nobody is in charge of dropping the price of oil or raising it. Too many market factors really make the price of oil what it is. But theoretically, I assume that, they would be very alarmed if there were much greater supply coming on the market, regardless where it came from because it is going to put downward pressure on the price.

I also think that simply if we did unite and get congressional approval with the president, sign the legislation, yep, we’re going to do this, I do think that it would immediately impact the oil markets in a positive way with a whole lot of confidence because it would mean more supply.

You know, it’s always the lack of supply, of necessity, that causes unease and sometimes panic, it causes disquiet, it causes nervousness. We’re talking about a need here. You know, we’re not talking here about a shortage of paper clips.

We’re talking about a shortage of supply, necessary supply, just to maintain current levels of use and even growth, oil. And that’s going to make a lot of people nervous. If people figure out that the world’s banding together one way or the other to go get more of it, it will have a very positive effect.

Links to series post:

1. OBAMA; the solution to the rising gas prices…

2. Democrats attack failed policies of the past.

3. Simple TRUTH about oil in the U.S.A.

4. Domestic drilling – only to reduce price by a few cents?