By Joseph Curl - The Washington Times
In January 2009 when President Obama was sworn in a gallon of regular gasoline cost $1.68.
Today its more than double that: The price has reached $5 in parts of California and $6 just outside Floridas Disney World. In fact prices have set a record being so high so early in the year. By Memorial Day Americas first big travel weekend of the year gas nationwide will average $4 and above industry analysts predict.
Candidate Obama made political hay of the issue throughout 2008 boldly asserting that he - and he alone - was most able to bring prices down. He repeatedly said there was no silver bullet and no quick fix but on the campaign trail in Indianapolis he told Americans You shouldnt have to accept any more excuses as to why it cant be done.
More than three years into office thats all Mr. Obama offers - excuses. He blames oil companies for making a profit; blames speculators for pushing up the price of oil; blames Congress for not doing away with oil-industry tax breaks; blames world producers for limiting outflow to drive up prices.
But this past weekend the president made a startling claim: Under my administration America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years.
The claim is true but as always a very crafty lie of omission. America is producing more oil than eight years ago but not because of anything the president has done. In fact production is up only because Americans are resourceful and have battled past the obstructions Mr. Obama has erected.
Since taking office he has declared 85 percent of our offshore areas off-limits decreased oil and gas leases in the Rockies by 70 percent rejected the Keystone XL pipeline and has 10 federal agencies planning more regulation of hydraulic fracturing which is key to oil and natural-gas development says Jack Gerard president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.
The administrations own Energy Information Agency estimates that oil production in the Gulf was down 22 percent in 2011 and projected to be down 30 percent in 2012 after Mr. Obamas Gulf moratorium policies were put in place the API said.
So how on Earth is America producing more oil? Because of action taken by President Bush and even his predecessors.
That production is a direct result of leases issued before this administration and as result of development on private and state lands Mr. Gerard said according to Fox News.
On private lands oil production is booming wrote Fox reporter Jim Angle. In North Dakota the oil and gas are on private or state land and beyond the presidents control. The state has gone from producing a small amount of oil to some 450000 barrels a day. Unemployment is 3.3 percent the lowest in the country. And the state has a budget surplus in the billions.
In this weekends speech Mr. Obama made more excuses. There are no quick fixes to this problem and you know we cant just drill our way to lower gas prices. Wrong. In fact just saying America is going to drill for its own oil has a dramatic effect on prices. In July 2008 when gas was $3.28 a gallon Mr. Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling and urged Congress to lift the federal moratorium. Crude-oil futures plummeted nearly $10 the next day the largest decline in 17 years.
Whats more early in Mr. Bushs tenure debate raged over opening a tiny part of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling (just 8 percent of the more than 19 million acres in the reserve). Democrats killed the Republican proposal saying the billions of barrels of oil wouldnt come to market for a decade.
In 2012 that oil - estimated at 1 million barrels a day for 30 years nearly the amount the U.S. imports from Hugo Chavezs Venezuela - would be flowing.
Just last year Mr. Obama said Our energy policy still is just a hodgepodge. It is just that today. Yet the president continues to push green energy claiming the only answer to Americas problems is to pursue an all of the above strategy. Last week he said his administration is forging ahead with alternative-energy sources such as a plant-like substance algae.
Yes ... pond scum. Mr. Obama is officially out of ideas.
But one claim he made this weekend is absolutely true: In 2010 our dependence on foreign oil was under 50 percent for the first time in more than a decade.
The reason? Americans cant afford to fill their cars up anymore.
A few months ago exactly a year out from Election Day 2012 Mr. Obama pleaded for support: Im going to need another term to finish the job.
But America cant afford four more years of trying to turn a community organizer into a president. Theyd be better off trying to turn pond scum into fuel.
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Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at jcurl@
washingtontimes.com.
