Fuel for firing Obama

by Michael Graham

President would raise dependency on foreign oil

This is the headline from The New York Times Web site yesterday: “Obama Lays Out Plan to Cut Reliance on Fuel Imports.”

Did I say “headline?” I meant “laugh line.”

Because President Barack Obama giving a speech on increasing U.S. oil production is like Charlie Sheen lecturing me to “Just Say No.” It inspires more than merely a raised eyebrow. We’re in full-on Pelosi Forehead territory here.

Obama yesterday set a goal of reducing the amount of oil we import by 3 million barrels a day over the next 10 years. And part of the solution is his hard work promoting more domestic production, he managed to say with a straight face.

Barack Obama — oil producer? The same Obama who rejected any new drilling during the 2008 campaign?

Who actually suggested we forget drilling and “properly inflate our tires?”

Who imposed a moratorium on all new drilling in 2010?

The same President Obama who . . . well, I’ll let the liberal-leaning Washington Post take over from here:

“When was the last time an American president stood before an audience in a foreign country and announced that he looked forward to importing more of its oil? Answer: Just over a week ago,” the Post wrote, referring to Obama’s visit to Brazil, where he promised American subsidies for Brazilian offshore drilling, and the promise that “when you’re ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers.”

So Obama’s plan to reduce our dependency on foreign oil is to travel to other countries, offer to pay them to drill off their own coasts so we can buy more of their oil? Please tell me I’m missing something here.

If Obama were urging everyone to develop their oil reserves, that would be one thing. But while he’s subsidizing Brazil’s oil workers, he’s simultaneously punishing ours.

In December, he announced that his moratorium on oil exploration off our own East and West coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico would continue “indefinitely.”

He still opposes drilling in the vast, empty Alaskan wasteland that is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And the American Petroleum Institute pointed out yesterday that “based on current policy, that this could be the first year since 1957 the U.S. doesn’t issue a single new drilling permit.”

In other words, “Read Obama’s lips: No new oil.”

So how do we cut down on imports?

Why, by getting more production out of our existing wells, of course!

Yeah, about that . . .

“[The Department of Energy] predicted that domestic offshore oil production will fall 13 percent this year from 2010 due to the moratorium and the slow return to drilling,” The Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial earlier this year, “ . . . a loss of about 220,000 barrels of oil a day.”

When Obama claimed yesterday that existing oil production is high, he’s telling the truth — but it has absolutely nothing to do with his anti-production policies.

According to Amy Harder at National Journal magazine, “most, if not all, of the production increase recorded is likely due to action that predates Obama, since Obama didn’t take any major action expanding offshore drilling his first year in office.”

Guess what, Amy — he still hasn’t.

“Barack the Internationalist” I’ll believe. “Barack Obama, Repairer of Race Relations,” I’ll tag along. Even “Barack Obama, Savior Of The Banking Industry (especially Goldman Sachs)” I can take.

But “Barack the Oil Bringer?” No way.

Everyone already knows about the president’s true energy policy. In fact, this headline appeared in the Christian Science Monitor just a couple of weeks ago:

“Gas prices too high? Obama may not think so. He’s pumped to use high oil prices.”

Tell us something we don’t know.