Obama: Offshore drilling is "a gimmick"

While China, Cuba, Venezuela and Brazil do their outmost to drink our offshore milkshake, Obama's saying that offshore drilling is "a gimmick":

Obama, who wants to keep a moratorium on offshore drilling, will argue that McCain is offering a "gimmick" similar to the gas tax holiday proposal.
...
In Las Vegas this afternoon, Obama slammed McCain's energy proposals, arguing that they are "gimmicks" that may poll well but do not provide immediate relief. Obama said that he supports McCain's $300 million battery prize but that alone would not be enough.

In the same speech, Obama proposed a "stimulus package", "another round of rebate checks to the American people", and, the biggie:GREEN JOBS
Not gimmicks, no siree....

After all, green jobs may help bring down the price of arugula.

But hey, there's good news on energy policy coming from the Dems: Maxine Waters's spokeperson claims that she didn't really mean it when Waters talked about nationalizing the oil industry. As Betsy says,

At least we're still at the point that even someone like Waters has to pretend that she doesn't really want to socialize American industry.

One has to wonder what Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) has to say next. Here's what he was saying last week:

Link: sevenload.com

Meanwhile, the Brazilians oil exploration may mean that their recent discoveries may all be connected and form one big oil field. How's that for a gimmick, Obama?

While we wait for the senator to answer that question, let's ponder the No Zone again:

House Dems want to nationalize oil industry

I was wondering if the Dems would come up with a Pooh approach to energy, and Francis Porretto pointed out in the comments

Don't imagine for a minute that the Democrats don't grasp the importance of increasing our domestic oil supply. They do; that's why they're against it.

William E. Simon noted in his magnificent memoir A Time For Truth that those who love power also love scarcity, for scarcity confers power on whoever can get control of the supply of the scarce item. Democrats are eager for a genuine energy shortage to befall us, because it would allow them to institute rationing and government allocation of petrochemicals -- a complete stranglehold over the American economy.

The House Democrats are tripping over themselves to prove Porretto's point:

Link: sevenload.com

Allahpundit points out that

this makes two congressional Democrats on record within the past month as supporting an overtly socialist "solution" to gas prices. How many others agree with a plurality of their base but simply haven't spoken up yet?

Rest assured that the environmental concerns would vanish as soon as that happens. Mary Anastasia O'Grady said it best,

It comes down to this: Where government has the property right, restrictions on development tend to be low. But when the private sector is the owner, environmental concerns blossom.

Jay quotes Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY),

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the most-ardent opponents of off-shore drilling, "We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market."

Listen to Porretto, folks.

UPDATE
Sister Toldjah outlines Pres. Bush's plan:

1. Increase access to the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
2. Tap into the extraordinary potential of oil shale.
3. Permit exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
4. Expand and enhance our refinery capacity.

Yes, I know, we should have been doing this six years ago.

Don't miss the Daily Blog Buzz.

Speaking of ANWR (via Sam)




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Why Brazil Isn't Ashamed to Exploit Its Oil

Mary Anastasia O'Grady has an excellent article in the WSJ, Why Brazil Isn't Ashamed to Exploit Its Oil. She explains why in detail, but it all boils down to this:

Brazilians understand the importance of energy to their future, while Americans do not.

Allow me to reiterate that: BRAZILIANS UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF ENERGY TO THEIR FUTURE, WHILE AMERICANS DO NOT.The difference between the Brazilians, whose environmentalists don't complain about offshore drilling, and the US is that Petrobras is state-owned, and here in the USA oil companies are privately-owned companies, so the socialist environmentalist mindset doesn't complain about the Brazilian approach.

Congress' insistence on the federal ban on offshore oil drilling not only causes short-term effects like high gas prices, but continues to make us increasingly dependent on foreign oil producers, most of which are oppressive tyrannies, several of which also support terrorism.

At least McCain seems to have realized this. McCain Seeks to End Offshore Drilling Ban:

"We must embark on a national mission to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil," McCain told reporters yesterday. In a speech today, he plans to add that "we have untapped oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. . . . It is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions."

Let's hope he wakes up when it comes to ANWR, too.

Obama, however, thinks of oil drilling in these terms:

"John McCain's plan to simply drill our way out of our energy crisis is the same misguided approach backed by President Bush that has failed our families for too long and only serves to benefit the big oil companies,"

Obama doesn't seem to realize that
a. the oil is underground
b. it has to be drilled to get up to the surface
c. that's what oil companies do.
Can we "simply drill our way out of our energy crisis"? YES WE CAN.

McCain also wants federal subsidies to build nuclear power plants. While I normally oppose federal subsidies in general, this kind of large-scale infrastructure development should be a good use of taxpayer monies if appropriately managed.

Obama? He wants more regulation public utilities, and some greenhouse-gas emissions credits auction hocus-pocus. Perhaps it's all part of his Winnie the Pooh approach to things.


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The Brazilians must have been reading Luke 11:9

Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Knock, knock:
BG, Petrobras Find More Oil in Brazil's Santos Basin

BG Group Plc, the U.K.'s third-largest oil and gas company, and Petroleo Brasileiro SA made a second discovery in Brazil's Santos Basin.

The Guara exploration well struck oil in the BM-S-9 concession area, according to the partners, which also include Repsol YPF SA. That's in the same block as the Carioca discovery in September, which Brazil's petroleum regulator said may contain as many as 33 billion barrels of oil.
...
Guara and Carioca are ultra-deep wells beneath a salt layer under the seabed known as pre-salt fields. These fields lie below as much as 10,000 meters (33,000 feet) of ocean and seabed, forming a new province of Brazilian oil reserves beneath shallower existing fields.

Tupi Field

BG and Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras are also exploring the Tupi field in the Santos Basin. Tupi, the biggest discovery in the Americas since 1976, and the nearby fields may cost $240 billion to exploit, according to estimates from Peter Wells, director of U.K. research firm Neftex Petroleum Consultants Ltd. and a former Royal Dutch Shell Plc exploration manager.

Or, as IBD put it,

Amazing what you find if you just keep looking out there. Why can't the U.S. Drill Like Brazil?

Why? Because of Congress.

And let's not forget that Brazil will soon be drilling off the coast of Florida, too.

UPDATE
Welcome, Instapundit readers. For more items on Latin America, please visit this Monday Carnival.

Follow-up post
Why Brazil Isn't Ashamed to Exploit Its Oil

Others blogging on this
Powerline
The Discerning Texan
Ace O'Spades
Gateway Pundit
Transterrestial Musings



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Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

Human ingenuity rises to the challenge:
Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol
Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'

As soon as the process becomes commercially viable, Congress will come along and tax the sh*t out of them.



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The Congressional anorexics

Congress insists in a form of energy resource anorexia: locking up our natural resources as a matter of public policy. Like the eating disorder, the present Congressional dysfucntionality changes the body image from that of a healthy organism to that of a starving skeleton.

Today's WSJ refers to Congress as $4 Gasbags, and here is a description of their anorexia (emphasis added):

Anyone wondering why U.S. energy policy is so dysfunctional need only review Congress's recent antics. Members have debated ideas ranging from suing OPEC to the Senate's carbon tax-and-regulation monstrosity, to a windfall profits tax on oil companies, to new punishments for "price gouging" - everything except expanding domestic energy supplies.

America has plentiful resources:

While energy "independence" is an impossible dream, there's no doubt the U.S. has vast undeveloped fossil-fuel deposits. A tiny corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge contains an estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil and would be the largest producing oil field in the Northern Hemisphere. Yet the Senate blocked that development as recently as last month. The Outer Continental Shelf is estimated to contain some 86 billion barrels of oil, plus 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Yet of the shelf's 1.76 billion acres, 85% is off-limits and 97% is undeveloped.

Engineers recently perfected refining solid shale rock into diesel or gas, which may amount to the largest oil supply in the world – perhaps as much as 1.8 trillion barrels in the American West. That's enough to meet current U.S. oil demand for more than two centuries. Yet as late as 2007, Democrats attached a rider to the energy bill that prohibits leasing the federal interior lands that contain at least 80% of America's oil shale. The key vote was cast by liberal Senator Ken Salazar from Colorado, of all places.

Will the Republicans, starting with John McCain, wake up and make this the crucial issue of the upcoming election?

Or are going to keep looking in the mirror seeing a skeleton?

UPDATE
Via Maria, Voters Say 'Drill' -- But Neither Candidate Gets It

Via Denny




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Democrat stupidity on drilling endangers our economy

Yid With Lid has a great post on oil drilling

The Number ONE economic issue in this election season should be energy, specifically tapping America's incredible domestic energy resources.Its time for America to wake up and smell the gas fumes. TODAY the US is sitting on an estimated 115 billion barrels of oil and 633 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, if tapped it would be enough to drive down the price of oil, lower the cost of producing food cutting down those costs, and free the United States from the grip of the Oil Producing countries, many of which use their petrodollars to fund terrorism. Sounds Cool right? Lets Go DO IT !!! Well we can't.

U.S. Federal government and various states ban drilling in thousands upon thousands of square miles off the U.S. Coast. So we are at the mercy of both OPEC and the overreacting environmentalists. Yesterday our friends in the Democratic Party blocked a bill that would allowed off shore drilling between 50 and 200 miles from shore. In other words far enough away from shore to protect the coastline.

Via Babalu,

Over 640,000 people have signed Newt's petition for Congress to allow drilling in proven oil reserves. You can sign here.

It's time for real change:



Prior posts:
Thank you, Democrat Congress
China, Venezuela and now Brazil soon to be drilling off the coast of Florida while America sits on its own natural resources



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China, Venezuela and now Brazil soon to be drilling off the coast of Florida while America sits on its own natural resources

Petrobras studying block in deep Cuban waters

Brazilian state oil company Petrobras is studying a block in deep Cuban waters for possible exploration as part of broader cooperation with the Caribbean island, a top advisor to the company said on Friday.

"We are planning to cooperate not only in exploration and production, but lubricants, refining and training," Andre Ghirardi told Reuters in Havana at a one-day meeting of Brazilian and Cuban businessmen.

That way they can all drink our milkshake:

The US Geological Survey estimated the North Cuba basin could contain 4.6 billion barrels of oil, with a high-end potential of 9.3 billion barrels, and close to 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Let's take a look at the NO Zone:


What are the US politicians doing?

The Senate will vote this week on a bill that will raise energy prices, create a huge federal bureaucracy when we have too many as it is, and will lower carbon emissions over the next 25 years by half of what we've accomplished over the last six through free-market initiatives

The House & the Senate can bring down the price of oil and raise the value of the dollar if they dared to approve drilling of ANWR and offshore drilling, increasing the coal industry, and approving nuclear power plants and new refineries.

Instead, they are looking for ways to further sink the economy with bills like Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008.

Shame on them.

UPDATE, Wednesday 4 June
Welcome, Protein Wisdom readers! Please visit often.



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The collapsing Venezuelan oil industry

Venezuela's Petroleum Imports Surge. No, it's not a typo. It's imports they're talking about (emphasis added):

Venezuela's state petroleum company, Petroleos de Venezuela, increased petroleum imports by nearly 150% between the first quarter of 2007 and the same period this year, bank statistics show.

A report by the Venezuelan central bank this week demonstrated that petroleum imports reached $1.5 billion during the first quarter of 2008. The imports, which include diesel oil, gasoline and chemical additives for gasoline products, are the country's highest in more than a decade.

Additionally, Venezuela's lying about its total oil production:

Venezuela's state oil company says it produced 3.15 million barrels per day last year. Analysts including the Paris-based International Energy Administration put Venezuela's production at around 2.4 million.

Mr. Garcia said that while the petroleum sector reported growth of 3.3% in the first quarter, this figure is "not consistent with the number of active rigs." PDVSA declared an emergency shortage of oil rigs last July, and the company's year-end report showed they had just 111.

My friend Brian Faughnam of the Weekly Standard Blog:

Venezuela should be awash in wealth derived from the high price of oil, but Chavez's government has been siphoning off oil profits rather than reinvesting them in production. Combine that with the seizure of assets from private companies and the confiscatory windfall profits tax on the private firms that remain, and suddenly Venezuela seems unable to make money off its vast oil resources. (More on the failures of state-owned oil companies here.)

This is more bad news for Hugo Chavez, who has seen Brazil check his ambitions in the region, and who has been embarrassed by the discovery of his ties to FARC (the death of whose leader is mourned by Chavez). At home his enemies are finally presenting a united front against him. It may be only a matter of time before Chavez has to decide whether to depart the scene gracefully, or to cling to power by force.

The US Congress should jump at this opportunity and aggressively enact laws allowing drilling at ANWR and offshore, the further development and use of coal, and the building of oil refineries and nuclear power plants. These measures would all cause the price of oil to drop immediately and in the long run. They would also substantially weaken the power of oil tyrants like Chavez and the Middle East dictators.

Will Congress do that?

Of course not.

UPDATE
Via Larwyn, Don Suber posts that

Newt Gingrich gets the petition rolling to get Congress to open up offshore drilling.
...
The group is American Solutions, a 527 started by Newt Gingrich. Sign the petition here

Let's see if Congress will listen.

Via Denny,


House of Oil Repute



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How to reach $300/barrel oil

Now that everyone's bellyaching about $135/barrel oil (or whatever record-high price it reaches today), let's review how we got here:

• No new oil refineries in decades
• No nuclear power plants built in the USA since the 1960s
• Severely restrict drilling and exploitation of our own oil resources, while the Chinese drink our milkshake off Florida

The US government is limiting access to our own resources, as Shell's John Hofmeister explained

According to the Department of the Interior, 62 percent of all on-shore federal lands are off limits to oil and gas developments, with restrictions applying to 92 percent of all federal lands. We have an outer continental shelf moratorium on the Atlantic Ocean, an outer continental shelf moratorium on the Pacific Ocean, an outer continental shelf moratorium on the eastern Gulf of Mexico, congressional bans on on-shore oil and gas activities in specific areas of the Rockies and Alaska, and even a congressional ban on doing an analysis of the resource potential for oil and gas in the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The Democrat's response: they want Hofmeister to guarantee that prices will not go up again. Top that one with Maxine Water's proposal to nationalize (she couldn't get herself to utter "nationalize", so she stumbled with "socialize") the oil companies. Here's the video.

Up to now, it was absolutely inconceivable to me that a sitting representative would actually threaten - forget about suggesting - to nationalize a whole sector of private industry.

The Democrats are unable to understand that they are handing our own national security over to terror-supporting nations that produce oil; not only by guaranteeing a constant flow of dollars to them, but by granting them the power to manipulate the American economy.

I totally agree with Kim at Wizbang,

Now, if the US government and the Democrats like Ms. Waters were truly interested in erasing the oil companies' record profits and helping the American consumers, then they would be doing everything they could to increase oil and gasoline production so as to saturate the market. The price of oil and gasoline would then drop through the floor. Remember when oil was $8 a barrel and gasoline was a mere $.95? Oil companies were merging left and right because they couldn't stay in business on their own and the price of gas wasn't on the American people's radar. If punishing the oil companies is truly what Democrats like Maxine Waters really want to do, then they would glut the market. They would change the law so that the supply of oil and gasoline vastly outpaced demand and oil and gas prices dropped.

In all their self-serving grandiosity the Democrats want the price oil to continue to rise since it will bring about chaos to a Republican administration.

Socialism has failed everywhere, but to the Dems, if it brings them to power, they are willing to drive us to ruin. The bottom line is this: the more dependent we become on government the less prosperity we will ever enjoy.

As long as they steer the ship of state, expect oil to reach $300/barrel in the future.

UPDATE
... to be left-liberal and Left these days, you have to be ignorant of economics.
More on Maxine via Obi's sister>



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Today at 11AM Eastern: Rep. Jeb Hensarling

In today's podcast at 11AM Eastern, we'll talk to Congressman Jeb Hensarling, Rep. TX, about his proposed Bloggers' Bill of Rights, the Blogger Protection Act of 2008, which would give bloggers permanent protection from FEC campaign laws when linking to campaign Web sites or editorializing about candidates. As Bill Hobbs explains,

The FEC granted bloggers protection two years ago from regulations that potentially could have defined bloggers' linking to a campaign Web site or editorializing about a candidate a campaign contribution or expenditure. Hensarling's legislation would make those regulatory protections statutory.

Here's what his office has to say on the Bill:

Two years ago, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations that protected bloggers from being hampered by certain campaign finance laws. Under these regulations, bloggers cannot be considered to have made a contribution or expenditure on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate simply because they link to campaign websites or write about the positions of federal candidates. Additionally, blogs are treated as any other publication under the general media exemption from most campaign finance restrictions. Without such protections, bloggers could be subject to various limitations and reporting requirements under campaign finance law.

But these blogger protections are just regulatory—they are not in statute. As you may know, regulations can be changed without congressional action, and there’s no telling what a future FEC might decide to do. Furthermore, the FEC is currently defunct because of vacancies and a lack of quorum. Therefore, we shouldn’t put the freedom of bloggers in the regulatory hands of the FEC. Congress should protect them in law.

If Congressman Hensarling has time, we'll also touch on the spending limit amendment.

Chat's open at 10:45 and the call in number is (646) 652-2639. Join us!




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Support the Blogger Protection Act of 2008

I just got this email from Mike Schrimpf of the Center for Competitive Politics

Friends,

Rep. Jeb Hensarling introduced the Blogger Protection Act of 2008 (pdf file) today.

Will you join the Center for Competitive Politics in supporting this important bill?

The bill protects bloggers from dangerous campaign finance regulations by guarantees blogs the same protections granted to other forms of media under federal campaign finance laws.

The legislation also protects bloggers from ever being considered to have made a contribution or expenditure on behalf of, or in opposition to, a candidate by simply linking to campaign websites or writing about the positions of federal candidates.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations two years ago protecting bloggers from being hampered by these campaign finance laws. But these blogger protections are just regulatory—they are not in statute.

As you know, regulations can be changed without congressional action, and there's no telling what a future FEC might decide to do. Therefore, we shouldn't put the freedom of bloggers in the regulatory hands of the FEC. Congress should protect them in law.

Please let me know if you are interested in supporting the Blogger Protection Act of 2008.

If you do support the bill, we would appreciate if you are willing to sign onto this letter to Congress that the Center for Competitive Politics drafted in support of the bill.

Also, we would ask that you blog about this bill. And feel free to spread the word to fellow bloggers!

Every blogger should read the bill and take action.



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A FARC fan. . . in congress

Gerard links to the WSJ editorial, A FARC Fan's Notes.

I have posted in the past asking for Congress to pass a free-trade agreement with Colombia. This would be a huge step towards improving the Colombian economy, possibly curtail immigration into the US, while at the same time it would have nearly no negative effect on the American economy.

Congress is firmly doing nothing.

Why?

Well, consider the following:

A hard drive recovered from the computer of a killed Colombian guerrilla has offered more insights into the opposition of House Democrats to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

A military strike three weeks ago killed Raúl Reyes, No. 2 in command of the FARC, Colombia's most notorious terrorist group. The Reyes hard drive reveals an ardent effort to do business directly with the FARC by Congressman James McGovern (D., Mass.), a leading opponent of the free-trade deal. Mr. McGovern has been working with an American go-between, who has been offering the rebels help in undermining Colombia's elected and popular government.

Mr. McGovern's press office says the Congressman is merely working at the behest of families whose relatives are held as FARC kidnap hostages. However, his go-between's letters reveal more than routine intervention. The intervenor with the FARC is James C. Jones, who the Congressman's office says is a "development expert and a former consultant to the United Nations."
...
Mr. McGovern's office says it knew what Mr. Jones was doing and engaged with him because "we need to find an interlocutor who could discuss these things including the safe haven" for the guerrillas.

We now know where Congressman's McGovern's sympathies lie.

UPDATE
Not only McGovern:
Via Gateway Pundit by way of Larwyn, Semana says,

Another discusses an apparent effort by U.S. Democrats to have celebrated novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez mediate talks with the insurgents — possibly with former President Clinton's involvement.

There is no evidence the FARC ever obtained surface-to-air missiles, however. Attempts to reach Clinton and Garcia Marquez were unsuccessful.

Hillary have any experience on this too?



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Beltway Circus: Dems Outmaneuvered on Impeachment

Anyone who harbors any doubt that Washington is one huge three-ring circus need only read this caper:

Dems Outmaneuvered on Impeachment

Michelle Malkin has a blow-by-blow of the sporting event.

Dan Riehl asks,Republicans: The Nutroots Best Friend?

Memeorandum has lots more on the whole spectacle.



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Today's cartoon on the rush on Rush

Michael Ramirez has it.

More blogging later.

Kobayashi Maru: 'Taking Out' Drudge and Rush--A Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy?

Carl Hulse agrees: Limbaugh Latest Victim in War of Condemnation

A resolution introduced by 20 Democrats urges the House to condemn the "unwarranted slur" made by Mr. Limbaugh, though it does not condemn the broadcaster himself.

Their push, not coincidentally, comes after House and Senate Republicans maneuvered some Democrats into voting to condemn an advertisement by MoveOn.org in The New York Times last month that referred to Gen. David H. Petraeus as "General Betray Us."

"What's good for the goose is good for the gander," Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the House majority leader, said Tuesday.

I do not like Limbaugh but this particular Dem maneuver is quite telling:
1. a game of tit-for-tat
2. while waffling: condemning the slur "but not the broadcaster himself."

Or as Betsy puts it,

When the Democrats are reduced to editing a Limbaugh quote so that they can pretend to be all outraged they just expose the hollowness of their own support for our troops.

Technorati: Rush Limbaugh
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Dems kill "John Doe"

Poster via Gateway PunditIn yet an other example of its characteristic idiocy and denial, the Democrats have killed "John Doe".

John Hinderaker:

Democrats on the House/Senate conference committee have dropped from the Homeland Security bill the provision that would protect "John Doe" citizens from lawsuits when they report suspicious behavior to the authorities.

This is a good example of how Congress really works. The "John Doe" measure passed the House on a 304-121 vote, which means that many Democrats didn't want to go on record as opposing the measure. Instead, they killed it quietly in conference committee. So now Democrats in "swing" districts--those must be the ones where voters take seriously the risk of terrorist attack--can tell voters that they voted for the measure, and take no responsibility for the fact it never became law. This dodge is as old as the Republic.

It also shows the importance of party affiliation. If the Republicans still controlled Congress, a majority of conferees never would have voted to strip "John Doe" protection out of the bill

Michelle Malkin, who has the roll call: not one Republican voted against it.

Others blogging about it:
Captain's Quarters, who wants to know how Democrats can posture as responsible guardians of national security while throwing citizen tipsters to the litigating wolves in his post at Heading Right
Center for Vigilant Freedom
Hot Air
Take Our Country Back
Atlas Shrugs
Betsy's Page

Let's see if the Democrats are willing to vote publicly against such protections for American bystanders.

More links at Pajamas Media

Update
Obi's Sister



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