Obama’s True Record on Jobs and Energy

October/19/2012 16:57PM
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President Barack Obama made a strong case during Tuesday night’s debate for how his administration would create “not just jobs,” but “good-paying jobs.” Obama said the jobs would be founded on the advanced manufacturing projects and education initiatives he would enact in a second term.

But Obama’s record on high-paying jobs leaves much to be desired.

A recent study from the National Employment Law Project revealed that about 60 percent of the jobs created since the start of the Great Recession in 2008 were low-wage jobs. By comparison, most of the jobs lost during the same period were middle-wage jobs, the kind Obama was likely referring to when he spoke of “good-paying jobs.”

So, he lied about jobs.

Now for the big lie. This from the American Thinker.

July 19, 2012

Obama Continues to Despise American Energy

By Eileen  F. Toplansky

The  recent Supreme Court decision on ObamaCare gave sufficient cover to the  administration to release a five-year plan for offshore drilling which will  continue to depress the economy and eliminate energy independence in this  country.

This  new plan “resinstitutes a 30-year moratorium  on offshore energy exploration”  in the United States.  Thus, the 44th president has now denied  “access to nearly 98% of America’s vast energy potential on the Outer  Continental Shelf (OCS).”

Thomas  J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research explains that the  “Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act or OCSLA of 1953 provided the interior  secretary with the authority to administer mineral exploration and development  off our nation’s coastlines.”  In effect, this Act allows the interior  secretary to “provide oil and gas leases to the highest-qualified bidder while  establishing guidelines for implementing an oil and gas  exploration-and-development program for the Outer Continental  Shelf.”

In  1978, the Act was amended to require a series of five-year plans that would  provide a schedule for the sale of oil and gas leases in order to better meet  America’s national energy needs.

Since  2008, President Obama and former U.S. Sen. Kenneth L. Salazar of Colorado, the  current interior secretary, have restricted access to American offshore oil and  gas resources.  These restrictions include:

  • Canceling      lease sales
  • Delaying      lease sales
  • Creating      an uncertainty about offshore development that has caused job-creators to      look for other countries’ waters to transport their offshore  rigs
  • Restricting      Alaska’s development of its 24 billion barrels of oil  reserves
  • Prohibiting      Virginians from unlocking their offshore resources of 130 million barrels      of offshore oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural  gas

In  addition, shale oil development is being blocked by this administration.   In effect, Obama has “embargoed nearly 200 years of domestic oil  supply.”

As  a result of these draconian restrictions, the government has lost considerable  revenue from offshore lease sales in the last three years.  In 2008, during  the last year of George W. Bush’s administration, the revenue was $9.48  billion.  In 2011 it was down to $36 million.  Oil production on  federal lands has also dropped as has the number of annual  leases.

This  latest assault on American energy reserves will only worsen the current economic  situation, since the “2012-2017 plan leaves out the entire Atlantic and Pacific  coasts and the vast majority of OCS areas off Alaska.”  But since 2009, the  U.S. government has loaned more than $2 billion to support the Mexican state oil  company in support of oil drilling in the southern Gulf of  Mexico1.  And American tax dollars are being used to support  drilling off the coast of Brazil2.

According to Michelle  Malkin, in the aftermath of the BP oil spill in 2010, “the cost of the  original Obama-Salazar edict [was] an estimated 19,000 jobs and $1.1 billion in  lost wages.”  Amazingly, “this new ban takes both coasts off the table and  throws Alaskan oil and gas sales into uncertain delay.”  The deliberate  “drilling obstructionism”3 “could cost the United States more than  $24 billion in lost oil and natural gas investment in the next several  years”4.

U.S.  District Judge Martin Feldman of New Orleans found that the Obama administration  “acted ‘in contempt’ by continuing its deepwater-drilling moratorium after the  policy was struck down.”  Federal judge Martin  Feldman rebuked the Obama Interior Department for its “determined disregard”  for the law  and maintained that  “[s]uch dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second  blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national  importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence  of the government’s contempt.”

In  light of the administration’s total disregard concerning the moratorium, the question  has arisen if “a second Obama cabinet member [will] be found in contempt” of  Congress.  The possibility exists, since the House has escalated its  efforts to make Interior Secretary Ken Salazar comply with a subpoena pertaining  to the drilling moratorium that he imposed after the Deepwater Horizon oil  spill.

In  essence, the Obama administration ignores a judicial ruling, acts in contempt,  and lies to the American public.  Mr. Obama claimed that he had lifted the Gulf moratorium even though not a  single deepwater permit was issued in nine months.  Obama obfuscates and  maintains that U.S. oil production is higher than it’s been in eight  years.  This is a false claim, since “any increase in domestic drilling  during his tenure has been almost entirely in areas over which the Obama  administration exercises no authority”5.  Furthermore,  economy-stifling, complex new federal drilling regulations most certainly guarantee a continuing inability  for companies to begin any drilling — ergo, a moratorium.  This latest  massive assault against offshore drilling is costing jobs, depressing economic  growth, hindering our national security, pushing up gas prices, and depressing  government revenues which could balance the budget.

In  a reasonable manner, Thomas J. Pyle writes that “[w]ith oil hovering around $85  a barrel and nationwide gas prices nearly double what they were when Mr. Obama  took office, you’d think the administration might implement a sensible plan to  promote robust job creation and safe offshore energy  development.”

It  is sensible to think such a thing only if you think that Obama cares about  America and its inhabitants.  On the other hand, if, as many are  concluding, Obama has a deep-seated destructive impulse against this country,  this ongoing assault is perfectly in line with the 44th president’s  desires.

Eileen  can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.


1Matt  Covet, “Exclusive: U.S. Government Loaned Mexican Government More Than $1  Billion to Drill Oil in Gulf of Mexico Last Year; Has $1 Billion More Planned  For This Year,” CNS News, September 7, 2010.

2  “Lawmakers, Executives Slam Obama for Boosting Brazil’s Offshore Drilling,” Fox  News, March 23, 2011.

3David  Limbaugh. The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama’s War on the Republic.  Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2012.  Chapter Seven of this book  documents Obama’s “statist, ideological hostility to oil” and how it is  resulting in lost jobs and regulatory impediments.

4Ibid.,  p. 227.

5Ibid.,  p. 233

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/07/obama_continues_to_despise_american_energy.html#ixzz29ayzivVo

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