Obama energy firewall: Atlantic, Pacific and parts of Arctic off-limits for US producers

This photograph from the Library of Congress Digital Collection is dated 1944; it was produced by the Office of War Information.. The caption said, “America's petroleum industries pour out fuel and lubricants for the United Nations.” At that point in America’s history, the enviro-lobby did not have absolute control over America’s natural resources. The Independent Petroleum Association of America is not happy with President Barack Obama’s Proposed 5-year Program for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Natural Gas leasing for 2012-2017.

IPAA sent a letter to the 5-year Program Manager at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Based on the letter, it’s evident the Obama Administration still has offshore drilling on de facto lockdown. IPAA said the administration “should not leave the entire Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and portions of the Arctic off-limits to new oil and gas production and job creation.”

Obama even said no to one US state eager to put people back to work.

IPAA was “especially disappointed that despite strong bipartisan support from the state of Virginia advocating for the inclusion of a lease sale offshore of that state, it is being denied the opportunity for a lease sale off its own shore.”

IPAA also said Obama’s proposed program “provides no new opportunities…in highly prospective areas that have been unavailable for leasing for more than 25 years.”

Main Street won’t just lose more than 76,000 jobs according to IPAA. The US taxpayer will offset losses of $1.3 trillion in additional federal, state and local government revenue.

In his State of the Union Address on January 25, Obama said this as he expounded (at length) on US energy needs:

“Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all -- and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen.”

More than 170 members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to the BOEM. Those members asked Obama to consider “new and expanded access to the OCS for the production of oil and natural gas.”

The letter was a bipartisan deal. When have you seen Rep. Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz.)  name by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s(D-Texas)  on a document related to policy?

What do Flake and Jackson have in common? They want jobs for the people they took an oath to represent. As a matter of fact, every name in the House should have been on that letter.

Natural resources aren’t the exclusive property of Obama and leftwing enviro-groups. Every American has a stake in natural resources on our land and in our waters.

Obama decided US taxpayers would support a $2 billion loan to Brazil for offshore drilling. He said he hoped the US would be one of Brazil’s best customers.

In December, 2011, Real Clear Energy announced, “Today a subsidiary controlled by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, a state owned enterprise of the People’s Republic of China, teamed up with Canadian company Nexen to control up to 6 Gulf of Mexico offshore leases…”

Obviously this is not an America-First president. His utopian ideals lead him to punt advantages to other countries because of a stubborn obsession with ideology.

If Americans re-elect Obama, we will continue to see our economic position in the world deteriorate. We don’t need a president of the world in the White House. We need a president who truly represents all the American people and recognizes that we all have a stake in our resources.

IPAA represents more than 6,000 independent producers who drill 95 percent of US oil wells, produce 85 percent of US natural gas and 54 percent of domestically produced oil. These producers are ready to roll up their sleeves and help put Americans to work in jobs that pay well. Our president refuses to work with them.

Obama hasn’t just clamped down on these natural resources—he’s poured more than a billion US taxpayer dollars into failing alternative energy projects that at the moment aren't drilling anything but red ink.

Related Article at The US Report

Oil, gas producers to Obama: Encourage energy in US, not other countries

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Feb. 10, 2012)

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