U.S. energy woes: Obama unprepared for the inevitable
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 9:57AM 
Obama should have heeded what Harvey Gulf CEO Shane Guidry told Fox News in March, 2011.
It’s painful right now, going to the pump, isn’t it? It’s bad enough we’re paying more for electricity, health insurance premiums and food, but those gas prices pack a double whammy.
President Barack Obama rightly cites a number of reasons the price of gas has skyrocketed, but he omits his energy policy and he also omits his failure to prepare for the inevitable.
Fact is we pay the U.S. president to set our foreign policy and if he didn’t foresee current disruptions, he probably should be handing out a few pink slips to select appointees.
The other fact is that Obama and the rest of us are unprepared for the potential granddaddy of all disruptions to the oil supply—Iran.
We should’ve been expanding drilling years ago, when then-Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and others were advising, “Drill, baby, drill.”
Dems are not going to expand these resources. For one thing, Leftist eco-groups have the party in a chokehold.
Whether Obama likes it or not, the world wants oil. China certainly does, and makes no bones about it. That country has, in fact, “stockpiled petroleum,” according to Politico.
The Financial Times called attention to disruptions; Obama knew some of this was coming:
“Jitters about Iran-related risk come at a time when the oil market is experiencing real disruptions to supply. Production from South Sudan has been knocked out by a transit dispute: pipeline sabotage and labour strikes have affected output in Colombia and Yemen, and Syrian exports have been hit by violence and sanctions.”
Our president overreacted to a foreign company’s oil crisis in the Gulf, and shut down the Gulf, as one business owner in the area said, “in a single day.”
What kind of president doesn’t factor in our reliance on unstable countries in an unstable region of the world for a commodity our economy is indisputably and vitally linked to? He certainly knows higher prices for oil mean higher prices for everything we consume. It’s not just about that pump you’re staring at in shock when you fill up.
Obama told Brazil the U.S. wanted to be one of their best customers—that was after the U.S. taxpayer helped fund a loan for Brazil to drill in the Gulf where Obama’s policy has shut down sizable levels of U.S. drilling.
We should have been preparing for these disruptions by a true “all of the above approach,” rather than a fantasy that has, as the president promised during his campaign, sent our electricity bills “neccesarily skyrocketing.”
Obama knows we have less of something that we currently need more of because everyone else wants more of it too.
Steve Maley writes an energy blog. Here’s what he said:
“As for 2012, the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook for 2010 (AEO2010), published in December 2009, forecast GoM crude oil production to average 1.76 million b/d. The latest estimate is 1.26 million b/d. (For those keeping score, that’s a loss of 500,000 b/d, using the government’s numbers, not mine.) The Department of the Interior’s reaction to the Macondo blowout was a drilling moratorium and permitting slowdown which led to the exodus of 11 deepwater drilling rigs from the Gulf.”
Maley also laid out tips for the U.S. to address rising gas prices, and they make so much sense Obama should fire his energy sec. Steven Chu and hire Maley. What Chu does best is sink tax dollars into losing enterprises like Solyndra and tell us how great those $50 light bulbs are.
Media have gone easy on Obama—that’s not surprising. Most large media are firmly in the Leftist camp. They didn’t go easy on President George W. Bush when it came to those gas prices, though.
Thing is, Bush at least had the sense to try to do something about it even if he wouldn’t reap the benefits of his policy.
Think how high that gas would be if Bush hadn’t done that.
~~Read more articles about energy in archives at The US Report.
(Commentary by Kay B. Day/March 14, 2012)
Reader Comments (2)
Obama also omits his inflation as a reason for the high price.
His dollar policy hangs over us like a blade. We will pay for it if things don't change.~~KBD