Obama's False Promise on Offshore Drilling

This is an interesting article from www.americansolutions.com about the recent news about offshore drilling to encourage American energy independence that follows this previous post about it.. This is a key issue to prevent money from going to hostile countries such as Iran and Venezuela. For more posts like this click here

If you would like to send a comment to Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, click here.


Obama's False Promise on Offshore Drilling
By Steve Everley
More than a year into his presidency and after imposing numerous delays on American energy production, President Obama announced today that he would open up portions of the Outer Continental Shelf to offshore drilling.But the plan is defined more by what it restricts than what it opens up. The Obama administration chose to take off the table large portions of the OCS in an announcement that was supposed to be about expanding American energy. The new plan includes:
No drilling in the Pacific Ocean.
No drilling in a large portion of the Atlantic Ocean.
No drilling in some of the most promising areas of the Gulf of Mexico.
No drilling in much of Alaska.While opening up any portion of the OCS for responsible energy development appears to be a great step forward, the truth is that none of this has been finalized, and most new drilling will not occur until after 2012 at the earliest.The offering also comes with a hefty price: President Obama wants to force Americans to swallow a massive new energy tax before any state will reap the benefits from this new offshore drilling. The bill Mr. Obama urged Congress to pass last summer, the Waxman-Markey energy tax, would eviscerate the economy, killing more than one million jobs per year while raising the cost of energy for all Americans. If an energy tax passes Congress this year, the negative impact on the economy will happen long before the first oil comes from these new offshore leases. In addition, the multitude of steps to be taken before any of these lease sales are made after 2012 are still a work in progress. Each offshore tract that the administration proposes will no doubt fall victim to an array of court challenges and bureaucratic hangups, each of which will push back new offshore drilling even further.Instead of following the will of the people and moving forward immediately with offshore drilling, the President is asking us to trust him to proceed in the future, kicking the can of energy independence years down the road. Recall that during the 2008 campaign then-Senator Obama affirmed his support for offshore drilling, only to take office and implement a series of delays and roadblocks to responsible oil and gas development.According to a study by the American Energy Alliance, offshore drilling has the potential to create millions of new American jobs and could provide more than $2 trillion in new government revenue at the local, state, and federal level. By delaying offshore drilling for at least another two years, the President's decision does nothing to allow us to begin reaping those benefits. Mr. Obama's insistence on imposing a new tax on American energy also hamstrings any future job creation or new drilling revenues. When Congress voted in 2008 not to extend the ban on offshore drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, they did not choose to keep a ban on Pacific waters, nor did they intend for a de facto ban to remain in effect in the OCS for at least another four years. What Congress did through legislative action, acting in accordance with the public will, the President has undone with the stroke of a pen.Despite sweeping rhetoric and a promise to make "tough decisions" on offshore drilling, the Obama administration appears content to maintain a de facto ban on responsible American energy development.