For Immediate Release
March 11, 2011
"He's talking out both sides of his mouth," said Marita K. Noon, of energy advocate organization Energy Makes America Great Inc, about President Obama's quickly-called middle-of-the-day news conference today about rising energy prices for the American people.
Obama often uses global or domestic events to bury major policy announcements during weekend news cycles when Americans aren't paying attention.
In today's "never let a good crisis go to waste" news conference, Obama, on one hand, bragged about how domestic oil production was at its highest in seven years. At the same time, Obama told reporters that his administration is being careful about exploration permits, drilling and extraction because, he said, even if drilling started immediately, no appreciable increase in domestic oil production would take place for several years.
"So which is it?," said Noon.
"Obama stated that domestic production is at its highest since 2003 and implied that it is because of his energy policies. The truth is, it's at its highest because of the previous administrations' actions--including lifting a ban on oil drilling in the Gulf. This had nothing to do with Obama or his energy policies--which have actually thwarted exploration and drilling at every turn."
"His administration and his Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar have continually worked to prevent exploration by putting a moratorium on Gulf drilling following the BP oil spill in April of last year," said Noon. "In addition, Obama's administration has also begun a quiet back-door policy of designating 'National Monuments,' federal 'Wild Land' areas and locking up lands due to supposed "endangered" species--all of which will prevent any future exploration, much less drilling", said Noon.
The bottom line is, according to Noon, these policies will only cause more pain for Americans at the gas pump. Not only have unemployment levels reached record highs under Obama's policies, many Americans are now having trouble paying for gasoline to get to their jobs--if they are lucky enough to have them.
