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View Full Version : Obama...same old plan different verse



okie52
2/28/2012, 01:08 PM
Obama’s offshore drilling pledge restates existing plan

By Ben Geman - 01/25/12 08:54 AM ET


President Obama’s State of the Union speech endorsed expanded offshore oil-and-gas drilling but didn’t alter existing administration plans that energy companies and Republicans complain are too narrow.

Obama, in his speech, called for continued increases in U.S. oil production. “Over the last three years, we’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration, and tonight, I’m directing my administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil-and-gas resources,” Obama said in the Capitol.

The “75 percent” comment, however, is a nod to the Interior Department’s draft 2012-2017 offshore leasing plan, unveiled late last year. An administration official confirmed that Obama’s comment is a reference to the Interior plan released last November.

That plan, which does not require congressional approval, envisions a suite of new oil-and-gas lease sales in resource-rich areas in the western and central Gulf of Mexico and, in the later years, off Alaska’s northern coast.

But the plan does not include leasing off the Atlantic Coast or in the eastern Gulf of Mexico — regions the administration pulled from consideration in the wake of the 2010 BP oil spill. (Leasing in the eastern Gulf would have required legislation to remove the moratoria in place there.)
Republicans and oil companies are pushing plans that would require vastly expanded leasing compared to the Interior proposal.

Advocates of wider drilling also say that testing and exploration in untapped areas, such as Virginia’s coast, will yield expanded resource estimates.

The House approved legislation last May that would mandate much wider leasing than the administration envisions, including areas off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), the author of the House-passed measure, knocked Obama’s comments on drilling, arguing the “lofty rhetoric” is at odds with the White House record on energy.

Hastings, in a statement, said, “An accurate description of President Obama’s energy policies would include: reinstating an offshore drilling ban off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.”
He knocked other White House policies he alleges hinder job creation and energy security, including rejection of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

Obama’s speech, in addition to the offshore drilling comments, touted expanded onshore natural-gas production while reiterating his call for repealing oil-industry tax breaks.

The tax proposal drew an attack from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group. “Advocating greater energy production but penalizing those who provide that energy is not a sound energy policy, but a contradiction,” said Jack Gerard, the group’s CEO, in response to Obama's speech.

Interior Department officials, when rolling out the draft offshore plan last November, said it strikes the right balance.

“The proposed program will promote safe and responsible domestic energy production by offering substantial acreage for lease in regions with known potential for oil and gas development,” Interior said when announcing the plan.

Obama, in his Tuesday speech, touted tougher offshore drilling rules that Interior imposed after the 2010 BP spill. “I will not back down from making sure an oil company can contain the kind of oil spill we saw in the Gulf two years ago,” he said.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/206407-obamas-offshore-drilling-pledge-re-states-existing-plan

I really hope the pubs nail him on this. The ultimate treachery and hardly a word in the press about it.

badger
2/28/2012, 01:33 PM
I really hope the pubs nail him on this. The ultimate treachery and hardly a word in the press about it.

I think they already are :)

There's also plenty more material for them to work with that is related to this... the increasing gas prices, the job market, the growing instability of the Middle East... etc.

okie52
2/28/2012, 01:35 PM
I think they already are :)

There's also plenty more material for them to work with that is related to this... the increasing gas prices, the job market, the growing instability of the Middle East... etc.

I didn't realize he shut down the coasts again...not what he was projecting during his state of the union speech.

KantoSooner
2/28/2012, 02:03 PM
A Modest Proposal:

1. All Oil and Gas production royalties to the State and Federal governments should be paid in kind, at a fixed percentage of production. It's time to admit that the corporate lawyers are just plain brighter than their government counterparts and get depantsed when things get too complex.

2. Some people in some states seem to like having energy but not having it produced close to them. (Let's call these people what they are: "azzholes"). But we are a nation that respects the rights and perogatives of individuals. Let's have each state decide, in that method they prescribe as best (special election, referendum, gubenatorial declaration, whatever) whether they wish to have a total ban on, a) off shore drilling, b) fracking, c) pipeline right of ways, etc. Those who want such total bans can have them.

And for such states that want the total bans, there will be a new FEDERAL tax levy equivalent to 50% the value of the fuel. This tax will go into national debt reduction, but not back to that state.
In this way, the azzhole states can make clear both their higher commitment to principal AND their commitment to the common weal.

What an inspiration it would be to those of us knuckle-dragging neanderthals who are still wedded to the outmoded notion that fossil fuels will be necessary for a while to come.

(And, in the meantime, New York can keep its trash rather than sending it to Texas. And no more open ocean dumping of solid waste or sewage. You have Central Park, use it for a landfill.
Azzholes.)

badger
2/28/2012, 02:05 PM
Hehehe, that WOULD be a way to get the liberal states to loosen up a bit wouldn't it? Punch em in the wallet! :P

TUSooner
2/28/2012, 02:19 PM
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/206407-obamas-offshore-drilling-pledge-re-states-existing-plan

I really hope the pubs nail him on this. The ultimate treachery and hardly a word in the press about it.

Unfortunately, just now their candidates are too busy trying to prove that the other R candidates are wackos -- and succeeding.

okie52
2/28/2012, 03:17 PM
Unfortunately, just now their candidates are too busy trying to prove that the other R candidates are wackos -- and succeeding.

True. It is amazing a president this inept might actually get reelected.

okie52
2/28/2012, 03:22 PM
A Modest Proposal:

1. All Oil and Gas production royalties to the State and Federal governments should be paid in kind, at a fixed percentage of production. It's time to admit that the corporate lawyers are just plain brighter than their government counterparts and get depantsed when things get too complex.

2. Some people in some states seem to like having energy but not having it produced close to them. (Let's call these people what they are: "azzholes"). But we are a nation that respects the rights and perogatives of individuals. Let's have each state decide, in that method they prescribe as best (special election, referendum, gubenatorial declaration, whatever) whether they wish to have a total ban on, a) off shore drilling, b) fracking, c) pipeline right of ways, etc. Those who want such total bans can have them.

And for such states that want the total bans, there will be a new FEDERAL tax levy equivalent to 50% the value of the fuel. This tax will go into national debt reduction, but not back to that state.
In this way, the azzhole states can make clear both their higher commitment to principal AND their commitment to the common weal.

What an inspiration it would be to those of us knuckle-dragging neanderthals who are still wedded to the outmoded notion that fossil fuels will be necessary for a while to come.

(And, in the meantime, New York can keep its trash rather than sending it to Texas. And no more open ocean dumping of solid waste or sewage. You have Central Park, use it for a landfill.
Azzholes.)

Haha.

The fed actually has in most leases that I'm aware of the right to take in kind...and I think the government is trying to get rid of that clause.

Can't disagree with you on the states options except they really don't have any rights offshore...all belongs to the feds. But i'd be fine with your approach.