Once again, President Obama is talking out both sides of his mouth, and the media is running themselves ragged, defending and praising both sides of the story.
For weeks, gas prices have been climbing, and Obama has repeatedly stated that we can’t drill our way out of the problem. He even went as far as mocking Republicans for their interests in drilling, and compared them to the “flat-earthers” of Columbus days. At the same time, he’s promoting drilling, by claiming that we’re drilling now more than ever. This statement would lead one to believe that he supports drilling and is signing permits left and right, while the truth is that the drilling is on private land only. Obama has continued to stall on permits for drilling in the Gulf.
Now he’s taken this hypocrisy a step further. While he still claims drilling won’t fix the problem, and actually killed the Keystone Pipeline project just two months ago, he’s trying to take credit for the southern half of the Keystone Pipeline project moving forward, and has even scheduled an appearance there today. In addition, he had the audacity to claim that he pushed through the red tape and bureaucracy to get it done. Hmm…isn’t he the red tape and bureaucracy? So, he denied the application for the pipeline in January, but now he’s the reason it’s going forward? How curious! Here are a few snippets of his speech:
Now, under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. (Applause.) That’s important to know. Over the last three years, I’ve directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.
So we are drilling all over the place — right now. That’s not the challenge. That’s not the problem. In fact, the problem in a place like Cushing is that we’re actually producing so much oil and gas in places like North Dakota and Colorado that we don’t have enough pipeline capacity to transport all of it to where it needs to go — both to refineries, and then, eventually, all across the country and around the world. There’s a bottleneck right here because we can’t get enough of the oil to our refineries fast enough. And if we could, then we would be able to increase our oil supplies at a time when they’re needed as much as possible.
Now, right now, a company called TransCanada has applied to build a new pipeline to speed more oil from Cushing to state-of-the-art refineries down on the Gulf Coast. And today, I’m directing my administration to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles, and make this project a priority, to go ahead and get it done. (Applause.)
Now, you wouldn’t know all this from listening to the television set. (Laughter.) This whole issue of the Keystone pipeline had generated, obviously, a lot of controversy and a lot of politics. And that’s because the original route from Canada into the United States was planned through an area in Nebraska that supplies some drinking water for nearly 2 million Americans, and irrigation for a good portion of America’s croplands. And Nebraskans of all political stripes — including the Republican governor there — raised some concerns about the safety and wisdom of that route.
This project was underway well before Obama got involved. But he’s taking credit anyway, and the media is right beside him, praising him for it….while also supporting his claim that drilling is pointless, when it comes to fixing the rising gas prices. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it.
Right Hook 