Liberal Activists: Stop Talking About Our Failures!

A couple of weeks ago I was driving up the 880 in Fremont, CA when I spotted this monstrosity along the highway:

It's the massive tomb where $535 million tax dollars are buried - Solyndra, the company which made solar panels at a cost much higher than the Chinese could and went upside down after being praised by Obama. Lefty activists, including a Dem senator, want us to stop talking about it:

The liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America and Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons teamed up Thursday to urge reporters to ignore the Solyndra scandal.

“Media Matters is watching the news all day, every day,” Media Matters President Matt Butler declared during a Thursday morning call with reporters. After “the year-and-a-half long failed investigation of Solyndra” — the collapsed Department of Energy-backed solar company that cost taxpayers $535 million — “clean energy opponents are not letting up,” Butler lamented.

Supporters of green energy should not allow talk of the the Solyndra debacle, and other skepticism directed at federally subsidized fossil fuel alternatives, to overshadow “scores of success stories surrounding American clean energy companies,” Butler said.

But there are also scores of "green" energy companies that have sucked up billions in tax dollars with nothing to show for it. Rather than try and force technology that isn't ready yet, why don't we try funding the stuff we already know works...like oil and coal.

America Has Huge Recoverable Oil Reserves

But if it's on Federal land it might as well be in China:

The Green River Formation, a largely vacant area of mostly federal land that covers the territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together, contains about as much recoverable oil as all the rest the world’s proven reserves combined, an auditor from the Government Accountability Office told Congress on Thursday. …

“The Green River Formation — an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming — contains the world’s largest deposits of oil shale,” Anu K. Mittal, the GAO’s director of natural resources and environment said in written testimony submitted to the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

“USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on available technology and economic conditions,” Mittal testified. …

“As you can imagine having the technology to develop this vast energy resource will lead to a number of important socioeconomic benefits including the creation of jobs, increases in wealth and increases in tax and royalty payments for federal and state governments,” she said.

Meanwhile, the huge Solyndra facility is up for sale in Fremont, CA, and numerous other "green" energy firms have gone bust despite millions in federal dollars. Can you imagine the boost in economic activity that would occur if we opened this land for exploration? Oil prices would fall, unemployment would fall, jobs would soar.

But we can't have that, can we Barack?

Energy Photos of the Day

I took these last weekend of one of Obama's biggest green energy success stories:

The place is massive...and empty.  Hundreds of thousands of square feet costing taxpayers over $500 million.

Energy Cartoon of the Day

Well, it's not a cartoon in the classic sense, but actually illustrations from Obama's campaign website.  See if you notice what was added:

Apparently losing 41% of the West Virginia vote to a federal prison inmate had an effect, because suddenly coal becomes part of Obama's energy picture. Coal plays a huge role in the energy supplies of many, many states, and many of those are swing states Obama needs to win. America is the Saudi Arabia of coal, and yet Dem president after Dem president has done everything they can to keep us from using it. Bill Clinton locked up millions of acres of land thought to hold the cleanest coal we could mine, and Obama has promised to put coal mines and coal-fired power plants out of business.

This little change in the website isn't fooling anybody.

Who Really Owns Big Oil?

Probably you and a lot of your friends and family.  This graphic from Who Owns Big Oil?

You can read all the details at the website.

Energy Quote of the Day

Doesn't this give you confidence in our leaders?

Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that "no one knows" if gasoline prices in the United States will reach $9 per gallon, and acknowledged that the possibility is outside his control.

"I don't think anyone can speculate what will happen with respect to oil prices and gas prices because they are set on the global economy," Salazar told reporters when asked if gas prices could reach $9 per gallon, as they have been in Greece. "Where it will all end, no one knows.

Salazar touted President Obama's "all of the above" energy policy and the prospect of renewable energy, but warned "we do not control the price of oil."

I've noticed the media often runs to Obama's aid to tell their viewers/readers that presidents can't control gasoline prices (though apparently George W. Bush was the exception according to their own reporting), but in fact presidents "set the mood" when it comes to energy and it's that mood that affects the markets. When Bush changed the rules regarding drilling and eased the regulatory burden for obtaining permits the bottom fell out of the oil market. Investors realized that there would soon be more oil coming to market and it caused an immediate affect. Obama has done nothing but lock up oil in the Gulf, on federal lands, and coming in from Canada. The mood he sets is one of scarcity and the prices reflect that.

Political Cartoon of the Day

It's been an ugly 30 days:

Exxon to Drill In the Arctic...For Russia

The rest of the world isn't going to play by our silly environmental rules:

MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. oil major ExxonMobil and Russia’s Rosneft unveiled an offshore exploration partnership on Wednesday that could invest upward of $500 billion in developing Russia’s vast energy reserves in the Arctic and Black Sea.

The deal, between the world’s largest listed oil firm and the world’s top oil producing nation, was the product of nearly a year of talks and came about despite a history of mutual distrust between Washington and Moscow dating back to the Cold War and recent difficulties for other Western firms in Russia.

“Experts say that this project, in terms of its ambitions, exceeds sending man into outer space or flying to the moon,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, a key architect of the partnership, told a briefing for analysts in New York.

Under the deal, signed in Moscow on Monday, Exxon and state-controlled Rosneft will seek to develop three fields in the Arctic with recoverable hydrocarbon reserves estimated at 85 billion barrels in oil-equivalent terms.

The Canadians are shipping their oil to China, and now Russia will be drilling in areas that will allow them to tap into oil deposits accessible to America...if only America had the will and wisdom to go after them.

If I was president I would declare an energy emergency and immediately suspend all the environmental nonsense that keeps us from going after our own oil.  Let the environwackos wail - they couldn't stop me with all the liberal judges in the world.

Is Stupidity a Genetic Flaw in the Kennedy Family Tree?

Must be:

As gas prices continue to soar around the country, Joe Kennedy III, the Democratic candidate for Rep. Barney Frank’s seat, wrote an online letter to supporters calling for an end to “cheap oil.”

“Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama — they’ve all talked about the same thing: the need to wean ourselves off our debilitating dependence on foreign oil,” Kennedy wrote.

“The cycle that allows cheap oil to trump tough choices has to stop,” he continued. “Forty years is enough.”

In the week before Kennedy posted, AAA Southern New England reported that the price of gas in Massachusetts had risen a further two cents. The Worchester Business Journal reported that at an average of $3.899 a gallon for regular unleaded gas, the price is currently 24 cents higher than it was one year before.

And then there's this:

Though Kennedy has said that he is not running on his name — which represents a liberal political dynasty — critics have attacked him for not putting forth policy positions. His campaign website does not have an issues section.

This is looking like a repeat of Carolyn Kennedy's failed Senate run in which she wasn't able to give an intelligent answer to ANY political question. She was running purely on her name.

This guy is running on his name AND his family's dumb environwacko beliefs.  That's not going to be a winning combination.  Kennedy's seem to forget that most people don't have millions in inherited wealth and therefore actually care about gas prices.

10 Years Ago Today Democrats Blocked Drilling in ANWR Because It Wouldn't Help Gas Prices for 10 Years

How's that working out for you, Democrats?  From the Senate GOP:

• Ten years ago, with gas prices at $1.45 per gallon, Senate Democrats blocked legislation to allow more domestic energy production in Alaska. 

• Senate Democrats argued against increasing energy production from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) because it would take up to 10 years for the oil to reach the market:

• Senator Bingaman: "There would be no production out of that area for at least 7 years ..." (April 18, 2002)
• Senator Kerry: "No oil will flow from ANWR … until from 7 to 10 years from now." (April 17, 2002)
• Senator Stabenow: "Even if we started drilling tomorrow, the first barrel of crude oil would not make it to the market for at least 10 years." (April 17, 2002)
• Senator Murray: "Oil exploration in ANWR will not actually start producing oil for as many as 10 years." (April 17, 2002)
• Senator Cantwell: "Oil extracted from the wildlife refuge would not reach refineries for seven to ten years." (April 17, 2002)

• If Democrats hadn't blocked production in ANWR ten years ago, up to an additional 1.5 million barrels per day of domestic oil would be available to help lower the cost of gasoline today.

• Ten years later, ANWR remains off-limits, the U.S. still imports half of its oil, gasoline has skyrocketed to nearly $4 per gallon, and Democrats are still blocking energy production.

Still stupid after all these years.

Pelosi 3.19

Not, that's not a book, chapter and verse of some twisted new age Bible, but a reminder of a day when Democrats found gas prices intolerable.

However, if gas prices rise nearly $1.50 more and a Democrat is in the White House, all is well.

Economic Quote of the Day

From CNBC's Rick Santelli, the spiritual father of the Tea Party movement, on Obama's call to end tax breaks for oil companies:

"If I broke my right arm, am I going to pick a fight with the neighbor? No. If I'm two months behind on my mortgage, am I going to go complain to the bank? Probably not. But let's see, with gasoline approaching $5 a gallon, isn't this just a supreme time to pick a war with the energy people that are bringing us what already seems to be in the market's eyes in short supply? Just like picking fights with China when the world's about ready to go into recession. There's a time and a place for everything. And, by the way, all these profits Exxon's making, the administration doesn't like it. Well, what about Apple making a billion dollars a week, or Microsoft? I bet you if GM made a billion dollars a week, they wouldn't mind. Come on!"

The oil companies pay about 40 cents on the dollar in taxes. Apple pays about 20.

Charles Krauthammer also had some comments:

“I think any objective observer would look at what the president said today in the Rose Garden on this and conclude as I did: it is truly staggering cynicism,” Krauthammer said on Thursday’s broadcast. “Number one, when he was in the Senate, Obama supported the subsidies he’s denouncing today. And when our own Ed Henry asked Jay Carney about that, Carney had no answer. He was looking for a hole to hide in.”

“Second, the Congressional Research Office in March of 2011 showed that if you remove the subsidies, if it has any effect whatsoever on the gas prices, it will be to increase them, and the president is pretending he is trying to lower the gas prices.”

Obama is going after the oil companies because he hates their business and hates the fact they make a lot of money meeting America's energy needs. He can throw away $535 million taxpayer dollars on a failed solar energy company (Solyndra), but the idea the oil companies who are producing a product that actually works just ticks him off to no end.

Idiotic.

Energy Photo of the Day

Pardon me if I have a tear in my eye as I post this:

For more entertainment, look at this collection of videos showing Democrats blasting Bush for $3.00 a gallon gas.

Energy Cartoon of the Day

From Facebook:

Energy Graphic of the Day

From Fox News:

Energy Photo of the Day

As Obama makes his trip to claim credit for a pipeline project that doesn't need his approval, Speaker John Boehner reminds America of the real problem:

Obama to Try and Fool Voters Into Thinking He Really Supports the Keystone Pipeline

But he's not fooling anybody:

The President is scheduled to speak in Payne County this Thursday morning. It may be rural Oklahoma, but when it comes to pipelines, it's the Capitol. The President is expected to talk about energy, though many in that industry are not impressed.

They are even planning to protest his visit, calling it a political ploy more than a genuine interest.

Mike Cantrell with the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance says, "For the last three years he's been anti-fossil fuels."

Mickey Thompson, an energy industry expert and political analyst, says, "He calls our industry an industry of the past and they'd like us to go away."

The President is expected to mention his support for a pipeline running from Payne County to the gulf; it's the southern end of the “Keystone XL Pipeline.”

Industry experts say while his support for the southern end is welcome, it's not needed.

They build pipelines in the country all the time without needing presidential approval.

Maybe after that he can go get his picture taken with the Canadian Pacific trains that are bringing the oil south that was supposed to go in the pipeline.

Canadian Pacific Trains Taking Up the Energy Slack Caused by Keystone Cancellation

At least somebody's doing something:

A Canadian railroad carrying millions of barrels of oil to Gulf refineries is hurtling full steam ahead through the Obama administration's block of the Keystone pipeline.

The amount of oil Canadian Pacific Railways carries down through the heartland has surged 2,500 percent since 2009, to 8.5 million barrels per year from just 325,000. The company expects to move 45 million barrels per year within the decade.

“We are responding to a growing demand,” Ed Greenberg, a spokesman for Canadian Pacific told FoxNews.com. “There has been unprecedented growth in the energy industry.”

The Calgary-based railroad is one of two that carries oil down from Canada's tar sands, but Canadian Pacific also carries thousands of barrels per day to the Gulf from North Dakota's booming Bakken Formation oil fields.

Experts estimate shipping by rail instead of pipeline adds anywhere from $5 to $10 to the price of a barrel, not to mention the high-capacity, 24-7 flow a pipeline affords. Rep. Fred Upton, (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says the explosive growth of oil delivery by rail underscores the missed opportunity of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that became bogged down by environmental concerns and was ultimately tabled by the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Senate.

"We need to be doing all we can to develop our resources, particularly now, with rising gasoline prices and the threat of supply disruptions overseas," Upton told FoxNews.com. "Most observers acknowledge that rail transport is the best option we currently have to get this oil down to the refineries -- but the Keystone XL pipeline presents us with a better alternative."

My friends in Harvey, ND have commented to me before about the huge trains they see pulling dozens of oil cars through their area on the way to refineries in the south. For those who panicked over the relatively small environmental risk posed by the pipeline, how do they feel about diesel belching locomotives - probably four to a train - traveling hundreds of miles through the country pulling huge tankers full of oil? What kind of damage would be done if there was a major derailment and fire?

Environwackos just don't think these things through.

Energy Headlines of the Day

Drudge has a way of showing how Obama just makes stuff up:

REPORT: U.S., Britain will release emergency oil stocks...

FLASHBACK: Relief short-lived last time Obama opened reserves...

'Do Not Tell Me We're Not Drilling. We're Drilling All Over This Country'...

Energy production on federal land drops under Obama...

9-year low...

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve should never be touched unless there's an emergency oil shortage. It's not a political toy, and any oil we remove for political games has to be replaced at higher cost. And it places us in a weaker overall position.

Obama Plan to Fight High Gas Prices? Make Drilling More Expensive

Yep, Mr. Clueless wants to make it more punitive to drill for the oil America needs. From Jim Geraghty:

So yesterday in New Hampshire, Obama’s plan to deal with high gas prices is to take away tax incentives for oil companies, tax provisions that permit them to deduct a portion of sales to cover capital investment, expense certain drilling and development costs, income tax credits for the costs of “qualified enhanced-oil-recovery” methods. In other words, all of these tax incentives make it easier and cheaper for oil companies to do their jobs – drill and refine oil. Obama wants to make activities like “drilling and development” more expensive… as a response to high gas prices.

It’s amazing he wasn’t booed off the stage yesterday.

Geraghty also points out that Obama is claiming credit for higher oil production, but in fact our levels right now are around the 2003-2004 levels. Not that impressive.