Obama Ignored $5 Gas Warning
By Bradley Blakeman
Newsmax.com
President Barack Obama takes no responsibility
for anything — including a 100 percent rise in
gasoline prices since taking office as our 44th
president.
In 2008 when Obama was running for president, chief
energy advisor to candidate Obama and now Energy
Secretary Stephen Chu told this to The Wall Street
Journal with regard to gas prices and dependence on
fossil fuel: "Somehow we have to figure out how to
boost the price of gasoline to the levels in
Europe."
In 2008, Candidate Obama blamed the rise in gas
prices on President Bush and his administration.
This is what he said: “The President frankly has not
had an energy policy . . . our demand is badly
outstripping supply with China and India.”
Obama went on to state in an interview with Steve
Harwood of MSNBC that he agreed with Chu that rising
gas prices would be a good thing because it would
force citizens to drive less and look to alternative
forms of energy. He preferred “a gradual adjustment”
in pricing as opposed to a rapid spike.
The president would like us to believe that U.S. oil
production under his watch is at an all-time high.
However, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson set the record
straight: “Offshore drilling permits are being
issued at less than half the rate of the previous
administration. The average number of leases issued
on public lands is less than half than during
President Clinton’s term.”
The Obama Administration’s energy plan all along was
based upon the rise in energy costs in order to
force Americans to be “greener.” Again in 2008,
candidate Obama was perfectly content with soaring
energy prices if it meant less green house gas
emissions. This is what he said:
“Under my plan of a cap and trade system,
electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
And, missing no opportunity to pit American vs.
American like he has done as president, candidate
Obama in the campaign of 2008 said this with regard
to high gas prices:
“For the well-off in this country, high gas prices
are mostly an annoyance. But to most Americans, they
are a huge problem, bordering on a crisis . . .”
The president can blame others all he wants, but he
cannot escape the facts. On the day Obama was sworn
in as president of the United States, gas prices on
average were $1.84 a gallon. As of Feb. 20, 2012 a
gallon of gas on average was $3.59. In February, gas
prices have spiked to $4.33 per gallon in Oakland,
Calif.
The reality is that President Obama was warned in
2010 that gas prices could top $5.00 a gallon on his
watch in 2010 by former Shell Oil president John
Hoffmeister. Obama dismissed his warnings. This is
what Matthew C. Nisbet reported on Dec. 29, 2010 for
bigthink.com with regard to Hoffmeister’s prophecy:
“Former Shell Oil president John Hoffmeister has
been gaining considerable news attention this week
for his warning that gas prices might reach $5 a
gallon by the 2012 election. His efforts at
elevating attention to national energy policy are
perfectly timed to take advantage of the year's
slowest news week, pegged to holiday travel as well
as a 2010 end-of-the-year high in gas prices which
have crested to $3.052 a gallon nationally, the
highest ever for the holiday week.”
President Obama wants Americans to believe that he
is powerless to stop the high rise of gasoline
prices yet it is his actions and inactions that have
created the crisis.
His actions to limit onshore and offshore oil
extraction. His blocking of the Keystone XL
Pipeline. His dislike of clean coal and fracking for
clean natural gas. His refusal to build new
refineries. His refusal to permit new nuclear power
plants. His refusal to limit the burden on
refineries to boost production by limiting the
number of gas blends and a foreign policy of
weakness and appeasement in the Middle East.
These are all contributing factors to high gas
prices.
The president would rather invest U.S. taxpayer
funds in failed energy companies like Solyndra and
Ener1 than heed the advice of experts like
Hoffmeister, a man with no axe to grind and someone
who deals in reality rather than ideology.
What the president fails to realize is that there is
no one to blame for rising energy costs other than
he and his misguided and failed energy policies.
America has all the energy we need for our own use.
The problem is that we have an administration that
talks about energy independence, while its actions
prevent it.
Obama can fool some of the people some of the time
but he can’t fool enough of the people in time for
him to escape responsibility for his record on
energy — and more — in 2012.
Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy
assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-04.
He is currently a professor of Politics and Public
Policy at Georgetown University and a frequent
contributor to Fox News Opinion. Read more reports
from Bradley Blakeman —
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