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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Blame the Democrats for High Gas Prices

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  March 7th, 2011 at 08:13 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

In the Atlanta area, where I am, gas prices are up $0.77 from where they were a year ago. It is worth noting that Democrats have been politicizing and blocking expanded oil drilling for quite some time. Consider this:

“Critics (of Arctic drilling), including Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., say the drilling plan would violate the nation’s last remaining pristine wilderness. Moreover, they charge, the oil would consist of a 6-month supply for the nation, and would not be ready for use by consumers for up to 10 years.”

That newspaper article was written April 2, 2001. For those of you in Rio Linda, that would be ten years ago.

Likewise, roughly ten years ago on July 3, 2001, the Bush Administration began consideration of drilling in the outer continental shelf.

Democrats opposed that too because it would take up to ten years to see a return on investment. In other words, it would take until about right now to see a return on investment.

I sure hope they are better at forecasting health care than oil futures. Otherwise, if we don’t repeal Obamacare, we’re screwed in ten years on that too.

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COMMENTS

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  • edintexas

    It won’t take a decade, which is why so many FOOls* are receiving exemptions.

    FOO* Friend of Obama

  • http://redmeatconservative.blogspot.com/ dhorowitz3

    The GOP led House and Senate passed drilling in ANWR in 1996 and sent it to Clinton’s desk. He vetoed it. 15 years later we have done nothing to extract a single drop of oil. This is criminal.

  • michigan

    Gas station owners will inevitably get flak from frustrated consumers. They should put up a sign that says ?Drilling Permits Approved? and then the correlating number. Place it right next to the price board

  • http://www.FranBaker.com frankieb

    Oil can be extracted from the ground without destroying the “pristine wilderness.”

    Good idea on the gas station owners, michigan. If only …

  • http://www.gopmall.com janesmoote

    gas prices were $1/gallon. Interesting…that was 10 years ago.

    Well who needs gas anyway, right? We will just stop taking road trips / vacations so the economy will continue to tank, esp. in hot tourist spots. Time to set up a hammock in the back yard. Looks like that’s where my summer vacation will be this year.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    would have paid them to do: restrict Americans’ access to their own energy supplies. Whether it was Dem Presidents, Dem congressional majorites or dem senate filibusters.

  • izoneguy

    Do you care about the entire planet or just your state?

    Because the other countries around the world drilling for oil THAT WE BUY don’t give a flip about the environment. They don’t have the EPA, OSHA or the Minerals & Management department to deal with. So why do you think the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico that were employing Americans to drill for domestic oil are leaving? They are going to keep drilling and employing foreign workers and probably seeing a better return on their hundreds of millions of dollars they invested.

    Not only do we need to drill here and now and everywhere – we need to reign in the governmental agencies at the same time. The democrats are the government and the government are the democrats.

  • chbroussard

    Republicans should hire you to run their PR campaign. There is so much ammo out there and they do nothing with it.

  • johnt

    I used to get sick every time the left used it. So why not start today?
    But then suffering must be the rule, the aim of the left. And it’s all coming to a head with Obama & a left frying in their own hate.

  • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Steve Maley

    So did sainted Senator Ted Kennedy.

    Where would we be without TAPS? Probably poorer by half .

    The Democrats as a whole are so bad on energy policy that all you have to do is wait for them to take a position, then do the exact opposite.

    The only solutions they offer are impractical non-solutions. The only policy initiatives they advance are designed to hurt American producers with no counterbalancing benefit.

    The only exeptions to that rule are a few energy-state Dems like Rep. Dan Boren and Sen. Mary Landrieu who seem to know upon which side their bread is buttered.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • macbookben

    …will Obama do to leverage “Energy Crisis II”, and not let it go to waste? Also, seeing one of our senators ( Lamar Alexander, R-TN) charging his new Nissan Leaf in a news spot last night really irritated me. He is promoting a bill that would subsidize the construction of these charging stations that will be needed by all these new EVs. I hear less than 400 of these toys were sold last January. This will be his last term, if I have any say in it (and should have said so sooner).

  • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Steve Maley
  • Common_Cents

    Compared to 67 leafs.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    actually bought something.

  • Raven

    There was a lot of fuss made about how cozy both Presidents Bush were with the Saudis. Has anyone looked into the relationship between the oil Sheiks and the Democrats?

  • Raven

    $1.01/gal. and driving across town for $.98

  • Raven

    I wonder how it broke down on the debates over the canals and then the railroads. Steamboats? The highways?

  • luciusacius

    I think $600.00 hammers weere a great deal!

  • luciusacius

    I think $600.00 hammers weere a great deal!

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    They were the gold-plated way to beat an idiot of a Congressman or Senator senseless.

  • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Steve Maley
  • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Steve Maley

    …who didn’t reflexively hate business.

    Scoop Jackson’s name comes to mind.

    Now they’re scarce as hens teeth, maybe extinct on the national scene.

  • gwalt

    Why don’t we get someone with ad experience to erect one billboard near a gas station with ” Like your $5 a gallon gas? Thank a Democrat or Obama himself”.

    Stand there and get peoples reactions to the board and post on YouTube. We will contribute—– someone somewhere has to start a campaign calling these people out. Where is Drill Here, Drill Now ( I thought that Was an organization— could be wrong)?

  • dsmurf

    breaking our addiction to oil. What in the world does that mean? Moving to an addiction to what? Bicycles? Chevy Volts? Their isn’t a single oil dude in the whole admin and Bernanke sticks his head in the sand saying that he wants inflation, gets it, and then denies that it is there, now the ECB is talking about raising rates, that’s when I know that Bernanke doesn’t have a clue about intermarket relationships, like environmnentalists don’t have a clue about the role of oil.

    An issue with the latest healthcare law in 10 years? I can’t wait to see the snow ball effect that latest healthcare law will be if we can’t wipe that sucker out now, LOL to all.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    It’s impossible to beat the sense out of an elected official that had none in the first place. Thank you for bringing my attention to my fallacious logic.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    in the dem party they build factions/money

  • Common_Cents

    “If you want lower gas prices, call your representative and tell Obama to open up drilling in the US.”

    Or some website that has a call to action.

  • macbookben

    …any “Drill, Baby, Drill” or “Drill here, drill now, drill often”stickers? The little round ones, 2″diameter or so. Just stick them on the pump at your favorite fillin’ station each time you gas up. My apologies in advance to the employees who would have the added inconvenience of removing the glue from the shiny stainless steel pumps.

    Better idea…REFRIGERATOR MAGNETS!!!!

    It’s a win-win now.

  • redpenny

    for a Chevy Volt———$8,000.00 will buy you a street legal golf cart including charger;which requires no special charging station.Sounds stupid—no more stupid than our lack of an energy policy

  • checkinout6000

    If we discontinued this forced busing of our students to reach some imagined racial integration we could probably cut our automotive fuel consumption in half and put a lot less of a strain on our already overtaxed infrastructure. It’s been how long now, 40 years or so?

    Just a thought……………………………..

  • lisamiller

    The Democrats are heavily invested in the Green Energy scam. The high prices are coming from two causes. The first is the instability the Progressives have clearly encouraged in the Middle East.

    If Democrats can’t force Americans to pay for it in subsidies, their only option is to make oil more expensive so the cost of green energy becomes more market viable.

    The second reason is the speculation caused by corrupt government regulations instigated by the Democrats and maintained by the Republicans and the ensuing flight to commodities to avoid the effects of inflation from printing of money that weakens our dollar and makes imports more expensive.

  • ag8tor

    How could you tell? Like they have shown “Common” sense in the past?

  • ag8tor

    for TERM LIMITS!

  • dwain

    On this site it gives the estimated amounts of oil,natural gas and liquid natural gas for most of the world.
    The amounts in the US alone will blow your mind!!Yes some of it is in oil shale which is hard to extract but is being done.
    In the 70′s i supported”sorry to say”some of the tree hugger clubs but soon realized what their agenda was and quit helping any of them as they would have us go back to using horses and would then demand controls on methane passed by the horses.
    We in the US have let a vocal minority dictate energy policy that hurts all of us.The silent majority needs to wake up!!!
    As one other poster said they are still drilling in other countries and We in the US have the safest and best drilling practises on earth.
    Down with Sierra,Audobon,etc.

  • lovesalldogs

    I have to wonder WHY? do we send people to D.C. to represent us????
    We, the people need to represent ourselves…
    I’m so sick of all the B.S. about drilling. DRILL Get rid of our dependents on foreign oil. This alone makes me believe HOW CORRUPT our politicians really are……..and it’s sad for this country. We are seeing what is going on in so many places that have been control by corrupt RULERS and NOW—HERE WE ARE —IN OUR OWN COUNTRY—CORRUPT RULERS. BALLISS MEN AND WOMEN who really DON’T care about this COUNTRY—USA— but about themselves and the attitude “WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME” SAD
    BUT—look at all of YOU OUT THERE THAT VOTED THIS IDIOT IN OFFICE AND then followed by still allowing Frank, Reid, Pelosi, Kerry, Nelson and how many more to be in office that don’t care and how many kickbacks are THEY getting??????

    DRILL DRILL DRILL NOW

  • seisner01

    It?s time to let the dogs out. Let?s take a lesson from our own history ?how Reagan won the Cold War. Essentially, it was an economic victory as opposed to a military or ideological victory. We ran the Soviet economic engine into the ground.

    Now, we are faced with a myriad of enemies whose sole source of economic and political power is that they happen to live above huge oil reserves. The Soviets had technology, military might, a solid manufacturing infrastructure, abundant resource and a wellspring of intellectual capabilities that rivaled and in some areas exceeded our own, but the configuration of their economic engine doomed them to failure against a Capitalist machine ? it inherently just could not compete in a flat-out competition. Reagan proved this to them and, seeing the light of reason, they backed down to avoid all-out disaster.

    Our current crop of enemies have far less to work with ?, their infrastructure, their military capabilities, their ability to cling to power are all dependent on one simple factor ? their control of vast oil reserves. So it would seem obvious even to the casual student of history that this one source of power and control is also their Achilles Heel. If we are to prevail and defeat them, this is where they are most vulnerable.

    Traditionally, they have wielded power on the international stage by controlling the supply of oil as we (the West) have come to them ?hat in hand? with gifts of technology, food, infrastructure projects, cash, ? you name it, in order to ?persuade? them to keep the pumps open. As anyone who drives a car can see, this philosophy is about to explode in our faces ? unless we react quickly. How do we accomplish this?

    It seems that the obvious and easiest way to attack the source of our enemy?s is, simply, to flood the world marketplace with oil and other energy sources!!! The United States alone (not even counting the vast resources of western countries like Canada) sits on top of HUGE sources of energy ? billions and billions of barrels of oil, trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, billions of tons of coal ? unknown billions of barrels of off-shore oil ? yet for a variety of reasons, we have not taken advantage of this ? political reasons disguised as ?concerns? for the environment have obscured the real challenges with which we have to deal with. IT?S TIME TO LET THE DOGS OUT!!!.

    What does that mean??? Let?s let the energy companies loose ? let?s help them, subsidize them, partner with them, support the quest for cheap oil sources, help them realize huge profits and tax them, let?s take off the gloves ? LET?S FLOOD THE WORLD MARKETS WITH OIL AND OTHER ENERGY SOURCES ? let?s break our Middle East enemy?s economically by taking away the one advantage they have!!!! Let?s make their oil worth a fraction of what is worth today to the point where it is they who must come to us ?hat in hand?.

    A ?small? peripheral benefit would be, through taxes on what would be vast profits and government/industry partnerships, to reduce or perhaps even eliminate our national debt! Another lesson from history can be seen from the ?Dot Com? era. Did the vast surpluses of money that flowed into our government coffers in the 90?s come from Bill Clinton?s economic brilliance, or was it the natural result of taxes being levied on vast new sources of income? Does anyone remember how low unemployment was during that time as well?

    It seems that letting the ?energy dogs? loose might just prove to be our salvation.

  • hendrig

    It seems to me that there is enough blame to go around. Don’t forget the environmentalist groups and the animal rights groups. There is also the Republicans. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Democrat fan by any stretch of the imagination. From 2001 to 2007, the Republican Party controlled the House, Senate and the White House. They had plenty of time to put through something that would open up oil production and help finance serious research on alternate forms of energy in order to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. If they really wanted to, they could have pushed something through just like the Democrats did when they shoved Obama Care down our throats. In my opinion, they dropped the ball when it was in their court. It should be us doing the drilling and building the refineries because we know how to do it cleaner, safer and more efficiently. Instead, we are dependent on getting a majority of oil from countries that want nothing better than to see this country destroyed economically. Perhaps it’s time for the environmentalists to go to China or Venezuela and convince them to help clean up the environment. We all know why they don’t. In those countries, and others like them, they would be put up against the wall and shot. It’s time to wake up America. Instead of pointing the fingers of blame, use some of that energy to start putting this country back on track. Our history is full of examples of when Americans were able to put aside their differences and solve major problems by working together.

  • silkywiley

    The dastardly circumstances that face this country are mind-boggling and imposed by a puritan minority. I have been reading about our energy situation since the early 70s. It has gotten worse. Back then we had Jimmy Carter the puritan hissing at us with his sweater on. Things have gotten much worse and we are in thrall to middle eastern primitives. These puritan human-hating American-hating devils are running this country. They don’t just want us to go back to horse and buggies, they want to eliminate us from the world. They might get it, by starvation and winter kill.

    There is an impulse to piety in humanity, but the focus shifts from groups and generations. Now it is trying to force Americans off the land and into cities into human coops where we are more easily controlled by elitist groups and possibly a police state. They claim they are saving our pristine areas for future generations. Our future generations won’t get within fifty miles of wilderness. Possibly passing through looking out the windows of buses.

    A Sierra Club useful idiot knocked on my door when Clinton was prez asking for money and to join their group. They wanted to lock up more of my state, most particularly the most clean and largest coal field in the known world. (Bill Clinton did it for them by fiat). I asked her why she wanted to give more power to a government that had dropped nuclears bomb tests on southern utah killing animals and causing thyroid cancer in children. She said (like a zombie) “Oh I get it. You don’t care about the environment.” “Oh I get it, you don’t care about the environment.” She wandered on down the street repeating that to herself. The real problem is that the average IQ is 100.

    The problem is now far worse, in fact it is critical and disasterous and the solutions are beyond the reach of thinking people because of the outright stupidity of the public. Our country is on our knees and these fools are still repeating the same puritan chants.

    And new energy technologic will have to be global, cheap and easily producible. It will probably come from physics technology coming out of the hadron collider or other now esoteric theory and is likely 50-60 years into the future in implementation.

    The so called green energy is a myth. 16th century technology of windmills? Solar that can power a sun chime? Let’s build more geodesic homes! We’re screwed.

  • MF

    because the enviro-wacko will simply reply, “We need to reduce our usage.” I agree that we need to be more efficient in what we use, but we also have loads of nuclear power just sitting there, waiting to be built and then used, that they won’t allow us to build. The NIMBYs are also to blame for that problem, though.

    I agree that we need to drill here (ANWR, off the coasts, in the northwest, wherever). That’s not the only solution, just a major part of it.

  • myron_j_poltroonian

    Ran the sing-song mantra of the left in the sixties/seventies. Well, regarding the current iteration of our cyclical “Oil Crises”, please allow me to offer the following: “If not Here, Where? If Not Now, When?” In fact, this leads me into the following observation: Considering the turmoil in the Middle East currently, and, in the spirit of the ethos of the left in the sixties and seventies’ and their famous: “What if they had a war and nobody came?” query, I’d like to propose the following question of my own: What if “They”, the TEA Party Movement, had a demonstration on the Capitol Mall, and nobody left? What if it grew, day by day, demanding “His” resignation? WWOD (What Would Obama Do)? Would he act like Mubarak? Or Khadafi? Just wondering. What do you think?

  • hendrig

    He would come apart at the seems.

  • shermr

    I don’t think we have a oil shortage in our country. Gas and oil prices are driven by demand. We are not using our oil, we are selling it at a rate of 1.8 billion barrels a day. We don’t get oil from Libya, we get gas from Canada. If we had more oil we would either cap the wells, or sell it when price and demand spikes. China and India are both using as much oil as they can get, and they can get it from us. It seems like the goal is to use all the oil from other countries and save ours.