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The Most Ludicrous Graph of the Month

And now, for something completely different ... completely different ... completely different ...

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  May 12th, 2012 at 11:43 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Obama’s energy policies are a key vulnerability in the November elections, which has his staff scrambling to make it look like he’s actually done something to support domestic energy production. Since neither he nor anyone in his Administration knows the first thing about oil and gas, that can lead to some pretty ridiculous claims.

Like, for example, the following graph, found at Obama For America‘s website.  (The small arrow reads “Obama Takes Office”. Click on the graph to see a larger size.).

At the end of this post you will find a FIFY (“Fixed It For You”) graph which identifies several other events of significance equal to or greater than that of Obama’s inauguration.

Notice the weasel word “responsibly”. To Obama and his minions, “responsibly” is synonymous with “Federally regulated”. Remember how Chief took care of McMurphy [Caution: graphic scene.] in the last scene of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? That’s how the EPA would “responsibly” regulate oil and gas.

But the main suggestion of this graph that I find so offensive is that Obama had anything at all to do with today’s record levels of production. As his own graph clearly shows, OBAMA TOOK OFFICE DURING A GAS BOOM! There had already been four consecutive years of production growth under Bush.

Much of the ramp-up in production is in the shale gas plays: the Barnett of Texas, the Haynesville of Louisiana, the Woodford of Oklahoma, the Fayetteville of Arkansas, the Marcellus of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the Eagleford of Texas. All of them are on private, not Federal lands, and under the jurisdiction of state, not Federal, regulatory bodies.

Consequently, Federal permitting/regulation is not a dominant issue in any of these plays.

After scratching my head and studying the graph for a while, I did conclude that President Obama’s election had one discernible impact on natural gas: it turned the color of the bars on the graph from very light blue to a darker hue. Well done, Mr. President!

A few other key events affected domestic gas production just as much as “Obama Takes Office”, the only significant event depicted on the campaign’s official version. A new and improved Obama For America bar chart is shown below. FIFY, Barry!

Cross-posted at stevemaley.com.


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  • talgus

    thereby providing light followed by darkness each and every day of his administration,

    • earlgrey

      Obama has yet to take credit that we haven’t had a volcanic eruption or major earthquake under his watch either.

      • arthurjake

        When the new EPA regulations he is about to impose on fracking slows down the production of natural gas.

  • romeg

    Simply brilliant.

    • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

      Bill Gates
      SnagIt
      The Energy Information Administration.

      • Stan(ley) Pruss

        A more interesting graph would show the total oil & gas production from federal lands & off shore. Aslo number of new wells & new leases requiring federal permits.

        • texfella

          …is what’s the point in creating one in the first place. The one’s key constituency niether reads nor can understand one in the first place.

          • hoootie

            Texfella….I don’t know if you remember this or not but I’ll never ever forget it. During the coronation of 2008 I remember seeing an interview with a black woman on the florr of the coronation in whiche she proclaimed that Obama was going to buy her a house and pay her mortgage. He was going to buy her a brand new car and the gas to put in the car….FOR FREE ! These leeches in the demonicrat party only understand one thing…GIMMEE..YOU OWE ME ! That philosophy flies in the face of what my daddy taught me all of my life…”Boy, the world don’t owe you a living.” I’d like to ask that same black lady how her new house and new car are what she had expected ! I don’t think we need to ask her about food stamps, wica or anything free like that. I’m sure she’s already loaded up with those “gifts” from the taxpayers. Thomas Jefferson said…”The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who will not.”

          • gwbramhall

            I remember that momment, too. It was my first inkling
            that we might be heading for some serious trouble
            with this President. Come to think of it, no. that just
            confirmed it.

        • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

          http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/19/production-of-oil-gas-and-coal-on-federal-lands-sinks-to-nine-year-low/

          Includes coal.

  • gator_hoo

    and also apprciated.

  • dennism

    … all those things happened at the same time the oceans ceased rising and we began to heal the planet.

    • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

      :

    • siquijorisland

      what

  • texasref

    Coincidence?

    I think not.

    • radicalrighty

      Fabulous line and pic. You should copyright it and sell T-shirts and bumperstickers!

      • texasref

        I saw it elsewhere, added it to my signature line, and then I saw an article about it here on redstate.

        It is funny on so many levels.

  • zachv

    You forget that the One believes we ought to give him credit for just allowing natural gas to continue being collected! As a downright, dirty, good-for-nothing non-renewable, we’re lucky that Obama didn’t seal it all off! [/sarcasm]

    Obama – Backwards on energy. Backwards on economic progress.

  • johnt

    and viola, you have a graph.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    So for 8 years we heard from the left that it was a terrible thing that Oil Man Bush and Halliburton Cheney had let the Fossil Fuel Special Interests loose to rape and pillage the land by drilling for oil and gas, rather than doing the right thing and put solar panels on the white house and spend billions on renewables.

    And so Obama the Messiah comes in, does the spending of billions – on Solyndra, and now-bankrupt battery companies, and the Chevy Volt, and billions more for ethanol, windmills, algae, and sundy renewable pipe dreams and schemes – and lo and behond, HE DOESNT RUN ON WHAT HE ACTUALLY DID.

    He runs on what the oil and gas industry did, despite the fear and loathing of the anti-fracking eco-extremists! Since this started under Bush, surely it’s all Bush’s fault!

    • Viet71

      n/t

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    or so their thought process likely goes…

  • http://patriotpowerplay.blogspot.com/ mirac777

    will bring that gas boom to a screeching halt if these fake democrats are not ousted out of positions across the land come November. That includes states like Colorado, who are bending over without the benefit of vaseline to appease the EPA’s war on domestic energy production, just to name one.

    The Colorado state legislature passed new laws this week intended to more closely regulate the natural gas extraction technique known as fracking. The most stringent in the country, The new rules will require drill companies to publish the exact content and concentration of chemicals used in extraction, information previously considered to be competitive trade secrets. the new legislation was expedited by *****claims released last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that it had detected groundwater in Wyoming that had possibly been contaminated by nearby fracking operations.**** THAT is the truth that needs to be told here, IMHO. BTW nice job, Steve, not meant to question your solid info here.

  • http://patriotpowerplay.blogspot.com/ mirac777

    the weasely use of the word “responsibly” in Obama’s minions propaganda piece, plese see the word “possibly” in my post above, as in “possibly been contimated.” These fluffers disgust me to no end.

    • http://patriotpowerplay.blogspot.com/ mirac777

      There is no excuse for not proof-reading my comment.

  • commonsenseobserver

    Citing a steel company, owned by Bain, which went bankrupt in 2001 (amid cheap steel imports). Of course, Romney left Bain in 1999. Does anyone have any background information on this?

    I think Romney would do well to have an “Attack Watch” of his own. Perhaps Redstaters could even organise one :P

    • Bill S

      Do not post comments that are irrelevant to the diary. Unrelated comments should go on an open thread, such as the Daily Links posts.

      • commonsenseobserver

        I’m sorry :(

  • bob570

    All the increase in Natural Gas production over the last 12 Years has come mostly from Private, and State property. Little or no Federal monies, or support for that matter has been used for any of it. For Obama, or anyone in Washington to pretend they’re responsible is a joke.

  • funwithknives

    that Steve’s Graph is much more entertaining ,more illustrative and I just love the added colors!!
    The added irony and snark just makes it a classic.

    Now can anyone do one on unemployment and fudged numbers on this topic? Let’s get a portfolio of these suckers…

  • http://www.twitter.com/AWG9_yoyo yoyo

    Jon and Kate Gosselin divorced.

    • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

      ~

    • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

      …is that there is no perceptible bobble or hiccup in the increasing trend.

      As commenter dennism remarked upthread, it is as if Obama is claiming credit for the continued rising & setting of the sun and the coming and going of the tides.

      With the passage of time, we learn that Dreams From My Father is a fable (and a ghost-written one at that).

      The true biography is The Emperor’s New Clothes.

      • http://www.twitter.com/AWG9_yoyo yoyo

        But like Anthony Watts loves to point out (at WUWT) is that “scientists” [Hansen, Mann, et al] can predict temperature variations and CO2 concentrations WORLDWIDE for any given location, at any point in the future, down to 4 percentage points past the decimal.

        So OBVIOUSLY, when the Nifty-Looking-MSExcel-Chart-Making Analysts at OFA perceive no variation predicted for out-years is PROOF that President Obama more than deserves his Rainbow Halo (complete with Unicorns, Fairies, and Sea-Sprites {not the Navy Helicopter}) that his media friends have crowned him with.

        We mensh are just not worthy of His RainboWurshipFulishness. Absolutely not for another term.

  • fishgod3

    A dyslectic man walked into a bra.

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