Now Gas Is As Expensive As Rocket Fuel

President Obama has responded to concerns over rising gas prices in part by claiming to have increased domestic oil production.

“Under my Administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years,” he said in a speech last month.

However, oil production on federal land, which is directly under the administration’s control, has decreased since Obama took office.

Countering President Obama’s claim that he’s doing everything he can to increase domestic oil production, a top House Republican released data from the Energy Department showing that fossil fuel production on federal lands has fallen since Mr. Obama took office.

The information compiled by the Energy Information Administration shows that total fossil fuel production on federal lands has dropped 7 percent since 2009 and 13 percent since 2003. From 2010 to 2011, total oil production on federal lands is down 14 percent and gas production dropped 11 percent.

Doc Hastings 

House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings, Washington Republican, said the new data show that President Obama’s “anti-energy policies” are taking the country in the wrong direction.

Gas prices hit $4 a gallon here in Miami this week. And it’s the president’s fault. How do we know? Because that’s what Democrats have been telling us since 2008.

Senator Debbie Stabenow 

In May of Election Year 2008, with prices near $4 a gallon, Michigan senator Debbie Stabenow was handpicked by Democrats to deliver the party’s weekly radio address in which she slammed then-President Bush for the pain at the pump. “When President Bush took office in 2001, Stabenow said, gas cost $1.50 a gallon, a price which has shot up to more than $3.70 for regular gas and $4 for premium in her home state. Well, when Obama took office gas was $1.83 a gallon for regular and now it's $4.19 a gallon.

In Election this Year 2012, the shoe is on the other political party with Barack Obama now the focus of gas-price fury. But given his anti-energy record, the damage is likely to be deeper.

Calling Bush’s prices “a crisis for every American family,” Stabenow in 2008 pushed the Democrats’ broken record of more spending for alternatives and higher-fuel-economy mandates, claiming that “Republicans want more drilling, more consumption, and more tax giveaways for the big oil companies.”

Jennifer Granholm 

Four years later, the “I can feel global warming when I fly” senator is still holding press conferences about high gas prices — but White House blame has curiously disappeared from her song sheet. The Blame Bush refrain had become as reliable a Midwest spring phenomenon as red robins, with gas prices heading sharply north as refineries shut down to change to (federally mandated) seasonal blends amidst growing spring demand. From 2006-2008, Gov. Jennifer Granholm — a green boondoggle-subsidizing Obama clone — routinely drafted national petitions demanding that Bush impose a windfall profits tax on “greedy” oil companies (the same oil companies that make up a substantial percentage of state pension portfolios because of their steady profits, it should be noted).

Now another White House resident is facing $4 a gallon gas. But this time it is the most-anti-carbon president in U.S. history.

Department of Unaffordable Energy: Stephen Chu 

Where George Bush had a record of encouraging oil exploration (even as his presidency hit its nadir with his 2006 “addicted to oil” speech to counter his oilman image), Obama is on record supporting higher oil prices — and in hiring the likes of Secretary of Solyndra Stephen Chu, who apparently believes his agency should be called the Department of Unaffordable Energy.

The result is that this spring’s predictable gas jump has hit Obama’s popularity hard. “Gas prices are a main culprit,” of Obama’s negative numbers. “Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the situation at the pump. A Washington Post survey finds 59 percent of Americans giving Obama negative ratings on the economy.”

Data from America’s 2008 flirtation with $4 a gas suggests Obama is particularly vulnerable on the issue. Why? Because even as Bush was suffering from $4 gas, opinion polls showed the public agreed with his solutions, primarily: drill, baby, drill, or the threat of drilling.

Seven in 10 voters said soaring fuel costs — at $4.09 a gallon for regular this week — are having a significant or major impact on their lives and are swaying two-thirds of residents to back offshore drilling in Florida, California and other states with ocean shorelines. Nearly half said they’d even favor drilling for oil and gas along the Great Lakes.”

While Bush reacted to such polls by demanding more production, Obama has aligned himself with green extremists against the Keystone pipeline, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and so on. Oil and gas companies have beat a path to the Detroit News’s offices the last two years complaining of the Obama EPA’s hostility to energy exploration.

All told, the U.S. has as much as two trillion barrels of oil equivalents trapped in the ground and offshore — about eight times the reserves Saudi Arabia has. Yet, Obama doesn't want us to get it. Less supply, higher prices, by design. Call it the Obama Gasoline Tax.

Milton Ezrati 

How much is the tax? Economist Milton Ezrati notes that the 30% oil rise since last fall "has already siphoned more than $280 billion" from consumers' pockets. This swamps the $114 billion payroll tax cut for this year.

A recent study estimates ending Obama's policies would raise U.S. oil output 1.27 million barrels a day by 2015 — an increase of 22% from current levels. By 2030, that jumps by 10.4 million barrels a day — a surge of nearly 180%.

That would bring oil prices down, providing our economy an enormous boost while also giving us time to find oil alternatives. "Silver bullet"? Sounds like one to me, How about you?.