If you've filled up lately, you know that prices are well above $3.00/gallon now. Brace yourself - many people think it will almost double that by the end of the year.
Stopping this progression is really quite simple. Obama needs to start approving drilling permits for American oil companies. An increase in the domestic oil supply would make a world of difference in the cost, as well as reducing our dependence on an increasingly volatile situation in the Middle East.
Fortunately, it appears as though at least a few people in Washington get it:
I [David Vitter, Senator from Louisiana] am introducing new legislation in the near future that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil – from countries like Libya – by finally unshackling our own domestic energy sector from excessive regulation, while also directing a portion of those revenues to continued funding for alternative and renewable resources. Renewables and alternative fuels may be the future, but only our current administration has fooled itself into thinking these potential alternative fuels are right around the corner. We need our traditional energy resources as a bridge to help free us from dependence on foreign sources and sudden price fluctuations caused by uncontrollable world events.
Arguably most the important benefit of my bill to harness our energy sector’s potential: It would put many more Americans back to work than any of the other ‘job creation’ plans we’ve seen before Congress, while also reducing our federal and trade deficits. ...
Until the administration responds to my repeated requests to start issuing at least 15 new exploratory permits, I’ll continue to block two of Obama’s key nominations for administration positions: Scott Doney, Obama’s nominee to be NOAA chief scientist and Dan Ashe, President Obama’s nominee to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Department of the Interior.
Finally, someone with the stones to play hardball! Will he hold firm? I hope so. Someone needs to. Remember, both Barack Obama and his energy Secretary have been on record as saying they want $8-9 per gallon gasoline, just like in Europe. They're deliberately holding back supply as a way to force the price up, and it's going to take some serious spine to force them to back down. Some calls and e-mails from angry constituents across America would help, too.
And don't think for a moment that the economic impact is lost on the Obama administration, either. Remember, they want as many people dependent upon government benefits as possible because it increases their power and influence. High unemployment feeds right into that, and gouging the energy sector (in the name of global warming, of course) is a win-win for them. Here's why:
Today, the Labor Department released its monthly jobs report showing that the U.S. economy added 192,000 jobs in February and unemployment fell to 8.9 percent. While it is always great news that more Americans are finding jobs, the reality is that the economy could be doing much better. Since the Obama recovery began 20 months ago, the national unemployment rate has fallen only half a point, from 9.4 percent in July 2009 to 8.9 percent today. Contrast those anemic results with the robust job growth that occurred during the Reagan recovery in the ’80s. By the 20-month mark of the Reagan recovery, unemployment had dropped from 10.8 percent to 7.5 percent – a 3.3-point drop.
So why was the Reagan recovery so strong and why is the Obama recovery so weak? Just look at the best job markets in 2010 according to Gallup: “More than half of the 10 best job markets in 2010 were in energy- and commodity-producing states.” And what has President Obama done to help this job growth spread? Nothing. In fact, his cancellation of drilling permits across the West and his offshore drilling slowdown have undoubtedly slowed job creation in this sector.
So where are all these jobs coming from?
Gallup explains: “Reflecting the growth of the federal government, the District of Columbia was not only the second-best job market but also the second-most improved job market in 2010.” The Department of Labor Statistics confirms Gallup’s analysis: Since President Barack Obama was sworn into office, the private sector workforce has shrunk by 2.6 percent while shedding 2.9 million jobs, but the federal workforce (excluding Census and Postal workers) has grown by 7 percent while adding more than 144,000 jobs.
Barack Obama is deliberately throttling the private sector and instead growing the government using the non-existent, lying, debunked 'threat' of global warming to justify his policies.
See how this all fits together?
Let's shift focus a bit and see how the efforts to combat the non-existent, lying, debunked 'threat' of global warming are going. Did you know that NASA's new mission (courtesy of the Obama administration) is to monitor global warming from space? Too bad it's a complete failure:
A rocket carrying an Earth-observation satellite plummeted into the Pacific Ocean after a failed launch attempt Friday, the second-straight blow to NASA’s weakened environmental monitoring program.The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA’s Glory satellite lifted off early Friday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but fell to the sea several minutes later. The same thing happened to another climate-monitoring satellite two years ago with the same type of rocket.
The hypocrisy of this effort is, as usual, pretty hard to miss:
What do you suppose is the carbon footprint of just the study of global warming? The study of anthropogenic global warming just has to be one of the leading causes of anthropogenic global warming, yet the industry is continually given a pass things like this...
Oh, but let's not stop there with the carbon footprints. Let's look at the Head Honcho himself. Surely he's cutting back on 'dangerous' uses of carbon, right? Hm, well, not really, at least not if you count up the carbon footprint of flying in a personal trainer from Chicago two to four times per week to help the Obamas work out.
At what point can we go ahead and stop getting lectured by these people about our carbon footprint?
Finally, we come to a story that really captures the inevitable end result of government dictating environmental morality to the masses: the Chevy Volt. The hype began over a year ago, and we have finally witnessed the birth of the ultimate earth-saving electric vehicle. So how's it going? Hahahahahahahahahaha:
Sales numbers for the Chevy Volt are out and you'll never guess how many of these future machines consumers gobbled up in the month of February. Go ahead and try. I'll wait.Is that your final answer? Okay. Well the real number is:
281.
Yup. 281 Volts were sold in February. That might sound terrible to you, but it's actually really strong. Because Nissan only sold 67 Leafs (Leaves?), and the Leaf is both cheaper and, as far as over-priced econo-boxes go, way better than the Volt. So really, the Volt is doing pretty great.
Now if you wanted to be a Grumpy Gus and fixate on the bad news, it's true that the trend isn't great. In January, GM moved 321 Volts, so February represents a 12 percent decline. But again, there's a bright side: Leaf sales dropped by 23 percent! So actually, the Volt has better legs than its prime competitor, too.
Of course, Obama has demanded 1 million of these duds to be on the roads by 2015. At the current rate of sales, it would actually take about 228 years to hit that number, but the good news is that with the sale of each Volt and Leaf, the government flushes $7500 of taxpayer money down the toilet as a subsidy. So, the fewer of these that sell, the better off we all are (and no, Obama's adoring disciples don't count because they don't pay taxes).
So why aren't they selling? Well, I can think of several reasons right off the top of my head. First, it's way too expensive ($50k), and with the economy being what it is (you know, with 9% unemployment and all), people aren't as willing to spend loads of cash on political hobby purchases. Second, more and more Americans have awakened to the fact that the liberal propaganda is blatantly wrong - humanity is not the cause of global warming. Thus, there is really no reason to buy a stupid car like this in the first place. Third, it's simply not practical - there are no charging stations anywhere, and even if they were readily available, it takes several hours to charge the stupid things up enough to drive home from work. Fourth, they're dinky little plastic boxes, and Americans generally don't like those as much as they do full-size cars or trucks and SUVs. Fifth, lots of people live in cold weather climates, and electric cars aren't as efficient or reliable in cold weather. Finally, they just plain suck:
"When you are looking at purely dollars and cents, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. The Volt isn't particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and it's not particularly good as a gas vehicle either in terms of fuel economy," said David Champion, the senior director of Consumer Reports auto testing center at a meeting with reporters here. "This is going to be a tough sell to the average consumer."
The magazine said in its testing in Connecticut during a harsh winter, its Volt is getting 25 to 27 miles on electric power alone. ...
Champion noted the Volt is about twice as expensive as a Prius.
He was said the five hour time to recharge the Volt was "annoying" and was also critical of the power of the Volt heating system.
"You have seat heaters, which keep your body warm, but your feet get cold and your hands get cold," Champion said.
... there are a lot of trade-offs.
"They are going to live with the compromises the vehicle delivers," Champion said. "When you look at it from a purely logical point of view, it doesn't make an awful lot of sense."
Pay more because of someone else's worthless pet cause, and get an inferior product as the result? Gee, what a shocker that they're selling like disease-infested camels. But don't expect Obama to back off. He'll come up with some way of forcing them on us even harder before too long...you can count on it. You know, like, maybe...implementing policies that jack the gas price up to $8-9 per gallon...? (Hm, it's amazing how all this just fits together, isn't it?)
On a completely unrelated note:
President Obama’s job approval ratings have taken a dive this week in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, and the number of voters who give him favorable ratings for leadership has fallen to its lowest level since he took office in January 2009.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 37% of Likely U.S. Voters now say the president is doing a good or excellent job as a leader. Forty percent (40%) rate his performance as poor.
Just thought I'd throw that in. I'm sure it's a complete coincidence, though.
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