Obama has unveiled his new energy plan - telling you to properly inflate your tires. He claimed that this would save more gas than off shore drilling would produce. When asked for the data to back up this claim, the Obama camp had to admit that Obama basically made it up. The Republicans continue to press Speaker Pelosi for a vote on off shore drilling, an actual plan (also favored by McCain) that would increase domestic supply, cutting the price you pay at the pump and allowing for our economy to grow. The Democrats continue to stand in the way.
Obama counters these calls for increased drilling by saying that this action won't generate new oil for 7 years (as if alternative energy solutions are any closer). By this logic, if you're going into your sophomore year in high school, you should probably drop out now, because a college degree won't benefit you for 7 years. Obama must have forgotten about the evil oil speculators - doesn't it stand to reason that if they believe the supply of oil will increase in the long run it will affect prices in the here and now? This is what is meant by a "psychological" benefit. Notice that the oil speculators are no longer enemy number one, now that they're losing money because of the falling price of oil.
Obama blasts the US for importing $700 billion in oil a year. This is not a wealth transfer to foreign countries. It is a voluntary exchange of money for $700 billion worth of oil! Oil that gets me where I want to go. Also, most of that money goes to Mexico and Canada who then spend an awful lot of it on our products. Yes, it would be better if we had more of our own oil, but the Democrats are standing in the way.
Obama's energy plan is to tell you to use less oil and to punish the oil companies that bring you oil. Drive less. Fly less. Obama and his party are beholden to the environmental wackos and will always favor higher energy prices. Energy policy is going to be a huge advantage for the Republicans this November.
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2 comments:
you're obviously being disengenuous when you suggest Obama's energy plan begins and ends with inflating tires. That would be like suggesting McCain's health plan begins and ends with using sunscreen (which he suggested a couple of weeks ago).
also, the EPA suggests that properly inflated tires can save up to 12 cents a gallon, whereas coastal and ANWAR drilling may save up to 6 cents a gallon by 2025. remind me again what's so ridiculous about this suggestion?
coastal drilling won't actually impact prices until 2030, according to the Energy Department.
and as far as your conclusion goes, in a July 2008 WSJ poll (which recently suggested Obama is too thin to be President? so much for that darn liberal media), Democrats were favored 42 to 22 over Republicans in terms of dealing with energy policy.
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/WSJ_Poll_072308.pdf
while I can't blame you for wanting to shift the focus off of Iraq, since Obama is performing spendidly there, I'm not sure that you should assume that energy will be a stronger issue for Republicans. They are clearly as beholden to big oil as Democrats are to environmental groups. Cheney said conservation was a personal virtue, not a matter of public policy. Yeah that's smart. Let's just try to produce more oil, rather rather reduce our usage of same.
Tom
No more disengenuous than how Obama has exploited the "psychological" benefit of drilling.
Your savings from properly inflated tires assumes everyone is driving on underinflated tires. I find the 6 cents a gallon from drilling hard to believe when the US Minerals Management Service estimates that there are 85.9 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply the US for 11 years, in the outer continental shelf alone.
If anyone has shifted the focus from Iraq, it is the media. Now that the violence has declined so much, they are no longer interested. Now all the stories are about Afganistan.
Actually, producing more oil is smart. Cheap energy promotes economic growth. Expensive energy depresses growth. People don't need government to tell them to conserve. When energy prices rise, they cut back on their consumption. Americans are driving and flying less.
McCain is promoting energy policies that lead to economic growth, so no wonder the oil companies would like to see him elected. Why would they support a candidate promising the "windfall" profits taxes that were such a disaster in the Carter years?
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