August 4, 2008

Senator Obama's Energy Speech

Here is the text of Senator Obama's energy speech today

I heard the start, where he said,

We meet at a moment when this country is facing a set of challenges greater than any we've seen in generations. Right now, our brave men and women in uniform are fighting two different wars while terrorists plot their next attack.

Did the Americans fight two different wars in World War II? I mean, there was the "War in Europe" and the "War in Japan." We experienced VJ Day, victory in Japan and VE Day, Victory in Europe... but it was all one war, right? Iraq and Afghanistan are different locations with different challenges, but they are the same war, aren't they? Just as WW II was one war. "The War on Terror."

And about energy, Obama says,

But we also know that we've been talking about this issue for decades. We've heard promises about energy independence from every single President since Richard Nixon. We've heard talk about curbing the use of fossil fuels in State of the Union addresses since the oil embargo of 1973.

And he then goes on to complain that John McCain was in the Senate for a lot of those years and Congress did nothing ("What Senator McCain neglected to mention was that during those thirty years, he was in Washington for twenty-six of them. And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."). Well, really Congress did worse than nothing. You'll notice that right now 75% of the people of America want us to drill for oil, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat) refuses to bring it up for a vote... so despite John McCain being in Congress all those years, there is little he could do because who controlled Congress since 1973? 1) Nixon's Administration never had either house of Congress, 2) Ford's Administration never had either house of Congress. Jimmy Carter however, was a Democrat and Democrats controlled both houses of Congress all four years. Ronald Regan's Administration never had control of the House, but did have a majority of Republicans in the Senate. George H.W. Bush's Administration never had control of either house of Congress. Bill Clinton, however, was a Democrat and had control of both houses of Congress for two years. His son, George W. Bush, a Republican had control of both houses for a several years (and used his political majority to fight the war, for good or ill).

The point being, since 1973, Democrats have controlled Congress 27 of 35 years and are in control of both houses again, now -- they have passed laws preventing America from becoming energy independent, they have prevented new refineries from being built, they have prevented new Fossil Fuel energy plants from being built, they have prevented Nuclear plants from being built... and for Obama to blame that on McCain is plainly ridiculous.

Obama says,

But we should start by telling the oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres they currently have access to but haven't touched. And if they don't, we should require them to give up their leases to someone who will.

Well, that is the current law and Obama apparently doesn't know it. If the oil companies don't develop the land they have access to, they lose their rights to them... and they don't drill on that land because their geologists don't believe there is oil there... what a straw man.

Obama also complained that even if the oil companies do drill and find oil, it won't see a refinery for seven years,

George Bush's own Energy Department has said that if we opened up new areas to drilling today, we wouldn't see a single drop of oil for seven years. Seven years. And Senator McCain knows that, which is why he admitted that his plan would only provide "psychological" relief to consumers. He also knows that if we opened up and drilled on every single square inch of our land and our shores, we would still find only three percent of the world's oil reserves. Three percent for a country that uses 25% of the world's oil. Even Texas oilman Boone Pickens, who's calling for major new investments in alternative energy, has said, "this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of."

Everyone knows the seven years business is weak... after all, Obama's pushing new technologies that won't see fruition for 10, 15, maybe 20 or more years... does that mean we should curl up and die in the mean time? And why should we fund a possible solution 10 years out and not a sure solution 7 years away? And what he says about opening up all our land and shores would not even help is really and outright lie... US Shale Oil reserves are more than five times as large as Saudi Arabia's entire estimated reserves of oil... Canada's already turning their shale to oil... but not America.... not America because our Congress holds the purse strings and has them tightly shut on the matter of Fossil Fuel.

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