The American Dream vs. Obama's Energy Policy

By now we've all heard Jay Carney's claim that it was those sneaky Republicans, and not President Obama, who killed the Keystone XL Pipeline. Evidently (not), the Republicans in an 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' scenario took over Barack Obama's body and "forced him" to first punt on the pipeline until after his reelection and then pass on it indefinitely.

Maybe we all need a dose of sanity when it comes to energy policy. Yesterday, David Holt, who heads the non-partisan Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) detailed exactly how disastrous this administration's policies have been for energy producers and consumers alike on internet radio show ;Coffee & Markets. You can listen to and/or download the audio from the segment here: here and read the following partial transcript of Holt's remarks.

Selected quotes from David Holt interview, Coffee & Markets, Feb. 21, 2012:
"Consumers have been concerned about energy prices and kind of a lack of a U.S. energy policy for a long time. The fact that gasoline prices are now rising and this administration is suddenly paying attention to energy prices and its lack of energy policy is somewhat lamentable. We wish the administration had paid attention to this issue long before now. Now voters and consumers around the country are actually feeling the pinch."

"We need it all. No is not an answer. Any society that continues to say no to long-term development of alternative energy – we need that. But we need to recognize that it's long term. Oil and natural gas? The United States is sitting on trillions of barrels of oil, trillions and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. We have enough oil and natural gas to sustain our own needs, to reduce our reliance on imports from countries that frankly are hostile to the United States now. So anyone that says no, anyone who persists that false choice that its either the environment or development, that’s not a true argument either."

"Right now we need oil and natural gas, energy prices are going up, our reliance on hostile nations is continuing to put this country into a very precarious state from a national security perspective, and pointing fingers and saying 'no' just doesn’t cut it anymore. We need all of the above, and we need everyone to get on the same page and start moving forward."

"This administration had a very, very easy win for all quarters of the economy in the U.S. to find safe reliable affordable abundant supplies of energy from our neighbors to the north, which is currently already our number one energy supplier, and putting us in a situation where we don’t have access to this 700,000-plus barrels of oil a day, to all the tens of thousands of jobs that would have been immediately created with this shovel-ready project, a $7 billion private industry project, all the things that the Obama Administration continues to say they want – but yet they deny this project and continue to put us in harms way."

"So all the arguments that you saw from the Administration on why they chose the delay on Keystone were really false arguments that have already been answered. The fact that the mainstream media hasn’t really caught onto that is also lamentable. We hope this administration will make a timely decision because this country needs it and it is one of the easiest things we can do to quickly, quickly help solve our energy problems."

"So we are very concerned that high energy prices will drag this economy down. Very concerned that we’ve had a complete lack of energy policy. And an energy policy that’s headed in the wrong direction, that’s locked down the gulf of Mexico, that’s shut down keystone, that wont allow access to offshore Alaska, that continues to hamstring the natural gas industry with threats of regulation and more control…everywhere you turn from an energy perspective, this administration, previous administrations, other Congresses, have hamstrung our ability to meet our energy needs domestically, and it is well past time for this administration to stand up and do the right thing to spur economic growth to get the economy going again and to beat our energy needs in a sustainable way."

"There is long-term sustainable growth in the Canadian Oil Sands. They’re looking at signing some agreements with China and building some pipelines that would carry the oil sands to the Pacific coast, to carry the oil to the Far East and elsewhere. So if the United States doesn’t get our ducks in a row very quickly, we face losing out a great opportunity. So I hope the Republicans and Democrats alike continue to put pressure on this administration, make this an election issue."

"The all of the above approach is gaining more residence. It’s a very logical decision. As I said at the front end, no is not an answer. We need yes to all of the above. We need to start developing our infrastructure for an alternative energy and diverse energy future, but we need to recognize the abundant supply of oil and gas we have available to us now, and thoughtfully, safely, responsibly access those resources, because we cannot continue to have this false choice pitting the environment against development. We’ve got to be able to do both, and we’ve got to be able to appease the thoughtful votes in the middle on this issue, to say this is the way to economic prosperity in this country."

"We all have this thing that I was raised with called the American Dream, where each generation hoped that the successive generation had more economic opportunity than they had. Well I think for the first time a lot of us are fearful that we will not pass onto our kids and grandkids the same economic opportunity that we had. That is something that we’ve got to stop in this country. Energy is a way to keep the economy going again, keep the manufacturing base going, and building a great economic future for all of us. Energy policy is a cornerstone of that, and we hope this administration or the next administration gets that and makes it a cornerstone of their policy."

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