Oil prices are driven by the headlines. The attacks on America’s embassies in Egypt and Libya will create a dramatic spike in prices at the pump—aggravating the economic impact of current high gasoline prices.
The ongoing unrest in the Middle East draws attention to the need for an energy policy that moves to quickly make American resources available for the United States. Under the Obama Administration leasing for oil and gas development on federal lands is at a 30-year low—down 50% from the Clinton Administration levels. Permitting for drilling has been tightened and deep-water rigs have moved to foreign shores.
Under the guise of “energy independence” the Obama stimulus allocated $80 billion for “green” energy projects that have lined the pockets of his friends and campaign donors and have done nothing to move America away from Middle Eastern oil. The wind and solar projects favored by the Obama Administration produce electricity—albeit inefficiently, ineffectively and uneconomically, and America is already electricity independent. It is only oil that we get from the countries who don’t like us; oil that we have in untapped abundance in America.
America—and our friends in Canada and Mexico—have enough oil and gas resources to supply our needs for centuries to come. We need access to the American pot of gold.