Drilling for Oil? Nope, But Obama to Sign New CO2 Restrictions By Executive Order

Pence calls president’s drilling announcement a ‘smokescreen’
Washington Times

Pence: “This is yet another feeble attempt to gain votes for the President’s national energy tax bill that is languishing in the Senate”

Pence: “As usual the devil is in the details. Only in Washington, D.C., can you ban more areas to oil and gas exploration than you open up, delay the date of your new leases and claim you’re going to increase production.

“The President’s announcement today is a smokescreen. It will almost certainly delay any new offshore exploration until at least 2012 and include only a fraction of the offshore resources that the previous Administration included in its plan.

“Unfortunately, this is yet another feeble attempt to gain votes for the President’s national energy tax bill that is languishing in the Senate. At the end of the day this Administration’s energy plan is simple: increase the cost of energy on every family in America and trade American jobs oversees at a time when millions of Americans are looking for work.”

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In a reversal of a long-standing ban on most offshore drilling, President Barack Obama is allowing oil drilling 50 miles off Virginia’s shorelines. At the same time, he is rejecting some new drilling sites that had been planned in Alaska.
Obama was set to announce the new drilling policy Wednesday at Andrews air base in Maryland. White House officials pitched the changes as ways to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil and create jobs — both politically popular ideas — but the president’s decisions also could help secure support for a climate change bill languishing in Congress.
FOX News
The president, joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, also was set to announce that proposed leases in Alaska’s Bristol Bay would be canceled. The Interior Department also planned to reverse last year’s decision to open up parts of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Instead, scientists would study the sites to see if they’re suitable to future leases.
Obama also urged Congress to complete work on a climate change and energy bill, which has remained elusive. The president met with lawmakers earlier this month at the White House about a bill cutting emissions of pollution-causing greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020. The legislation would also expand domestic oil and gas drilling offshore and provide federal assistance for constructing nuclear power plants and carbon sequestration and storage projects at coal-fired utilities.
White House officials hope Wednesday’s announcement will attract support from Republicans, who adopted a chant of “Drill, baby, drill” during 2008’s presidential campaign.

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Fox: Obama to sign new CO2 restrictions by executive order
Fox Business Host Stuart Varney reports that Obama plans to sign an executive order by next week to unilaterally impose new laws mandating CO2 restrictions since he can’t get the laws passed through congress.
Stuart Varney explains:
…There may be deal making and an element of diversion as well. First of all the deal making. As you heard, the President wants a climate control bill, cap and trade of some form, this year, so he throws out more nuclear power, yes, you can have more nuclear power and now some more offshore drilling. That will be the nature of a deal. A climate bill in return for more drilling and more nukes. That’s the deal element here. The diversion is this: as early as tomorrow, our people in D.C. are telling us that maybe we will see new co2 emissions rules from the EPA. That would be tough on business. So what you do is you announce an extra off shore drilling today, divert from the negative headlines tomorrow, capture the public’s headlines with extra drilling today. So you’ve got a bit of a diversion here, and you’ve also got some deal making going on. What you do have, you do have a switch here, you’ve got the possibility of a lot more offshore drilling, but it’s way down the road.
The interior department is going to hold several years, that’s a direct quote, several years of environmental studies on those eastern seaboard, outer continental shelf drilling, then they come in with a report after several years, then the environmentalists will challenge it in court and hold it up for more years to come. I’m not going to put a year estimate on it, but I mean, it is way down the road, towards the end of this decade, before, if you ever see a single drop of offshore oil come ashore.
Martha: …Just so everybody understands, is that co2, as of tomorrow, I understand, carbon dioxide, will be a pollutant that is subject to government regulation. Now, that’s never been the case before, but once you make carbon dioxide emissions subject to government regulation, you’re in a whole new ballpark, aren’t you stuart?
Varney: You are in an administrator ballpark, not a legislative ballpark. It means that the EPA, environmental protection agency, as of tomorrow, as administrative agency, can impose new rules on carbon dioxide emissions. you don’t have a vote in congress, you just impose the new rule. and we hear it’s likely to come tomorrow or certainly this week.

As James M. Taylor notes at Capitalist Magazine, if you enjoyed last summer’s exploding gasoline prices, you’re really going to love the rise in gasoline prices, electricity prices, and unemployment, as well as the reduction in annual household income, that carbon dioxide restrictions will impose on the economy:
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), which serves as a contractor to several federal government agencies, last year analyzed the economic consequences of a 70 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2050. SAIC used the U.S. Energy Information AdministrationÃ’s National Energy Modeling System under two different scenarios. SAIC analyzed the economic consequences under a “low cost” scenario in which nuclear power, clean coal, and other relatively cost-effective but environmentally controversial means are employed to meet the 70 percent reduction, and a “high cost” scenario in which nuclear power plants, clean coal plants, etc., do not play a major role in carbon dioxide reductions. Under either scenario, the economic consequences to American consumers will be devastating.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s economic forecasting model, a 70 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions will cause gasoline prices to rise 77 percent over baseline projections, will cause electricity prices to more than double over baseline projections, will kill more than 3 million jobs versus baseline projections, and will reduce average household income by more than $4,000 each and every year.

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Brad Blakeman, a former Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush, commenting on President Obama’s new plan to clear way for oil drilling off U.S. coasts:

“The president is throwing a bone to Republicans in hopes that this will be his foot in the door to a massive climate change bill, and that’s not going to happen.”

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Wild Thing’s comment……….
So now we see why “oil drilling” is being dangled.Oil DRILLING is not being dangled. Obama is offering really is oil EXPLORATION, SEISMIC exploration, NOT drilling. From ABC we see he is also CLOSING off drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea, which just so happens to be where our LARGEST potential undiscovered oil lays…….This smoke and mirrors garbage is disgusting and if the likes of Lindsay Graham go along with cap and tax in return for this big fat nothing, he should be tarred and feathered and run out of DC on a rail.
He as always has other plans and as they come out like always again they are against our country in every way. In the meantime, he distracts by announcing opening up of offshore drilling for oil.
This is bigger than pushing a recession into a depression, this is bigger than ANYTHING financial.
This is the Executive Branch issuing LAWS.
This has got to get under control. You would think the dumbies in Congress would have fears about so much authority given to another branch of government. Who knew their ego wouldn’t supercede dedication to an idealogue.
He is despicable. He is an evil and dangerous man. MAO-bama is no longer hiding his fascism – hello Hugo!
Obama: Hands you a crap sandwich in a happymeal box, and calls it lunch.