The high cost of an anti-energy president

Words: Doug AblesWe live in extraordinary times. The amazing technological innovations of America’s scientists, researchers, engineers and leading minds have made available to us the technology to free America from dependence on volatile and foreign sources of energy.

Yet, everywhere you turn, energy costs are up on everything from home energy bills to prices at the pump. How does this happen when we are producing the most American energy we have for decades?

The simple truth is that the Obama Administration is blocking energy production on federal lands. It is true that oil production is up by 61 percent on privately controlled lands, but actually has decreased by 6 percent on federal lands. Natural gas production is down 28 percent on federal lands. It should be remembered that federal lands are owned by the taxpayers, not privately held by regulatory-minded bureaucrats in the Obama Administration.

Even in the face of gas prices doubling since the start of his administration, President Obama is using the EPA to impose new regulations that would serve as a kind of nationwide tax on energy. It is simply unconscionable for the President to arbitrarily implement higher energy costs when the economy still is struggling to recover.

I find it hard to believe that the President and his team do not understand the negative impacts higher energy costs have on the average American consumer. Virtually every single item you purchase or piece of food you eat had to be produced and then transported to your location.

When these front-end costs increase, they are passed on to Americans in the form of higher prices. With huge numbers of Americans out of work or underemployed, they are not able to purchase as many goods and services as usual. This produces a negative impact on the economic health of the nation.

Indeed, few cases illustrate the connection between energy and jobs as well as the Keystone Pipeline. For years, the Obama Administration, and his Democratic allies in the United States Senate, have dithered and delayed on the implementation of a rigorously researched project that would lead to tens of thousands of American jobs and pump almost 1 million barrels of oil a day to American refineries.

The reasons for their refusal range from the ill-informed to outright malicious. When study after study shows that the Keystone Pipeline will have no significant environmental impact, you are forced to conclude that President Obama cares more about the theoretical concerns of his wealthy environmentalist donors, than the real-world concerns of Americans who are struggling to pay their bills and find work.

Soon, the U.S. House, the People’s House, will be passing comprehensive energy legislation designed to expand on-shore and off-shore energy permitting and open up the Keystone Pipeline. No longer should Democrats in the Senate hide behind procedural games and stall tactics.

Before going to the polls in November, the American people deserve to know where they stand on these important, pocketbook energy issues. Do Senate Democrats stand with the pro-energy, hard-working citizens of America, or do they stand with the anti-energy, barely working President of the United States?
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