Obama Administration Says One Thing Does Another On Energy Development

There comes a point where people need to realize that you can't take public statements from this administration seriously.  There are just too many examples of spin and flat out lies to actually believe the press releases.  Recently, energy Secretary Salazar and President Obama said that "oil, gas and coal will continue to play an important role in our energy mix."  But apparently there is almost no emphasis on the first three - it's all about the "mix," whatever that is.

The facts are that the Obama Administration has blocked development of oil and gas reserves on public lands at a record pace.  President of the Institute for Energy Research, Thomas J. Pyle states that "President Obama and Secretary Salazar may speak of responsible, homegrown energy development, but their actions are in direct contrast to their words.  In fact, this administration has kept more publicly-owned federal lands off-limits from energy development this year than any on record."

That's publicly held lands - land owned by the people of the United States.  They also talk about reducing dependence on foreign oil, but if they really wanted to it would be easy to open those public lands for domestic energy development.  There are billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas right under our feet and just offshore.  Development of these fields could create thousands of jobs and reduce dependence on foreign oil; two things the Administration says it wants to do but avoids actually doing in practical ways.

The charts below are form the study from the Institute for Energy Research.  It's another fact check comparing the words coming from the White House and the actual numbers.  As you can see, the statements and the facts just don't line up.  Notice that in every single case the land and offshore leases that have been made available for energy development are the lowest in the last twenty years. 

You can read the entire report from the Institue for Energy Research here: "Actions Speak Louder Than Words"