Obama says the recent modest increase in domestic production is proof he's not anti-oil. But this happened despite his policies, not because of them — largely the result of drilling permits issued under Clinton and Bush, and the oil boom on private lands in North Dakota.
Whenever Obama has had the chance to encourage production, he's done the opposite:
• He needlessly halted Gulf drilling permits after the BP oil spill, and continues to slow-walk them. Permit approvals are less than half their pre-Obama average, and approval times have nearly doubled.
• Obama scuttled the 700,000-barrels-a-day Keystone XL pipeline, despite approval by the State Department after an exhaustive three-year review.
• And he endlessly demonizes oil companies while pushing to sharply raise their taxes.
The truth is that for Obama, low gas prices are the problem, since they would hamper progress toward his "green" Nirvana, where we all hop on government trains and putter around in government-approved electric cars. It's just that he's smart enough not to say this out loud.
And since you will like this so much Obama will gouge you on home heating and cooling costs as well. Please remember your thank-yous this November.
