{"id":646,"date":"2011-05-10T15:08:59","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T19:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=646"},"modified":"2011-05-10T15:08:59","modified_gmt":"2011-05-10T19:08:59","slug":"drill-nowhere-drill-never","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2011\/05\/drill-nowhere-drill-never.html","title":{"rendered":"Drill Nowhere, Drill Never"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Why is the current Obama Administration completely against relieving our oil crisis? \u00a0Read on and be shocked to learn things you may never have heard before!<\/h2>\n

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by Robert Ringer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Since the Obamaviks descended upon the nation\u2019s capital in January of 2009, the government has dramatically improved its ability to carry out its two main functions \u2014 redistributing wealth and creating crises. However, lest you give them too much credit for their remarkable success in these areas, remember that much of that success was made possible by past actions on the part of progressive Republicans, philosophically confused Republicans and RINOs.<\/p>\n

The redistribution-of-wealth issue is almost at the point of no return, even though a number of principled Republicans are actually threatening to make a serious attempt to stop it by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. The odds against their succeeding, however, are about as long as the odds against Osama bin Laden\u2019s showing up in Times Square tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Just ask their leader, Boohoo Boehner, who keeps going out of his way to let the enemy know the Republicans have no intention of cutting up the Democrats\u2019 Capital One card. We will soon get the answer to the debt-ceiling increase, so let\u2019s set aside that Obamanation for now and turn to government function No. 2, crisis creation.<\/p>\n

The crown jewel of the Obamaviks\u2019 crisis-creation strategy is the skyrocketing price of gasoline, resulting almost exclusively from the government\u2019s heavy-handed, unConstitutional regulation of the petroleum industry.<\/p>\n

A recent example was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s ruling to withhold air permits from Shell Oil, which, in essence, forced the company to drop its long-planned exploration project in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The result is that Shell wasted five years and roughly $4 billion in preparation for the project. The EPA\u2019s excuse for their latest \u201cdrill nowhere, drill never\u201d ruling is that Shell\u2019s exploration would have been too close (70 miles) to a 1-square-mile village named Kaktovik, Alaska, a booming metropolis of 245 residents.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, far-left groups like Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity and the Alaska Wilderness League were wetting their pants with joy at their latest victory over evil oil companies who are trying to improve the lives of Americans. No big deal \u2014 just another 27 billion barrels of oil that have been left to sit underground indefinitely. When the news reached Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, they must have started celebrating and passing out cookies in the streets.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding this latest attack on fossil fuels, many in the media arm of the White House (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, The New York Times, etc.) are concerned that if gas prices continue to rise, it will hurt Obama\u2019s chances for reelection. But their concern may be unwarranted, because one of Obama\u2019s greatest talents is his ability to deflect attention from his own economy-killing actions and attack the good guys in Alinsky-like fashion.<\/p>\n

So how can the anti-progress progressives have their no-gas cake and eat it, too? The fact is that when it comes to high gas prices, finger-pointing is a piece of cake \u2014 greedy speculators and greedy oil companies\u2026 case closed.\u00a0 It is, of course, pure nonsense, but the Homer Simpson crowd doesn\u2019t have a clue.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding Bill O\u2019Reilly\u2019s constant drumbeat about evil oil speculators, most experts agree they have very little bearing on the price of gasoline. Remember, a smart speculator can make just as much money when gas prices go down as when they rise.<\/p>\n

As to greedy oil companies making billions of dollars in profits, almost everyone who watches or reads the news knows the profit margins in the oil industry are relatively small compared to, say, technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

All other things being equal, the chief cause of rising oil prices is the continuing decline of the dollar. That ties the artificial oil crisis to the equally artificial debt-ceiling crisis, because when you raise the debt ceiling \u2014 as Congress has been doing nonstop for decades \u2014 it makes it possible for the government to spend more, in turn causing the dollar to decline.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s somewhat tragedy and comedy that redistribution of wealth is perhaps the chief reason for skyrocketing gas prices. I say tragedy and comedy because those who benefit most from the government\u2019s redistribution-of-wealth policies have to give an increasingly larger percentage of their largesse back in the form of government-created higher fuel costs.<\/p>\n

If I were king (the only government position I would ever accept), I could solve the artificial energy crisis overnight. My plan would be simple:<\/p>\n

Close down the Department of Energy and the EPA, and get the government completely out of the energy business.<\/p>\n