Obama seeks more drilling in Alaska and Gulf of Mexico

Cross post from LBN

Source: Reuters

President Barack Obama, under pressure from Republicans and the public to bring down gasoline prices, announced new measures on Saturday to expand domestic oil production in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.

High fuel prices have dented Obama's ratings in opinion polls and threaten to dampen the economic recovery that is critical to his re-election in 2012.

The president, a Democrat, has pushed for reducing U.S. oil consumption and expanding renewable energy sources while also focusing on domestic oil and gas production -- an area Republicans want to expand dramatically.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president met some of those Republican demands, outlining ways to boost domestic drilling and better coordinate the process of issuing permits in Alaska.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/14/us-obama-oil-...

He's like a chameleon changing his colors to match what he thinks
are the ones with power or some kind of moral superiority. The
problem is .. he's got it wrong and has no center.

'In psychology, Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

frickin change I can believe in.

Color me unimpressed.

guess they've been swept under the bus with the rest of us.

what they want, as always.

(maybe a few pennies) but will increase oil companies profits and screw up the wilderness. An oil leak in Alaska is an even bigger deal than the Gulf.

After the anti-human, anti-environment coddling of BP last year it is clear whose side this, or any administration is on.

"The business of America is business"

Nuff said

Drilling more, whether in Alaska or the Gulf will not and can not effect changes in the global oil market anytime soon, if at all. Obama isn't operating in an information vacuum and is fully aware of this. He isn't the Polar Princess, Palin, who actually believes the numbers will begin spinning downward on the gas pumps the minute a hole is drilled in the frozen north.

It's just a move to counter the ceaseless Drill-Here-Drill-Now yammering from the idiots during the next election.

If it's just for political reasons.... then that's ok.





:smoke:

whats a little drilling in the Gulf or Alaska going to hurt. Just as long as he benefits from it in the next election, it's all good.


:puke:

How does this help us???? Oh yeah, jobs for clean-up workers.

Certainly ain't about the environment which sustains us all. It is all about the wants and needs of the ruling class.

every year.

It's like running around in circles, until the day the planet will stop sustaining life.

Brilliant.

Not.

It also kills a RW talking point. If it helps him get reelected then its worth it. We cannot risk having the GOP take the WH.

They'll want derricks within sight of every beach, except a few beaches where rich people hang out.

Those people are never satisfied which is why it's never strategic to do something just to appease them.

There might be other good reasons to drill but getting the right wing off his back isn't one of them.

The RW idiots will never vote for Obama.

duh

And since drilling won't lower the price, why bother?

Prices will go down when demand goes down.

But since the odds of that happening are slim and none, it's generally a good bet to speculate.

The only people that offshore drilling will help are the people that make clean-up supplies, which makes up a negligible percentage of the electorate.

and good gamblers are risk adverse. These actions by the President will make them think twice about dumping millions into oil futures... imo.

How much oil is available offshore?

A minuscule amount compared to our needs.

One more thing: Once it's gone, it doesn't come back.

If the President wanted to make them sweat he'd propose serious conservation measures, but that's not his goal.

BTW, the President has proposed serious conservation and alternative energy measures. I guess you havent been paying attention.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/energy-and-environment

That link is just stuff that appears painless that sounds good.

Want a serious conservation effort? Outlaw free parking.

It'll never happen.

but thats quite a challenge in this car-loving and car-dependent country.

Let's adopt and enact right wing policies so the right wingers don't regain the White House and enact right wing policies..

Brilliant.

:eyes:

Wait... I thought he said he was a Democrat?!?

It is the oil companies oil and they will continue to gouge us as long as they get away with it...

Taxing each trade that speculators make would at least help decrease the budget but even that is off the table it seems...

:bounce:

PB

There is no need for new drilling, even if the republicans say so.

Um, any new oil found would just be sold on the world market to the highest bidder. Go after the speculators please.