Was This The Dems’ Plan All Along?

Reports Suggest High Gas Prices Are Here to Stay, andDemocrats Are Making it Worse

• New reports suggest that high gas prices may be here to stay, with little relief in sight for already-struggling American families.
• Instead of responding to the pressure at the pump, the Obama Administration has slow-walked the issuance of new permits, creating a de facto moratorium on more American-made energy. Yet other Democrat policies stand to dramatically increase energy rates by as much as 60 percent.
• It all makes perfect sense when you remember that President Obama and his energy secretary have been advocating high gas prices for years. Now they’re getting what they wanted all along.

BACKGROUND:

As Americans suffer under the strain of a weak economy and rising inflation, reports out this week offer more bad news: high gas prices are here to stay:

“DON’T EXPECT TO SEE GASOLINE BELOW $3 ANY TIME SOON”: “While oil has fallen sharply since May, gasoline is down just about 10 percent and it is not likely to drop below $3 any time soon.” (Patti Domm, “Don’t Expect to See Gasoline Below $3 Any Time Soon,” CNBC, 6/20/2011)

SMALL BUSINESSES PASSING ON GAS PRICES TO CONSUMERS: “Some small businesses are adding gasoline surcharges, while others are absorbing the higher costs and making cuts elsewhere.” (Kris Maher, “Gas Prices Drive a Shift,” The Wall Street Journal, 6/18/2011)

Facing the threat of permanently high gas prices, Democrats are continuing to stonewall efforts to expand American-made energy and increase domestic production. Even as the White House claims it is relaxing its stance on drilling, businesses are telling another story by criticizing the White House’s “de facto moratorium”:

DESPITE NEW OIL DISCOVERY OFF GULF COAST, DRILLING PERMITS STILL WAY DOWN: “The back-to-back discoveries should draw even more attention to what many industry players believe is one of the world’s most promising oil hotspots. The lower tertiary formation, lying deep under the Gulf, is estimated by analysts to hold upwards of 15 billion barrels of crude oil. However, exploration of the area has been extremely limited over the past year in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in April 2010. And despite the lifting of the ban on deep water drilling, some in the industry has argued that a de-facto moratorium is still in place, with 60% less permits issued by the US government since October than were regularly being issued prior to the spill.“(Robert Sullivan, “Giant Exxon Discovery Could Change Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Outlook,” Resource Investing News, 6/13/2011)

GULF COAST BUSINESSES HURT BY OBAMA MORATORIUM: “Cory Kief, president of Larose, La.-based Offshore Towing, said his tugboat company – once hired to tow dozens of shallow-water rigs monthly – has been hit hard by the drilling decline.” (Jennifer A. Dlouhy, “Witnesses Say Gulf Drilling Ban Was a Harsh Blow,” The Houston Chronicle, 6/3/2011)

Democrats’ de facto moratorium and refusal to budge on increasing domestic energy production may seem puzzling in light of the current strain on American consumers. But considering earlier comments from President Obama and his energy secretary, the Democrats’ silence on high gas prices makes perfect sense: this is what they’ve been advocating all along:

OBAMA: HIGH GAS PRICES NOT A PROBLEM IF “GRADUAL ADJUSTMENT”: “I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment. The fact that this is such a shock to American pocketbooks is not a good thing. But if we take some steps right now to help people make the adjustment, first of all by putting more money into their pockets, but also by encouraging the market to adapt to these new circumstances more quickly, particularly US automakers, then I think ultimately, we can come out of this stronger and have a more efficient energy policy than we do right now.” (Jim Geraghty, “Obama: On Gas Prices, ‘I would Have Preferred a Gradual Adjustment,'” National Review, 6/11/2008)

OBAMA IN 2008: “UNDER MY PLAN…ENERGY RATES WILL NECESSARILY SKYROCKET.” “When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, you know, under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.” (Remarks from then-Sen. Barack Obama, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 2008)

ENERGY SECRETARY STEPHEN CHU: “WE HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO BOOST THE PRICE OF GASOLINE”: ” ‘Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,’ Mr. Chu, who directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September.” (Neil King Jr. and Stephen Power, “Times Tough for Energy Overhaul,” The Wall Street Journal, 12/12/2008)