Newt Gingrich has found a new avenue of influence – the gas station. His campaign stop at a local gas station, holding the gas pump in his hand, decrying the lack of “algae energy” was brilliant.
He is correct. There is currently no algae energy available for America’s massive demand and thanks to President Obama, there is no fossil fuel plan, either. He stifles coal. He stifles oil. He stifles natural gas. Fossil fuel production on federal lands is at a nine-year low.
His Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, wants gas prices to reach $8.00 a gallon, a la Europe, forcing Americans to switch (yes, he now disavows his statement from 2008, but it’s a campaign year, so how seriously should that be taken?). But switch to what – the Chevy Volt? – only if you want to catch on fire.
The genius of the American people should not be underestimated. Americans did not blow out their candles before they had dependable electricity.
In response to Newt’s well-armed fuel duel, Obama could only resort to snide comments comparing Newt to a member of the “flat earth society.” Obama’s adoring crowd chuckled.
Will they be laughing when gasoline is $8.00 a gallon? Will they be laughing when Iran, backed by China and armed with nuclear capability, terrorizes the region and closes the Strait of Hormuz?
Will they be laughing when our economy crashes and China builds her attack upon our indebtedness to her?
Herein lies the problem. Obama threatens not only our livelihoods and our economy with his cavalier ideology but also our national security. He has put the cart before the horse. He has put his vision before America’s best interest.
Most Americans would agree that energy alternatives are commendable with emphasis on the word “alternative.” Yet, we do not have dependable alternatives because Obama is giving tax money to losers like Solyndra and suffocating private enterprise with the EPA, heavy taxation and political correctness.
Not only is it unconscionable and unconstitutional, it is also unsuccessful. Free enterprise and freedom to choose, not to mention freedom to innovate without government intrusion, is a basic tenant of American rights and prosperity.
Obama’s ostentatious insistence on going green, no matter the cost, is madness – especially when America is battling a national debt that is $15 trillion and rising.
To thwart America’s rich and vast fossil fuel resources is unreasonable. Hidden within the earth lies not only self-reliance but solvency.
Forbes Magazine contributor Peter Ferrara – quoting a recent Steve Moore piece in the Wall Street Journal – observes that:
“In 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated 150 million ‘technically recoverable barrels of oil’ from the Bakken Shale … In April 2008, that number was up to about four billion barrels, and in 2010 geologists … put it at eight billion. This week, given the discovery of a lower shelf of oil, they announced 24 billion barrels.
“Current technology allows for the extraction of only about 6% of the oil trapped one or two miles below the earth’s surface, so as the technology advances recoverable oil could eventually exceed 500 billion barrels.”
In the same vein, Gingrich said “the number of recoverable barrels of oil estimated to be in the United States, waiting to be produced [is 1.44 trillion]. That’s about the amount of oil the entire world has consumed since the first well was drilled before the Civil War. In addition, we have an estimated 2.744 quadrillion (a 15 digit number) cubic feet of natural gas.”
Ferrara explains, “Gingrich notes the estimate of the royalties to the federal government from such oil and gas development at $18 trillion over the next generation. That is enough, he further notes, to pay off the current entire national debt of $15.5 trillion, without increased taxes.”
Common sense dictates the harvesting of such vast American riches, yielding stabilizing independence. The statistics are startling in their breadth of hope – a hope that is denied by Obama’s determination to change.
Examiner contributor Janine Turner is a longtime actress and talk radio show host on KLIF in Dallas. She appears regularly on Friday editions of Fox News’ “O’Reily Factor.”
