One year ago today President Obama imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. It banned shallow-water and deepwater operations, setting the stage for a year of delays in permitting. Now a U.S. senator wants to put a moratorium on federal agencies. Sen. David Vitter (D-La.), an outspoken critic of the administration’s anti-drilling policies, introduced the Agency Overreach Moratorium Act, which would require congressional approval for federal regulations that restrict energy exploration on federal lands and offshore. Vitter said the legislation would expand domestic energy resources and …
Randall Stilley has witnessed firsthand the Obama administration’s job-killing agenda. As the president and chief executive of Seahawk Drilling, he had to lay off 632 employees before filing for bankruptcy — a direct result of President Barack Obama’s anti-energy policies. Stilley’s company owned and operated 20 shallow-water rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The lack of energy production — a consequence of Obama’s drilling moratorium and subsequent “permitorium” — led to Seahawk’s demise. Now he’s speaking out, sharing Seahawk’s story in a new video from Heritage and the Institute for …
As gas prices continue to climb — reaching as high as $5.75 to $6.03 a gallon in some places — the Department of the Interior remains stingy with deepwater drilling permits. Since February 2011, the administration has issued an average of just 1.3 deepwater permits per month — a 78 percent monthly reduction from the historical monthly average of 5.8 permits a month, according to the latest Gulf Permit Index from Greater New Orleans Inc. The slow pace of permitting will likely eventually result in production declines — and that …
The same Washington press corps that hammered President George W. Bush relentlessly when prices were still well under $3 a gallon—well before the $4 a gallon peak, which lasted only six weeks in 2008—have given President Obama a pass thus far on the recklessness of his energy policy. In fact, in the first two years of his presidency, as gas prices steadily rose to over $3 a gallon, the press corps never asked the President about gas prices in any of his press briefings. Even when he called a press …
The one-year anniversary of the gulf oil spill was earlier this week. The policies that have been put in place since then have caused gas prices to skyrocket and caused the economic growth of the Gulf Region to stagnate. Join us on Friday from 12-1 ET for our “Lunch with Heritage” online chat. We will be joined by Policy Analyst Nick Loris and he will take your questions about the policies that have been implemented since the oil spill and their impact on the Gulf Region and nationally. If you …
It’s a question that seems so 2008, but it is rearing its ugly head again. The average price of a gallon is already nearing record levels and there is no relief in sight. Some areas, like Chicago, could see prices as high as five dollars a gallon by the Memorial Day. Obama would like to blame you for the high gas prices, but the root problem is his energy policy that is stifling exploration in America. In the aftermath of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama …
President Barack Obama deflected blame for high gas prices yesterday, by blaming American consumers for their automobile choices. According to the AP, at an event at a wind turbine plant, “Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices.” Obama laughingly said: “If you’re complaining about the price of gas and you’re only getting 8 miles a gallon, you know…you might want to think about a trade-in.” (The AP later scrubbed this quote from its stories) For most Americans, however, high gas prices are no laughing matter. And for the …
The budget battle has yet to be worked out. Does a government shutdown loom? Also, gas prices are on the rise. So why is President Obama proposing reductions of oil imports by one third? And, the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program was effectively ended by the left, but legislation to refund it is passing through Congress. One eighth-grade girl testifies before Congress on how this program has benefited her. Will this program survive Congress, and the president? Listen to our latest Heritage in Focus Roundtable, for answers to these questions and more.
The Obama Administration has already presided over the steepest rise in gas prices since the Carter Administration. And like President Jimmy Carter, PresidentBarack Obama has restricted traditional domestic energy development at every turn. According to the Energy Information Administration, President Obama’s Gulf drilling moratorium will cause domestic offshore oil production to fall 13% this year . Absent the Obama moratorium, the EIA had predicted a 6% increase in offshore production from 2010 levels. That means President Obama’s Gulf moratorium alone will cost American consumers 220,000 barrels of domestic oil production …
This weekend, Energy Secretary Steven Chu appeared on Fox News Sunday and host Chris Wallace asked him about his desire in 2008 for Americans to punitively pay more at the pump in order to wean them off of gasoline. Shockingly, Chu did not walk back his comments as he has attempted to do in the past. In fact, he embraced the strategy noting that his focus is to ease the pain felt by his energy policies by forcing automakers to make more fuel-efficient automobiles: WALLACE: In that regard, in 2008 …
