Obama’s drilling ploy a cynical attempt to coral votes for climate change fiasco

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When it comes to rounding up domestic sources of energy, President Obama is all hat and no cowboy. Mr. Obama recently unveiled a plan he says will open up more of the outer continental shelf (OCS) to oil and gas exploration. It will do exactly the opposite.

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To give his pronouncement an added bit of credibility, the president’s environmentalist allies played along, greeting his plan with feigned outrage. But a close look at the president’s plan reveals it will put millions of acres of the OCS off-limits to energy exploration that are currently open to it. It cancels five lease sales in Alaska that were scheduled for 2011 and 2012, two of which are in the Chukchi Sea, where Russia is currently drilling. This area alone holds an estimated 77 billion barrels of oil, equal to more than 16 years worth of imports from OPEC. The plan also would delay a 2.9 million-acre lease sale off the coast of Virginia scheduled for next year until at least 2012. If Obama’s OCS plan isn’t about increasing energy production, what is it about? It’s about creating the conditions necessary to pass his cap-and-trade climate bill through the Senate. Having felt the public’s wrath over all the 11th-hour, middle-of-the-night, back-room deals made to pass his health care plan, Obama is now making deals in broad daylight before Senate debate on cap-and-trade even starts. With the loss of his filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, Obama needs the vote of every Democrat if his climate bill is even to have a chance. And right now, Obama can’t count on the support of Virginia’s Democratic Senators, Mark Warner and Jim Webb. Pushing off the Virginia lease sale for another year gives Obama much-needed leverage. Both senators want access to the energy resources 50 miles off Virginia’s coast because it will provide their cash-strapped state with much-needed revenue. Virginia’s proposed exploration site is believed to contain up to 500 million barrels of oil, enough to supply Virginia motorists for four years, and some 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, equal to nearly 7.5 years’ worth of imports from unstable or hostile nations. The quest by Virginia’s Senators is urgent for a number of reasons:

• Drilling off Virginia’s coast would create an estimated 2,578 new jobs, generate $271 million in state and local tax revenue, and spur $7.84 billion in new capital investment in Virginia over a ten-year period. It could also pave the way for a dozen other East Coast states to press their cases for their own exploration projects and together these could reduce U.S. dependence on imports and noticeably lower gasoline and utility bills.
• Adding the huge reserves of oil and gas would enhance national security and keep the U.S. competitive with energy-thirsty trade rivals China and India. China and Venezuela already are aiding Cuba to tap rich pockets of petroleum in the Straits of Florida just 90 miles from Key West. Using diagonal drilling, the Cubans may be draining some reserves that actually belong to the United States.
• Increasing oil exploration in the outer continental shelf could eventually create 1.2 million new jobs and add $273 billion to our nation’s gross domestic product.

In exchange for the mere promise of drilling off Virginia’s coast in the future, President Obama expects something in return. And just in case the Virginia Senators didn’t get the message, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar spelled it out “…if there’s going to be revenue sharing with the coast states from the [OCS]… it’s going to take a change in the law that’s probably going to come through the energy and climate change bill.” In other words, vote for the bill and your OCS revenue doesn’t have to get hurt.