Interior Department energy propaganda misleading, disingenuous

WASHINGTON D.C.-- The interior department announced Tuesday that oil and gas lease sales on public lands increased 20 percent in 2011, generating more than $250 million in profits for taxpayers. The fact, however, is that oil production on federal lands, lease sales, and revenue have drastically declined during the Obama administration.

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"The American people need only to check their electric bills or the price they are paying at the pump to see just how well the Obama administration's energy policies are working. Today's announcement by the interior department that lease sales are increasing is misleading and disingenuous. The president promised to make energy prices "skyrocket," and so he has. The American people deserve the facts about this administration's anti-energy agenda, not more propaganda from Ken Salazar," said IER Senior Vice President Dan Kish. The Institute for Energy Research released the following facts to set the record straight: Obama Claim:The administration is increasing lease sales on public lands. Total leases issued on public lands wereup 20 percentin 2011. FACT:Lease sales on public lands havesteadilydecreasedover the last 25 years. Obama Claim: The administrationraised more than $250 millionin lease salerevenues in 2011, up 20 percent over 2010. FACT: Oil production on federal lands isdown 13 percentin 2011:97,721,813 barrels in 2011versus112,124,812 barrels in 2010. FACT:Offshore lease sales haveplummeted more than $9.4 billionsincethe Obama administration took over. This means that Americans collected258 times less revenuefrom offshore lease sales than they did during the last year of the Bush administration.

• 2008:$9,480,806,620
• 2009:$1,181,075,491
• 2010: $979,569,294
• 2011: $36,751,111

Obama Claim:The administration isincreasingthe amount of federal landsavailable for domestic energy production. FACT:The average annual leases issued during the Obama administrationisdown 35.5 percentfrom the George W. Bush administration,down50.7percentfrom the Clinton administration,down 69.5 percentfrom the George H.W. Bush administration, anddown 78.9 percentfrom the Reagan administration.

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