Category Archives: EPA

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A story appeared today in the Washington Times, “Chief Justice John Roberts may be beyond reconciliation with conservatives.” Is anyone surprised? Roberts received a pass by many in the GOP after his affirmative vote in favor of Obamacare. After his vote to support subsidies for Obamacare, Roberts lost whatever good-will he retained with conservatives and the rank-and-file GOP.

To his credit, Roberts voted against same-sex marriage and against the over-reach of the EPA in regulating the coal industry. It was Justice Anthony Kennedy who voted with the four liberals on the Court to uphold Obamacare subsidies and same-sex marriage. Ironically, while it was Kennedy who tipped the Court in favor of same-sex marriage, it was Roberts, the Chief Justice, who took the blame.

Now an outcast among conservatives, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. may get the chance to redeem himself in the coming months with his stand on affirmative action, the power of labor unions and other key cases, but some on the right say it’s too late for him to salvage his credibility with them.

The court over the next year will issue several highly consequential decisions in cases of deep importance to conservatives. The justices will decide whether labor unions can force nonmembers to pay the equivalent of union dues, whether universities should consider race during the admissions process and, in a case that could dramatically alter the political landscape, how voting districts can be drawn.

Other cases centering on abortion and gun rights also could find their way before the Supreme Court, giving Chief Justice Roberts chances to regain the faith of conservatives who believe he betrayed them with two votes in three years to salvage the Affordable Care Act and cement a central piece of President Obama’s legacy. — Ben Wolfgang – The Washington Times – Sunday, July 5, 2015

For many, it is too late for Roberts to redeem himself. He has proven himself to be unreliable in the votes that have counted. The Justice who should be more despised is Kennedy. His vote was the tipping point on the Court for same-sex marriage and in truth, he has voted with the liberal wing as often as he has for the conservative wing.

The Court had been viewed, before the first Obamacare vote, as having a majority of conservatives. That belief has been dispelled and no conservative, now, has any faith that the Court will support any conservative issue.

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Whispers from the Internet

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Unless you’re a listener of Mark Levin, you probably haven’t heard this bit of news. Levin’s Landmark Legal Foundation is suing the EPA to acquire documents concerning pending regulation, post-election, and whether those regulations are politically biased.

Conservative talker Mark Levin’s legal arm sues EPA

12:28 AM 10/25/2012

Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin’s legal group is suing the Environmental Protection Agency to obtain documents pertaining to the regulations the agency plans to implement after the election.

Levin’s law firm, the Landmark Legal Foundation, filed the lawsuit in federal court this week, seeking a court order directing the EPA to preserve and produce all records related to the agency’s regulatory plans after the presidential election.

The suit argues that news stories and political observers have indicated the EPA is “intentionally delaying the issuance of controversial new regulations until after the November election” with the possibility that “a) the Obama Administration is improperly politicizing EPA activities; b) EPA officials are attempting to shield their true policy goals from the public; and/or c) EPA officials themselves are putting partisan interests above the public welfare.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/25/conservative-talker-mark-levins-legal-arm-sues-epa/#ixzz2AK91q6TL

One of the things Levin wants to establish is a pattern of behavior by the EPA of malfeasance and political manipulation of regulations to support a leftist agenda. Levine filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOA) and the EPA denied the request.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, released a report last week on the regulations he expects the EPA will implement after the election. The senator told The Daily Caller that he appreciated the [Landmark Legal Foundation] challenge to the agency. — The Dailycaller.

The EPA has been a rogue agency for years, progressively getting worse with each administration. It’s time for the EPA to go and it’s legitimate functions absorbed into another department like the Department of the Interior.

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The democrats have been caught instructing people how to vote fraudulently. The individual is the son of Virginia democrat congressman Jim Moran. Moran’s son is also Moran’s campaign manager.

James O’Keefe video leads to resignation of Patrick Moran from father’s campaign

1:39 AM 10/25/2012

Democratic Rep. Jim Moran’s son, Patrick Moran, has resigned from his father’s campaign after apparently advising an undercover Project Veritas reporter on how to commit voter fraud.

“Effective immediately, I have resigned from the Moran for Congress campaign,” Patrick Moran said in a statement to TPM.

Conservative activist James O’Keefe released the damning video that led to Moran’s resignation earlier Wednesday.

“There will be a lot of voter protection,” Moran explains to the reporter in the video. “So, if they just have — you know just the utility bill or bank statement — bank statement would obviously be tough — but, they can fake a utility bill with ease.”

“You have to forge it,” Moran says, referring to the utility bill required to pose as a registered voter.

Watch the undercover video:

Moran told the undercover reporter that an attorney from either the Obama campaign or the Democratic National Committee would defend him if things went bad.

Voter fraud: it’s what democrats do.

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Friday Follies for April 27, 2012

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It’s Friiiiday!  So says a quip on a local radio show.  And, as usual, I’m scrambling around looking for a topic.  When I fail, I punt.  The result?  The return of the Follies.
***
I went to a ‘Pub Lincoln Days dinner last night in a neighboring county.  A staffer for one of our state candidates needed some help. I had missed the big state Lincoln Day event earlier this year and frankly, I was curious. I also got a free dinner catered by the local ladies.  That county is famous for the quality of their catering. They deserve their reputation.
I’ll make sure to remind Mrs. Crucis when our county’s dinner comes around next month.
***
When is a crime not a crime?  When it perpetrated by a democrat.  Case in point.  It is illegal to campaign using taxpayer funds.  All campaign costs must be paid by the candidate or his campaign fund.
Obama has been stumping all across the country this week at colleges.  He claims it’s for governmental purposes.&nbs,ip; What -.he says at those stops, however, proves that claim to be a lie.  Every one is a campaign speech and even his sycophant media followers are now agreeing. John Boehner has made a formal complaint to have these trips investigated.  The WH made the usual excuse…”Bush did it too!”
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The Eco-Wachos are on the loose again—with tacit WH approval.  The target is the largest copper deposit in the US and perhaps the world, the Pebble Mine deposit.

Big Green pushes for EPA power grab to stop Pebble Mine

April 26, 2012 — 3:38 PM
Last week, as four major environmental groups in Washington were endorsing President Obama’s re-election, eco-bosses from the Natural Resources Defense Council flew a planeload of anti-industry activists halfway around the world to London.
NRDC, the New York City-based green giant ($232.3 million assets in 2010), sent its minions abroad in hopes of destroying America’s best strategic mineral reserve, one of the largest known ore bodies of copper on the planet: Alaska’s Pebble Mine deposit.
The Pebble Partnership (between Anglo American and Northern Dynasty Minerals) has invested more than $400 million to make Pebble — still in the pre-permit stage — the most environmentally friendly mine in history. The Partnership will spend several billion dollars and create about 2,000 jobs for mine construction, plus a thousand skilled mining jobs over the life of the mine. No plan has yet been released, which gives the opposition a free hand at make-believe, fear-mongering descriptions of what to expect.
…
Now, these groups have come together to demand the Environmental Protection Agency expand its reach under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act to deny permits for Pebble before any permit has been applied for. This unprecedented power grab from the EPA would eliminate local and state authorities from having any say in the permitting process and gut the process established under the National Environmental Policy Act — passed by the environmentalists themselves. It would chill future investments not just in mining projects but also in the estimated $200 billion yearly investments in projects relying on 404(c) permits.
Alaska’s attorney general sent a strongly worded letter last month questioning the EPA’s legal authority to pre-emptively deny a permit on state land designated for mining, but the agency is nonetheless moving forward with a broad watershed assessment of the area — a study the state argues the EPA has no authority to conduct. It will be released in coming weeks and is being heralded by Big Green as a precursor to the EPA issuing a blanket permit denial. This unprecedented action would give environmentalist activists a new tool that enables them to kill almost any project anywhere.

If President Obama allows his EPA to make this brazen power grab, it will have devastating effects on the American economy. It will also tell us a lot about who’s really running the country.

Really, that last paragraph is redundant. We know who’s running the country—liberals with their hands in our pockets.
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Bullies, Unions and Teachers.  It’s an old story. Education is all in arms about bullying in school.  The reality is that teacher’s unions are bullying their members to insure they toe the party, uh…., the union line.

When bullies grow up, they can always run teachers unions

April 26, 2012 — 8:00 PM
Earlier this month, the presidents of America’s two largest teachers unions co-hosted a screening of the new documentary “Bully.” The movie, of course, aims to combat bullying of schoolchildren.
But even as they publicly eschew bullying, these unions and their locals across the nation bully teachers and competing organizations to maintain membership and power. I have published a new report on the details of this ugly trend in School Reform News.
In February, a Utah teacher named Cole Kelly testified in favor of a bill that would penalize school districts for not granting all teacher organizations — not just unions, but also other professional organizations — equal access to teachers. A week later, he was released from his position as athletic director, which for school districts is tantamount to firing. His principal admitted she approved of his job performance but had released him because of pressure.
Subsequently, other teachers texted Kelly to say they agreed with him but were afraid of being fired if they spoke out or left their union. He is contesting his release.
…
At a new teacher orientation in Jacksonville, Fla., a union representative heard a presentation by a nonunion group. She walked onto the stage before 600 teachers, accused the presenter of being “a desperate former teacher” and stalked about the room ripping up the competition’s fliers, said Tim Farmer, membership director for the Professional Association of Colorado Educators.
These are not isolated incidents. Teachers unions engage in repeated, unashamed aggression against dissenting teachers and competitor organizations. In regular legislation-tracking for School Reform News, I have uncovered many examples of such behavior across the country. Some are as outrageous as the ones above, while others are mere annoyances. They all, however, represent a consistent effort to intimidate teachers and suppress ideas that might threaten their agenda.
“This is everywhere,” said Alexandra Schroeck, communications director for the American Association of Educators, the largest nonunion teachers association. AAE offers teachers liability insurance, professional development grants and legal representation in employment disputes, but it does not engage in collective bargaining or political activism. Its fees are approximately $15 per month, whereas union dues are often $50 per month or more. Like other nonunion teachers organizations, such as Educators4Excellence in New York and the California Teacher Empowerment Network, AAE has been growing, but it constantly runs up against unethical and sometimes illegal union-influenced resistance.
The above is only a portion of the examples given in the complete article. I urge you to read it completely and understand that unions do not exist to help their members. They exist to maintain their corporate power.  The only difference between unions and the mob is that unions have the government backing them. A government who abets unions in their quasi-legal tactics.
My mother was a teacher for over forty years. She began teaching in the Illinois Ozarks in a one room school and taught all eight grades.  She was 18 and some of her students were only a few years younger than her.  She road a horse to and from school and carried a .45 caliber revolver—a revolver she needed on occasion.
My father was a school board member for our country elementary school district and the President of that board in his last term. My sister began teaching as a circuit music teacher while she was still in college and after graduating taught government and history in a number of secondary schools including her local junior college.  For awhile, she was also the president of her local AFT (American Federation of Teachers) chapter—at a time when teacher’s unions really wanted to improve education instead of becoming more interested in political power and money-grabing.

I’ve been an insider of education since birth. I’ve seen the full transition of teacher unions from the original professional organizations to parasitical cancers that is killing the teaching profession.  It is time to remove unions from the profession.  Then, and only then, will schools really educate their students instead of just passing them through a process that fails them.
I wonder just how many “graduates” of the KC school district, after twelve years, remain functionally illiterate? I’ll bet you’d be surprised at the answer. You shouldn’t be surprised when an external agency is needed to teach reading to those who have failed.
***
Here something to finish off your week.  From Glenn McCoy…
Joe Junior

Friday Follies for September 2, 2011

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I’m sitting here trying to create a post. I’ve not come up with a theme yet.  But this is the day for the Follies so let’s see what’s spiked in the mail today.
I get a daily e-mail listing events that happened on each day.  Here are a few for today, Friday, September 2nd.
***
If I’ve read my notes correctly, today is the anniversary of a momentous event—the creation of ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet.  On this date in 1969, the first nodes on ARPANET at UCLA was brought online.

***

In 31BC, Octavian finished off Anthony and became Caesar Augustus. 

Battle of Actium – Octavian defeats Antony, and becomes Emperor Augustus. The Senate had outlawed Antony and declared war on Cleopatra. The battle occurred at sea, off the promontory of Actium in Greece. Octavian’s general was Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Antony was hampered by defections among his officers and the presence of Cleopatra on her flagship, which his Roman soldiers deeply resented. Agrippa outmaneuvered Antony, and Cleopatra was the first to flee, taking her sixty Egyptian ships with her. Antony followed her in a single ship, leaving the rest of his fleet to be destroyed.

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1885: In Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, 28 Chinese laborers are killed and hundreds more chased out of town by striking coal miners.

This item strikes close to home. My father, both grandfathers and several uncles and cousins were coal miners and were member of the UMWA, the United Mine Workers of America.  That union is known as the union that single-handedly destroyed the coal mining industry in America.  In the late 1940s and through the 1950s, John L. Lewis lead the UMWA through strike after strike against mining companies.  Many of the issues in contention were important, such as mine safety and working conditions.  I The more important issue, Lewis said, was demonstrating to the mine owners who was really in control.

By the end of the 1950s, most of the smaller, independent mines were closed leaving only the larger, corporate mines owned by US Steel and Rockefeller and other like them, were left in operation.  Mine employment dropped and has never recovered. John L. Lewis won the battle and lost the war.

***

Keeping Old NFO‘s request in mind, here’s some good news.  Obama is removing a proposal for increased smog control regulations that were opposed by Congressional Republicans and industry leaders. 

This announcement was released just moments after August’s employment report was revised again.  The revision showed…zero net job increase for the month and the official unemployment rate remained at 9.1%.

(Well, OK, maybe it wasn’t all good news.  I’m trying here NFO.)

***

Headline at SBNation website.

Five NASCAR Drivers Decline President Obama’s White House Invitation

by Jeff Gluck • Sep 1, 2011 10:37 PM EDT
President Barack Obama will honor NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and the 11 other Chase drivers from last year in a White House ceremony on Wednesday – but nearly half of the 2010 playoff contenders won’t be there.
NASCAR said Thursday that five drivers – Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart – will not be attending the White House visit due to “schedule conflicts.”

They’re “racist” don’t you know.  Yeah, sure. 

Maybe it’s because they just don’t like his politics, or maybe, they really did have scheduling conflicts.

***

Hope you all have a nice weekend and holiday.  Mrs. Crucis and I are going to the Santacaligon Festival in Independence, MO.  We’ve lived here near KC for 40 years and this will be the first time we’ve gone.

It’s about time. (And the weather is supposed to be in the 70s, too.)                    

CFL Bulbs—more than making your home a hazardous waste site

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I posted previously about the farce known as green lightbulbs—those curly mercury filled CFL lightbulbs forced on us by the FedGov. The issue with that previous post was about making your home a hazardous waste site if you broke one of those curly things.

Now, more information is coming out, not from the US but from Europe where the same incandescent bulb ban is in effect.  It seems that researchers have found that the CFL bulbs emit a number of carcinogens.

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | April 21, 2011 3:19 AM EDT

Even as the European Union works to phase out traditional incandescent lights by the end of the year in an attempt to rein in carbon emission, a report from scientists working at Berlin’s Alab laboratory has refuelled apprehensions over the carcinogenic implications of energy saving devices, bulbs in particular.

The report indicates that energy saving compact fluorescent lamps released several cancer-causing chemicals such as phenol, naphthalene and styrene in a form of steam as they were switched on. Consequently, the researchers have advised against the use of these lamps in close proximity of the human head and body, for example as a night lamp for reading. (Emphasis mine: Crucis)

Andreas Kirchner, from the Federation of German Engineers, advocated against the use of the bulbs in unventilated areas or in the proximity of the head, citing the risks posed by a kind of electrical smog that develops around the lighted bulbs.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that fears have been expressed over the health hazards associated with the use of CFL; it has already been established that these green bulbs if broken release potentially harmful amounts of Mercury. Early in 2008 doctors from the British Association of Dermatologists had said that environmentally friendly bulbs could exacerbate existing skin conditions in many patients and even lead to skin cancer. A biologist from the Haifa University in Israel is also known to have warned about increased risks of breast cancer from exposure to energy efficient bulbs.

However, the most recent research from Germany needs to be backed up with more independent research before sounding a blanket warning against use of such lighting. Most of the released substances identified are anyway used in a wide variety of common uses and it would be important to establish the intensity or duration of exposure that could trigger carcinogenic reaction. Phenol, for example, when ingested in high concentrations could kill, but is used in small doses in a lot of every day chemicals, from mouth washes to strong disinfectants.

The German agency for environmental protection has already issued a warning against mass hysteria. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) of the UK also maintains: “Energy efficient light bulbs are not a danger to the public. Like many household products, they must be disposed of sensibly and there are suitable facilities available for this purpose. Although they contain mercury, limited at 5mg per lamp, it cannot escape from a lamp that is intact. In any case, the very small amount contained in an energy efficient bulb is unlikely to cause harm even if the lamp should be broken.”

CFLs are a bad idea from the beginning. Their need was based on a lie and their desirability is maintained by lies.  The issue really isn’t whether CFL bulbs are better than the old incandescent bulbs—they’re not.  It’s about more FedGov control over our daily lives.

Reaping what Obama has sowed

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The price of a barrel of oil has tripped over the $100 line several times this week. That’s the highest it’s reached since 2008. The price of gas is hovering around $3/gal here in the midwest. There are reports that in CA, it’s hit the $4/gal mark.

The dems are already screaming about gouging and price fixing by “big Oil.” The truth is that we reaping the results of our oil exploration and drilling policies from the last 30 years. A few decades ago, the US was an oil exporter. Today we’re an oil importer.

There is still plenty of oil within the US and off-shore. China and Cuba are drilling in areas where our rigs once stood. How has this happened? EPA policies and those of the leftist White House. Now those wackos occupy the policy positions in the EPA and other government bureaucracies. We are now paying the price of our laziness.

The EPA has crippled our oil production since the 70s spurred on by eco-wackos. The leftists in the White House has taken advantage of the Gulf spill last summer and are ignoring Federal Judicial orders to begin issuing permits for the Gulf.
The editorial below from the Investors Business Daily confirms my point.

Editorial: $100 Oil Is Devil’s Due For Drilling Bans

Posted 02/23/2011 06:57 PM ET

Energy: President Obama talks much of moving to sustainable energy. But as he blocks domestic drilling, the reality is he’s outsourced U.S. oil needs to mad-dog dictators like Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi. That’s even less sustainable.
Oil prices hit $100 a barrel Wednesday as thousands of Libyans marched in Tripoli. The crazed Gadhafi vowed to fight to “the last bullet,” denouncing his own countrymen as “greasy rats” and turning his weapons of war on 1,000 of them.
He also threatened to incinerate his nation’s oil wells as he goes down, an unsubtle suggestion to Big Oil companies operating in his country that they should act to save his regime.
As a result, oil is soaring because markets worry that a string of petro-tyrants will go down like Gadhafi and energy may soon become scarce.
How did it come to this? U.S. dependence on imports — from dictators like Gadhafi — is a big factor.
The problem is that we have no political will to drill. The U.S. has plenty of oil resources. Yet our president seems set on pursuing boutique alternative energy schemes dependent on huge public subsidies.
As that happens, U.S. dependence on imports grows.
It’s not just Gadhafi who supplies oil, but so many others — from the oligarchs of Saudi Arabia, to the satraps of the Gulf, to the lunatic running Venezuela. All are at high risk of ending up on the business end of revolution, making them unreliable suppliers.

“The situation in Libya and the Middle East should serve as a wake-up call to the Obama administration to stop its uprising against domestic oil production,” said Dan Kish of the Institute for Energy Research.
“Instead of rushing towards expensive and unreliable ‘green’ energy sources that rely on American taxpayer dollars,” he said, “it is time to stop the embargo against our own American oil supplies.”
This includes Obama’s moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, and his subsequent refusal to issue Gulf permits, putting him in contempt of court.
America’s energy needs are 17 times greater than they were 50 years ago, according to the Energy Department. But U.S. output of domestic energy has fallen by 40% in the same period.
That’s a sorry picture given that the U.S. is surrounded by offshore oil and has 200 years’ worth of shale oil on the mainland. Fact is, Obama’s suppressing oil production here. And whether he knows it or not, he’s outsourcing our energy future to the devil. Now we’ve been handed the bill, and the devil wants his due.
Energy: President Obama talks much of moving to sustainable energy. But as he blocks domestic drilling, the reality is he’s outsourced U.S. oil needs to mad-dog dictators like Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi. That’s even less sustainable.

It’s obvious what must be done—if we have the courage and guts to do it.

Reaping what Obama has sowed

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The price of a barrel of oil has tripped over the $100 line several times this week. That’s the highest it’s reached since 2008. The price of gas is hovering around $3/gal here in the midwest. There are reports that in CA, it’s hit the $4/gal mark.

The dems are already screaming about gouging and price fixing by “big Oil.” The truth is that we reaping the results of our oil exploration and drilling policies from the last 30 years. A few decades ago, the US was an oil exporter. Today we’re an oil importer.

There is still plenty of oil within the US and off-shore. China and Cuba are drilling in areas where our rigs once stood. How has this happened? EPA policies and those of the leftist White House. Now those wackos occupy the policy positions in the EPA and other government bureaucracies. We are now paying the price of our laziness.

The EPA has crippled our oil production since the 70s spurred on by eco-wackos. The leftists in the White House has taken advantage of the Gulf spill last summer and are ignoring Federal Judicial orders to begin issuing permits for the Gulf.
The editorial below from the Investors Business Daily confirms my point.

Editorial: $100 Oil Is Devil’s Due For Drilling Bans

Posted 02/23/2011 06:57 PM ET

Energy: President Obama talks much of moving to sustainable energy. But as he blocks domestic drilling, the reality is he’s outsourced U.S. oil needs to mad-dog dictators like Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi. That’s even less sustainable.
Oil prices hit $100 a barrel Wednesday as thousands of Libyans marched in Tripoli. The crazed Gadhafi vowed to fight to “the last bullet,” denouncing his own countrymen as “greasy rats” and turning his weapons of war on 1,000 of them.
He also threatened to incinerate his nation’s oil wells as he goes down, an unsubtle suggestion to Big Oil companies operating in his country that they should act to save his regime.
As a result, oil is soaring because markets worry that a string of petro-tyrants will go down like Gadhafi and energy may soon become scarce.
How did it come to this? U.S. dependence on imports — from dictators like Gadhafi — is a big factor.
The problem is that we have no political will to drill. The U.S. has plenty of oil resources. Yet our president seems set on pursuing boutique alternative energy schemes dependent on huge public subsidies.
As that happens, U.S. dependence on imports grows.
It’s not just Gadhafi who supplies oil, but so many others — from the oligarchs of Saudi Arabia, to the satraps of the Gulf, to the lunatic running Venezuela. All are at high risk of ending up on the business end of revolution, making them unreliable suppliers.

“The situation in Libya and the Middle East should serve as a wake-up call to the Obama administration to stop its uprising against domestic oil production,” said Dan Kish of the Institute for Energy Research.
“Instead of rushing towards expensive and unreliable ‘green’ energy sources that rely on American taxpayer dollars,” he said, “it is time to stop the embargo against our own American oil supplies.”
This includes Obama’s moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, and his subsequent refusal to issue Gulf permits, putting him in contempt of court.
America’s energy needs are 17 times greater than they were 50 years ago, according to the Energy Department. But U.S. output of domestic energy has fallen by 40% in the same period.
That’s a sorry picture given that the U.S. is surrounded by offshore oil and has 200 years’ worth of shale oil on the mainland. Fact is, Obama’s suppressing oil production here. And whether he knows it or not, he’s outsourcing our energy future to the devil. Now we’ve been handed the bill, and the devil wants his due.
Energy: President Obama talks much of moving to sustainable energy. But as he blocks domestic drilling, the reality is he’s outsourced U.S. oil needs to mad-dog dictators like Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi. That’s even less sustainable.

It’s obvious what must be done—if we have the courage and guts to do it.

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