AEA President Thomas Pyle responds to Obama energy speech

For Immediate Release
February 23, 2012

“If the president is serious about our energy future, he would put a restraining order on the Department of the Interior to stop the administration’s job-killing embargo on American energy.” — AEA President Thomas Pyle

WASHINGTON D.C. — President Barack Obama delivered today a widely-anticipated speech outlining his administration’s energy policies, which include provisions that raise taxes on energy producers, increase dependence on foreign sources, impose sanctions on domestic production and double down on taxpayer handouts to administration allies in the renewable sector.  Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, issued the following statement in response to the president’s speech:

“Today’s speech made for perfect election year posturing to satisfy the president’s anti-energy base. But such posturing does little to help American consumers who can’t afford $6 per gallon gasoline for the cars they own, and certainly can’t afford the $40K electric cars that the President wants to force us to buy.

“The president had the temerity to claim credit for increases in domestic oil and gas production, even though production on federal lands declined last year. Clearly, the facts tell a different story. Production on lands controlled by the administration dropped by 11 percent for oil and 6 percent for natural gas in 2011. Taking credit for production increases in light of his administration’s sustained efforts to block federal lands from energy development is the definition of political deceit.

“Once again, the president has attacked his favorite bogeymen in the oil and gas industries, calling for discriminatory tax increases on job creators that currently sustain millions of working men and women in a tough economy. Undeterred, the president now proposes policies that will actually raise the price of gasoline higher than it already is. At its core, today’s speech was more of the same failed prescriptions that lead to higher energy prices and less stability in a global market.

“If the president is serious about our energy future, he would grant a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, open up the outer continental shelf to previously agreed territories in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Eastern coast and Alaska, and put a restraining order on the Department of the Interior to stop the administration’s job-killing embargo on American energy.”

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