Energy: Told You So

Pres Obama likes to take credit for the increase in petroleum and natural gas production in the US over the last four years.  What he leaves out is that, as Mitt Romney pointed out during the debates, the Obama administration cut drilling permits on federal lands by 36%.  The increase comes from private and (some) state lands.  Now that he doesn't need to run for re-election, Pres Obama plans to cut federal drilling permits even further.

The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development.

The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation.

It's not as though, in this roaring economy, we need all that inexpensive energy or high-paying jobs.  In fact, it's probably a good thing that the layoffs have already started in the icky energy sector.

A Utah coal company owned by a vocal critic of President Barack Obama has laid off 102 miners.

The layoffs at the West Ridge Mine are effective immediately, according to UtahAmerican Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. They were announced in a short statement made public Thursday, two days after Obama won re-election.

The layoffs are necessary because of the president's "war on coal," the statement said. The slogan is one used frequently during the election by Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who was an ardent supporter of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

In its statement, UtahAmerican Energy blames the Obama administration for instituting policies that will close down "204 American coal-fired power plants by 2014" and for drastically reducing the market for coal.

"There is nowhere to sell our coal, and when we can, the market prices are far lower," the statement said. "Without markets, there can be no coal mines and no coal jobs."

Then-Sen Obama did promise in January 2008 that his policies would "bankrupt" coal power plants and cause energy prices to "necessarily skyrocket".  So credit him with one promise kept.