The Institute for Energy Research (IER) claims that President Obama’s new energy proposal will actually constrain and restrict the development of domestic natural resources. After uncritically repeating the White House talking points on the new plan, the NYT should balance out its coverage by quoting IER…
President Obama is opening the way to long overdue oil drilling initiatives that will help free the U.S. from dependence on foreign sources. At least this is the official version of events. But there are provisos and restrictions attached to the president’s plan that have gone unreported. While Obama has expressed support for developing energy resources in the Eastern Gulf and Southern Atlantic, he also delaying the development of oil resources off the coasts of Virginia and Alaska.
The New York Times does its bit to help The White House roll out the new energy proposal with a front page report that celebrates what is seemingly a centrist approach that seeks common ground with oil interests. The “cap and trade” bill that passed the House last year has stalled in the U.S. Senate. Obama is offering significant concessions on oil drilling in an effort to reactive climate legislation, according to the report.
“The proposal – a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations – would end a long standing moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean,” the report says.
As a way to placate environmentalists who are less than pleased with the “compromise” on energy, the northern coastline the extends from New Jersey through New England will remain off limits as will the Pacific Coast from Mexico to the Canadian border.
“The proposal is intended to reduce dependence on oil imports, generate revenue from the sale of offshore leases and help win political support for comprehensive energy and climate legislation,” the report continues.
But the Institute for Energy Research (IER), a non-profit group that researches energy policy, has identified several flaws in the administration’s plan that should included in upcoming reports. For starters, Obama’s plan actually locks out any serious development of energy resources off the coast of Virginia and Alaska, IER points out. Moreover, the president’s FY 2011 budget proposal includes over $36 billion in additional oil and natural gas taxes, which will go a long way to removing any economic incentives in favor of domestic production, IER has noted.
“America’s offshore energy resources belong to the American people,” Thomas Pyle, the IER president said in a release. “Not a company, not a special interest, and not a single administration. And a clear majority of the American people supports the commonsense strategy of producing more oil and gas here in America. Unfortunately, today, and to our economic detriment, the President once again ignored the will of the American people.”
Why not interview Pyle and other energy experts who are familiar with Obama’s proposal? Administration officials who spoke with The Times declined to be named in the front page piece. But now that the president’s plan has been made public they may be willing to go on the record to answer the criticisms from IER and others.
“In 2008, when Congress and then-President Bush retired the decades-old moratorium on the safe and environmentally sound practice of producing energy miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the American people, and our economy, scored a huge victory,” Pyle observed. “Unfortunately, what President Obama outlined today puts part of that moratorium back in place. Kicking the energy can further down the road is not a change in policy.”
That’s throwing down the gauntlet and The Times should ask the White House for a response. This initial report more or less parrots back administration talking points without any rejoinders or qualifying statements.
The IER’s observations should not go unchallenged either but they should be published for the benefit of discerning readers so they can judge for themselves on the merits.
“Canada drills for oil in the North Atlantic,” Pyle continued. Cuba, Brazil, and Venezuela produce energy in the water to our South. The Russians do the same to our West. Yet, America, the most technologically advanced nation in the world, with the most stringent environmental policies on the books, remains the only nation that imposes burdensome regulations and endless streams of red tape on domestic production. Americans want to stop embargoing our own oil. The president’s plan expands that existing embargo, and Americans will pay the price,” he concluded.
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