Gas prices are headed up and the conventional wisdom in the mainstream media explains the increases as attributable to "uncertainty" caused by political unrest in the Middle East, especially Libya.
But the truth is, even if Libya stopped exporting any oil, the U.S. gets less than two percent of its imported petroleum from there.
By contrast, there is no uncertainty about what is happening here in the U.S. as President Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson are doing everything in their power to make it more difficult to find and produce our incredibly abundant domestic energy supplies.
The result - as their policy intends - is energy prices head upward.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its latest short-term outlook earlier this week and, while acknowledging that there are "a variety of factors" that influence its projections, the stark truth is seen in its prediction of where oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is headed:
"EIA expects production from the Federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to fall by 240,000 bbl/d in 2011 and by a further 200,000 bbl/d in 2012. These production declines in Alaska and the GOM are partially offset by projected increases in lower-48 non-GOM production of 190,000 bbl/d and 70,000 bbl/d in 2011 and 2012, respectively."
Less U.S. production means more foreign imports and higher prices for consumers. But that is precisely the result sought by the Obama policy.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-WA, says the message from those projections is clear, no matter how EIA tries to avoid saying it:
“The numbers don’t lie—it’s clear that this Administration is taking U.S. energy policy in exactly in the wrong direction. Gas prices are closing in on $4 per gallon and thousands of people are out of work in the Gulf because of the de facto moratorium on drilling permits,” Hastings said.
“Unemployment is only going to get worse as this Administration’s policies continue to increase the cost of gasoline, which trickles down to every sector of our economy. We need to use our resources to produce American made energy, create good jobs, and insulate ourselves from uncontrollable energy prices spikes,” he said.
You can read the full EIA report here.
