By Alan Caruba
Between 1955 and 1959 I was a student at the University of Miami. It was perhaps the best four years of my life and remembered fondly for its combination of fun and learning. On Thursday, February 23, President Barack Obama was on the UM campus to tell the biggest bunch of lies about energy in America I have heard compressed into a single speech.
This President has already set records wasting taxpayer’s money on a range of so-called clean energy and renewable energy “investments”. Solyndra, the solar panel company that went bust and stuck taxpayers with a half-billion in loan guarantees is just one of those “investments” and I keep waiting for someone to ask why public funds are being flushed down the toilet when, if the companies involved were viable, they could not raise private venture capital?
“And we’re making investments in the development of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that’s actually made from a plant-like substance known as algae,” said the President. “Believe it or not, we could replace up to 17% of the oil we important for transportation with this fuel that we can grow right here in America.”
All politicians put the best face on their pet projects, but to flat-out lie about one of the most idiotic ideas to replace oil when this nation has enough oil, domestically and offshore, known and estimated to exist, defies the imagination. It is an insult to every one of us. And Obama wants to pump $14 million into algae, otherwise known as pond scum.
It is very likely that, like the solar panel and other “clean energy” scandals that we know about and will learn about as time goes alone, the average American is unaware that, by 2008, there were fifteen (15) algae startup companies. When I heard Obama talk about algae, I could practically hear the campaign fund-raising bundlers scurrying like rats from company to company.
To those of you not intimately and well informed about algae, it is that organic stuff that gathers in ponds and swamps and, in aggregate, is politely called “plant-like organisms that are usually photosynthetic and aquatic.” It is scum. It has no roots, stems, or leaves. It is scum.
In a marine environment it is called seaweed. Algae have chlorophyll and can manufacture their own food through photosynthesis. Algae, the scientists tell us, produces more oxygen than all the plants in the world in addition to being an important food source for marine creatures as diverse in size as shrimp and whales.
The notion that millions would be “invested” to turn algae into fuel ranks just above the idiocy of converting thousands of acres of corn into ethanol instead of food.
Barack Obama has been lying about so many things for so long I doubt he even knows when he is lying or even cares. It’s not enough to dismiss this saying that all politicians lie because many do not. Some in Congress right now are desperately trying to get the public in general and voters in particular to understand that America has more debt per capita than Greece. We are on the precipice of financial collapse and Barack Obama just wants to spend more and more and more; some of it on pond scum.
During his UM speech, he derided those who have for decades been saying that America has to allow oil companies access to its vast reserves in order to reduce our dependence on imported oil. “We’ve heard the same thing for thirty years,” he said. He’s right. And administrations and Congress have blocked access for just as long. It’s our oil!
He went further, though. “It means that anyone who tells you we can drill our way out of this problem doesn’t know what they’re talking about—or isn’t telling you the truth.” That’s rich, coming from someone who lies almost as often as he exhales. Oil is a global commodity. The more that’s available to the market, the lower its cost. Domestic oil always costs consumers less than imported oil!
The truth is that oil production on federal lands declined last year by eleven percent on lands controlled by the Obama administration and six percent for natural gas in 2011.Oil and natural gas production on federal lands is down by more than forty percent (40%) compared to ten years ago. The Obama administration, in 2010, issued the lowest number of onshore leases since 1984. In 2011, it held exactly one offshore lease sale.
On February 24, one day after the Obama speech, the U.S. Geological Survey released a report on the amount of oil estimated to exist in the North Slope of Alaska. “The amount of oil that is technically recoverable in the United States is more than 1.4 trillion barrels, with the largest deposits located offshore, in portions of Alaska, and in shale in the Rocky Mountain West. When combined with resources from Canada and Mexico, total recoverable oil in North America exceeds 1.7 trillion barrels.
In a 2008 Wall Street Journal interview, Obama’s Energy Secretary, Dr. Steven Chu, famously said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels of Europe.” Anyone who does not believe this administration has a deliberate policy of achieving this goal is just not paying attention. Remember that the next time you fill your car’s gas tank.
This is the same President who stopped the building of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada that would provide more oil for our refineries and not cost the American taxpayer one penny to build. This is the same President who imposed a moratorium on oil from the Gulf of Mexico even after the courts told him to remove it. It caused the loss of an estimated 12,000 jobs while rigs departed for Cuba, Brazil and Mexico.
Between now and November, the President will be out campaigning and telling the same lies. The rise in the cost of oil isn’t just a seasonal thing though prices have usually gone up in the summertime when people travel more for vacations. It’s up because the Iranians are closing in on making their own nuclear weapons and their own missiles to hit, not just Israel, but the U.S. It’s up because it is essential to ensure that the tankers oil-producing nations around the Persian Gulf can enter and exist it via the Strait of Harmuz.
The world isn’t running out of oil and is not about to run out. The Earth floats on an ocean of oil despite the rising demand from Asia and other developing nations. To replace foreign oil with algae-based fuel would require a chemically-controlled tank the size of the State of Colorado, about 69.3 million acres.
In 2010, Obama’s mandated biofuel production was less than ten percent of foreign oil imports. It is impossible for biofuel of any description to replace foreign oil imports; just as it is idiotic to pay $41,000 for an electric car when you can have a gasoline-fueled car for around $16,000.
Pond scum is not a rational substitute for oil and spending $14 million on its production as a fuel is beyond absurd. It is the same confidence game as selling “carbon credits” to avoid the hoax of “global warming.”
© Alan Caruba, 2012
Comment
Comment by Thomas on February 27, 2012 at 10:30am Is it just run-of-the-mill stupidity that is at work or is it something much more serious: Criminal insanity? Does criminal insanity provide ample cause for removal from office either by impeachment and removal or removal by another method.
Article II of the Constitution says that being incapacitated or having an inability to execute the powers and responsibilities of the office provide sufficient cause for removal from the office. I don't know what the method or process for removal would entail but I think the time may have come that we should be finding out.
Comment by Thomas on February 27, 2012 at 10:19am Gary, My best estimate, and it is just an estimate, is that the addition of 10% ethenol to the regular unleaded that I use has caused a 20% reduction in around-town, stop and go gas mileage. That is close to the same across the board for three passenger sedans. Freeway driving is different. For my Saturn, which is the highest mileage of the three, there appears to be very little difference in freeway mileage when the ethenol is added. For my Ford Taurus, which is the lowest mileage there is a noticeable--and dangerous--loss of power along with a 25-30 percent drop in gas mileage.
Bottom line, I now use more gasoline than I used before the addition of ethenol in addition to using the ethenol. I am using additional unpolluted gasoline just as an ignition boost for the ethenol.
Comment by Gary L Hastriter on February 27, 2012 at 10:01am Referring to some of the comments below.
It is a proven fact that Ethanol is hard on all small engines i.e. lawn mowers, tillers, weed eaters, chain saws and on and on. It deforms the diapragm in all of them. My cars and truck get better gas mileage using Ethanol free gas and they run much better..
As far as making Ethanol out of corn, it consumes many bushels that could otherwise be used for cattle feed. The cattle prices are way up due in part to the competition of fuel vs feed. I can't tell you how much the cost of 10 or 15% ethanol added to gas increases the fuel cost. I know it is sizable.
Ethanol should be done away with in my opinion. Its just another government piece of crap. Control folks!
Comment by Bill Boltinghouse on February 27, 2012 at 9:54am The only "Pond Scum" creating energy is Obama and the Liberal Drive By Media!
We are supposed to be shocked that this Jerk-In-Chief is lying to us?
Now the Gov of ARIZONA WANTS US TO VOTE FOR ROMNEY!
Next thing you know, Obama will be asking for us to vote for Romney (oh, he already has - never mind!)
NEWT is the only real choice that we have and people are lining us up like SHEEP to vote for him!
Well, keeping Obama is a BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAd idea!
Voting for anyone but NEWT is a BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAd idea!
Elect as many Conservatives as possible to Governors, state assembly and federal and even the dog catcher!
Comment by Thomas on February 27, 2012 at 9:44am I suspect you may think this is being asked as an attempt to be sarcastic, but please, consider this question to be a question that I am asking with great seriousness: Is criminal insanity sufficient reason for a President to be removed from office either by impeachment and removal or by removal from office by another method?
I copied this paragraph from article II of The Constitution. I placed emphasis on what I think is the most pertinent phrase.
How would a determination be made of an "Inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office" and who would make the determination?
Comment by Phil on February 27, 2012 at 9:36am You mean that wasn't a stand up comic routine?
He was SERIOUS about pond scum!!!
Oh...that's even funnier now......stop.....stop....my stomach is hurting.
Comment by Bruce Wakefield on February 27, 2012 at 9:26am speaking of pond scum, where is our liar in chief speaking next?
Comment by David M. Inglett, Sr. on February 27, 2012 at 9:18am It seems to me that the money would be better spent subsidizing the Tesla Electric generation principle. Then every household could have and own it's own power source and be totally independent of the mega power companies and the power grid. Nuclear energy production and their associated plants would not be necessarily built. Coal and natural gas plants could be phased out as the Tesla systems were installed. in case you are unfamiliar information is readily available by researching Tesla on the internet. This technology was developed in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries and very active suppressed by the big power generating industry. It is quite inexpensive and easily built with minimal expertise and it's source of generation is solar energy in the atmosphere that will never be depleted as long as the Sun continues to exist and produce radiant energy. It the most "green," natural energy that is abundant and an inexhaustible supply. Why is it not supported? Because it is not in the interest of the big oil, natural gas, coal and electric generating companies. look it up You may become interested in having basically "free" electric power and no power bill.
Comment by Tom Priola on February 27, 2012 at 8:50am It takes SCUM like the STINKER and THIEF B O to think that SCUM is the ANSWER to our future energy needs!
NO more B O He must GO! I can't stand the SMELL coming out of DC now. replace them all until we get a Congress and a President that LISTENS to the PEOPLE! WE do not need ELITIST in DC anymore we need common sense thinkers that will do as they are told by their constituency! Let's put and end to the Progressive Elitist that want to rule our every move in our LIVES they know only one thing that BIG Government is the way to RULE and we Peons (in their eyes) should not have a say in what they Do. This is exactly what and how B O and his ELITIST ACADEMIC no nothings are doing. We must PURGE them from our society and from all governments from city, state and federal! Lets end the OPPRESSION of our freedoms and way of life!
Comment by Mary Creekmore on February 27, 2012 at 8:28am I feel like Alica in Wonderland every morning I wake up anymore. If you think the things you saw and heard yesterday were ridiculous, just wait until tomorrow. Well if we begin using algae the environmentalists will be screaming that we are killing all the creatures in the sea. Also how many people could afford a vehicle that ran this type of fuel? The idea is as ludicous as the idea of everyone running out and buying these expensive electric cars. We are in a depression for crying out loud, people can't afford anything new! Let's create jobs first and then maybe we can talk about other sources of fuel.
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