The Limbaugh Letter - September 2013

OBAMA OBSTRUCTION. According to Bureau of
Land Management [BLM] figures, the number of well
bores started on federal lands was 5,044 in the fiscal
year ending September 30, 2008, right before the
Immaculation. Compare that to 3,022 in 2012 — a
40 percent decrease, even as fracking techniques have
dramatically improved. The number of new leases on
federal lands had risen to 4,014 in 2006. But in
2012, there were only 1,729 new leases permitted —
a decrease of 55 percent. As Wills Bush of the
American Petroleum Institute told CNS News,
“Despite paying lip service to the need for more oil
and natural gas development, a series of
policy decisions by the [Obama] Administration has
frustrated it, at least on federal lands and in federally
controlled offshore areas.”
House Energy and Commerce Committee mem-
ber Rep. Cory Gardner (R, CO) points out oil and
gas producers have “run into nothing but roadblocks
and delays” in the Regime’s federal permit applica-
tion process, according to The Washington Free
Beacon. Dan Kish, senior vice president for policy at
the Institute for Energy Research, asserts that “on
every front, when it comes to oil and gas production,
[Obama’s] agencies have been doing less and less and
making it harder and harder” to drill on federal lands.

The USDA’s Inspector General released a critical report in March pointing out that fewer than 4 percent of the 1,881 applications for drilling permits on public land were “recent,” or filed within the last 180 days, which “may be causing the federal government to forego revenue or prevent or delay the efforts of the private sector to provide energy to the public.” Which to liberals is the whole point.

What the left refuses to admit is that the shale revolution they despise, according to Global Post, has “inadvertently pushed the United States into the forefront of the fight against global warming.” You and I know that manmade global warming is a crock, but by the left’s own standards, “the switch from coal to cheap natural gas in American electricity production [through fracking] means the United States has seen carbon emissions hit their lowest level since 1994, meaning it’s overtaken most European countries in meeting the goals of the Kyoto protocol.” Fracking has cleaned the air beyond lib regulators’ fondest wishes, greatly reducing America’s carbon footprint.

MOVING GOALPOSTS. It doesn’t count. Instead, the left has
changed the rules of the game, claiming that their real aim has never
been to reduce carbon emissions, but rather to get rid of everything
except green energy. Turns out the libs aren’t against “dependence on
foreign oil”; they’re against oil, period. And any other energy source
that provides America dominance and power. As the “Stop the Frack
Attack” website declares, “We battle a persistent myth that gas is a
‘clean’ energy — which is not only false, but keeps us from moving
towards truly clean energy and ending our reliance on fossil fuels.”
Face it: politicians have been B.S.-ing us about energy for
generations, especially when it comes to calls for “energy indepen-
dence” throughout the last four decades [see box, above]. The left’s
war against the best hope the U.S. has for 100 percent energy
independence, fracking, has revealed their deceit. As Steve Everley,
spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America,
told The Washington Free Beacon, “Opponents of hydraulic
fracking are never forced to answer a simple question: Why do they
oppose a process that’s decreasing our reliance on foreign sources of
energy?” Why indeed.
Bottom line, America’s new energy abundance is affording us
the opportunity to watch the dwindling influence of our enemies
and those who bankroll our enemies — such as Iran and Saudi roy-
alty who have funded terrorism via the Wahhabi movement. By
reducing our need for OPEC oil, we are not only strengthening
America, we are weakening these rogue powers. As Walter Russell
Mead puts it, “the Gulf region, Russia, Venezuela, and other former
oil monopolies will see their power and influence decrease in the
face of a new American-led energy order” — which includes Brazil,
China, Canada, and Israel. Even Obama can’t stop us. n
THEY HAD NO CLUE