Oct. 16 Debate on Where Oil Comes From

In the October 16, 2012 debate with President Obama and Mitt Romney the second question was – the Department of Energy said it wasn’t its job to help lower gas prices – do you agree? Romney in response to the President said - what the president said wasn’t what he’s done in the last 4 years – he’s cut permits; Romney and Obama bantered at Romney’s comments about cutting permits – Obama said companies were sitting on permits and deciding when they wanted to drill so they pulled the leases and are re-letting them. Romney said so production on government land is down; Obama said – no. Romney said he’ll push for oil, gas and coal and the proof is at the pumps.

As neither had answered the question moderator Candy Crowley asked Obama about the price of gas – he said gas prices were low when he took office because we were going through the biggest recession since the Great Depression; it’s conceivable Romney could bring down gas prices because his policies will bring us to that same mess – he wants to create an economy that’s strong and at the same time produce energy; in regard to the pipeline that Romney talked about he said we’ve produced enough pipeline to wrap around the earth; he’s for oil but not for ignoring the other half of the equation – clean energy. Candy had to again try and stop Romney from responding but it didn’t work – he said he appreciates wind jobs as well as oil, gas and coal. The president did stop when Candy wanted to go on.

I’ve already addressed in previous blogs that the price of gas is relative to the world (not US) market and oil mogul profits so I’m not going into this again. But, I don’t know why the President fibbed instead of being proud of the fact that he’s saving national parks and waterways from destruction. Per ABC, drilling on public land is down 40% from 3 years ago. However, I don’t know what difference it makes where the oil comes from – why Romney pushes this issue. Perhaps he doesn’t like that everyday people may get rich off their lands which could hinder the relationship with present oil moguls.