More Lies From Mikey The Beloved’s Energy Escapade

It seems our Repug PA-08 U.S. House Rep took time from meeting with business leaders in an attempt to spur job creation (of course, God forbid Mikey would stop at a job fair and talk to people living through the hell of unemployment to learn their perspective) long enough to concoct more dreck willingly published by his PR service, otherwise known as the Bucks County Courier Times (here)…

The need for energy independence is both an economic and national security issue and America must break its addiction to foreign oil and prioritize domestic energy development, now. We have had our wake-up call.

As noted here, Fitzpatrick voted against funding clean energy development five years ago.

Continuing…

We know that no single energy source will power our nation and our economy in the decades to come. We also know oil has kept America's economic engine running through our most prosperous eras and it will continue to play a vital role in our energy strategy, although, alone, oil is not enough.

And speaking of oil not being enough (or whatever), Fitzpatrick also voted against including alternative fuels in our strategic energy reserve here.

Continuing…

Subsidies for big oil were bad policy then, and they are bad policy now.

Uh, Mikey, I hate to break the news to you, but as noted here, you voted to continue those very subsidies along with every other House Republican a few weeks ago.

Continuing…

While President Bush's energy policy picked winners in the energy game, President Obama is attempting to pick the losers.

Upon taking office, the president imposed a de facto moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, cancelled 77 onshore leases in Utah, and is pushing expansive new EPA regulations that do little to protect our environment while amounting to a massive job-crushing energy tax.

This tells us that energy experts claim that it is “not credible” to blame Obama for the rise in oil prices, particularly since production has increased under his watch. Also, the cancellation of the 77 onshore leases in Utah occurred because a federal judge ordered the original sale of the land during the Bush era to be put on hold because of discrepancies in the way the contracts were awarded (Improprieties during Dubya’s sorry reign? Color me shocked!), pending the current review by the Obama Administration (here). And the last I checked, it was Mikey’s playmates in the House who were trying to strip the EPA of the ability to regulate greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, not the Obama Administration (here).

And when it comes to “crushing jobs,” by the way, Fitzpatrick claimed during a debate last year with former Rep Patrick Murphy that the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) “turned a $1.6 billion trade deficit into a $6 billion surplus” here (this was in response to Murphy’s claim that the deal “cost Bucks County 5,300 jobs”). Well, this claims that CAFTA will likely end up jeopardizing “tens of thousands” of jobs across the country (I think someone needs to take “a basic economic class at the community college,” Congressman, but it’s not Patrick Murphy, as you once claimed).

Also…

In his 2012 budget, the president went further and proposed more than $60 billion in new taxes and fees on American energy production.

I honestly can’t find any sourcing of this claim anywhere, though it is noted all over the place at the web sites of Republican politicians and conservative-friendly media. I would only say in response that, as noted here, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips are on track to reap as much as $200 billion in profit from the $4-and-up price of gas this year, so it’s really hard for me to take their blackmail about “$60 billion in taxes and fees will kill jobs” seriously.

Continuing…

…the Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act is aimed at lifting the president's ban on new offshore drilling and establishes a production goal of 3 million barrels of oil per day and 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2027.

Finally, the Energy Tax Prevention Act stops the EPA from imposing excessive and costly regulatory burdens that would increase the cost of filling your tank and heating your home.

As noted here, President Obama lifted the offshore drilling moratorium last October. And as noted here, the so-called Energy Tax Prevention Act should have been called the Stopping The EPA From Regulating Greenhouse Gases That Will Make Us Sicker For Now, Ultimately Kill Us And Melt Our Planet Act.

Such a cavalcade of misinformation is appalling even by Mikey’s already low standards. Just add this to the ever-growing pile of evidence to that fact that our U.S. congressional rep is nothing but a puppet for the corporatist malefactors who pull his strings.

Update: By the way, Mikey also criticized Obama for calling for Israel's agreeing to return to its pre-1967 borders of course (here), even though the following should be noted from here.