If you recall, just prior to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Obama announced his energy plan that included more drilling, "clean" coal, and more nuclear plants. Obama is an agent of the energy industry. He can't cave in to an industry that he has faithfully served since he took office.

We brought the whales to the edge of extinction with our lust for their oil. We now bring the entire organic structure of the planet to the edge. Many would argue, we have already fallen off the edge. Some, the heavier ones, will splash when they hit bottom.

Fuel prices are coming down now because people quit driving.

Supply and Demand

If we were to reduce demand by including alternative sources, THAT would also reduce fuel prices.

Here's something for Colbert to do with all that money, bid on the leases, pay for them, then sit on them.

It's been abundantly noted in the corporate media that drilling for oil in Amerika will do little or nothing to reduce the cost of gasoline at the pump. It will only enrich members of the ruling elite who give large campaign bribes to lying politicians like Barry, while it speeds the destruction of the planet.

These sons of bitches, who would have us think that they give two shits about anybody but the ruling elite, make me retch!

With his refusal to acknowledge that the "energy problem" is much more profound than $4.00 a gallon gas, Obama is perpetuating a criminal fraud on the American people that should qualify him for a cell in some Supermax -- perhaps alongside Bernie Madoff.

Indeed, the last time a president spoke honestly to the American people about oil was Jimmy Carter in his infamous 1979 "malaise speech." Ridiculed by Republicans, Carter soon came to symbolize all that was wrong with the “doom and gloom” Democrats, and the following year, when Ronald Reagan won with his fantasy of “Morning in America,” our politicians took it to heart: ever since, an unspoken rule prohibits either party from speaking to the electorate about anything resembling reality where oil is involved.

What had Carter said? First, he naively hinted that the moral foundations of the nation’s economic and political system might be problematic, telling Americans that “too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.”

Worse yet, Carter singled out the nation’s addiction to living beyond its means—in particular, our dependence on imported oil, which grew rapidly after 1970, when U.S. production peaked and began to decline. Carter called on Americans to confront their profligate energy use with the “moral equivalent of war,” saying, “We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources.”

He followed through with proposals for massive, government-supported programs of conservation and alternative energy development, promising to cut “our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade”—that is, by the end of the 1980s. Lowering consumption, he said, was a matter of patriotism:

“And I’m asking you for your good and your Nation’s security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit [then 55 mph nationally], and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense—I tell you it is an act of patriotism.”

The hyena-howls of derision were immediate. Why, just imagine linking morality and patriotism to conserving energy! How dare he preach thrift and responsibility to Americans!!! What if people stopped shopping? In brief, Carter’s proposals posed too much of a threat to corporate profits.

When Ronald Reagan took office, he quickly abandoned all such “gloom and doom” notions for a program of massively increasing oil consumption: phasing out conservation programs, alternative energy development, public transportation subsidies, etc. It was Reagan’s role, in short, to rehabilitate gluttony and self-indulgence, epitomized by the rise of the yuppies and ever larger SUVs.
In the short run, this was made possible by the large, new discoveries in the North Sea, Alaska, and Gulf of Mexico; but as these oil fields also began to run dry, it would require the efforts of a globe-straddling imperial military.

The Great Fraud—launched by Reagan and shored up by every administration since—is that not only can this imperial gluttony continue indefinitely, expanding every year, but that there will be no price to pay, no awkward consequences or painful blowback. Washington policymakers have known since the Carter years that the planet’s legacy of petroleum is running down, but have done everything in their power to conceal this from the public -- only increasing the likelihood that the petroleum age will end with a social breakdown like nothing humanity has ever seen...

He caves again to the cretins instead of educating the public as to the futility of domestic drilling as a factor in the price of oil.

Damn.

This is related to the real reason Democrats had to lose the majority. They can't appear to be in the pockets of growth oriented corporations and against We the People so they pretend to be "caving" under pressure from the big, bad Repubs. If they were still in the majority, this would be next to impossible.

Dems don't want the majority, it makes them look bad, which in turn could destroy the duopoly, a big scam.

The 3rd paragraph is BS.

Continuing the Corruption of the Consummate Consumption Confidence.

If nothing else, Obama is smart enough to have learned from history. The last president who called for alternative solutions (alternative energy, lowering the thermostat, wearing sweaters, driving slower) while oil prices were high was handed the pink slip by the voters.

We want what we want and we want it now.

"And so it goes." K Vonnegut

Just another classic moment of o 'jacking off the mule' to ostensibly show he is living the desire of the people when in reality he knows he won't get anything for his fawning placations.

AND: ""High fuel prices have dented Obama's ratings in opinion polls and threaten to dampen the economic recovery that is critical to his re-election in 2012.""
***************

This is just how the oil companies want us to think, that if we let them drill willy nilly then that will keep the oil/gas prices down. Another piece of false economics. The cycle(s) have been set where once every few years the oil companies will, on a whim, jack the prices up to a point of 'diminishing returns' where by the economy starts to crash and 'viola' all of sudden prices come down, only not near as fast as they went up.

"Obama caves in..."

Now that's a surprise...

PRS problem, reaction, solution.
Problem: we are experiencing extortion at the gas pumps
Reaction: we scream for a solution to our agony
Solution: they quickly forget the Gulf mess or any future concerns for the area, AND they get to "drill baby, drill" in Alaska.

All the while justifying it will take light years to bring down the price.

The caption of photo used in this piece should read, "President Obama kneels to pick up a dime while he steps on a dollar."

So, President Zero wants to reduce US oil consumption huh! Well Barky, the best way to do that is to bring all of our kids home from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. No more A-10, F-15, F-16 and F-18 sorties in skys thousands of miles from home. Bring home all of the Apache and Super Cobra helicopters. Bring home all of the Abram M1A1 tanks and all of the Strkyer and Bradley fighting vehicles. No more B-1, B-2 or B-52 sorties half way around the world to bomb a people who have been living in the stone age even further back into history. Take the whips and chains and joy sticks out of the hands of the CIA flunkies and put them back to work on their orginal mission as invisioned by Harry Truman, to collect actionable intelligence that the President can depend on to formulate US foreign policy. That and fire half of the Generals, so that the US Air Force can retire all of it's old T-39 Saberliners! That is just for starters, I'm sure alot of people here could give even more great ideas for reducing US oil consumption!

This article is nonsense. "The president, a Democrat, has pushed for reducing U.S. oil consumption and expanding renewable energy sources ..." Give us some examples.

Oil and gasoline prices will go up. Period. No matter what anyone--or any president--were to do. No matter what the speculators do, or can't do.

We're living in the post-peak era. That means prices go up. Period.

Prepare the way for a good life after cheap oil.

Do so now -- for oil will never be cheap again.

Meanwhile, oppose drilling in all sensitive areas. (Mars is less sensitive.)