Federal judge throws out Obama drilling rules

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A judge on Friday threw out Obama administration rules that sought to slow down expedited environmental review of oil and gas drilling on federal land. ✧ U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal ruled in favor of a petroleum industry group, the Western Energy Alliance, in its lawsuit against the federal government, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. ✧ The ruling reinstates Bush-era expedited oil and gas drilling under provisions called categorical exclusions on federal lands nationwide, Freudenthal said. Read more: Seattle PI

Note: Judge Freudenthal was appointed by President Obama. Read More......

After two years of Obama, here's your change

Not one positive number in this list of vital economic statistics. Every American, whether Democrat or Republican, should be looking at this list and asking, "How can we change these trends?" The answer is in November 2012. LIST BELOW

	Jan 2009	Jan 2011	% chg	src
Avg. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S.	$1.83	$3.44	84%	1
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)	$43.48	$99.02	127.7%	2
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)	$38.74	$91.38	135.9%	2
Gold: London (per troy oz.)	$853.25	$1,369.50	60.5%	2
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL	$3.56	$6.33	78.1%	2
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL	$9.66	$13.75	42.3%	2
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob	$13.37	$35.39	164.7%	2
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall	7.6%	9.4%	23.7%	3
Unemployment rate, blacks	12.6%	15.8%	25.4%	3
Number of unemployed	11,616,000	14,485,000	24.7%	3
Number of fed. Employees	2,779,000	2,840,000	2.2%	3
Real median household income	$50,112	$49,777	-0.7%	4
Number of food stamp recipients	31,983,716	43,200,878	35.1%	5
Number of unemployment benefit recipients	7,526,598	9,193,838	22.2%	6
Number of long-term unemployed	2,600,000	6,400,000	146.2%	3
Poverty rate, individuals	13.2%	14.3%	8.3%	4
People in poverty in U.S.	39,800,000	43,600,000	9.5%	4
U.S.. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings	5	9	n/a	10
Present Situation Index	29.9	23.5	-21.4%	11
Failed banks	140	164	17.1%	12
U.S.. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate	89.76	82.03	-8.6%	2
U.S.. Money supply, M1, in billions	1,575.1	1,865.7	18.4%	13
U.S.. Money supply, M2, in billions	8,310.9	8,852.3	6.5%	13
National debt, in trillions	$10.627	$14.052	32.2%	14

Just take this last item: In the last two years, we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history. That's over 27 times as fast! Metaphorically speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH, and a car rockets past you in the left lane 27 times faster, it would be doing 1,755 MPH!

Sources:
(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration;
(2) Wall Street Journal;
(3) Bureau of Labor Statistics;
(4) Census Bureau;
(5) USDA;
(6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor;
(7) FHFA;
(8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller;
(9) RealtyTrac;
(10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ;
(11) The Conference Board;
(12) FDIC;
(13) Federal Reserve;
(14) U.S. Treasury

Via email Read More......

SUBJECT: FW: ANWAR

This post is from an older email that first circulated in 2008 and has come around again. The photos (below the fold) are beautiful and they do tell a story. Snopes rates the email on ANWR as "MULTIPLE" (containing true and false claims). However, are we energy independent yet? No. Have we gained on reducing our dependence on foreign oil? Not substantially, if at all. Should the debate on drilling in ANWR be resumed? There is some good current information at www.anwr.org.--bc

See the email below...

VIA EMAIL, 11/18/2010 (Hat tip: Carolyn Webb)

"Unbelievable! This is the best presentation on ANWR I have seen. I would like to add a little more information. A new pipeline across Alaska isn't required since the location for drilling in ANWR is about 70 miles from the North Slope Prudhoe Bay pipeline [Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)] where it would be connected. Second the wildlife love the pipeline since it is heated and provides a shelter during the worst times during the winter."

FIRST, do you know what ANWR is?
ANWR = Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Now, a comparison...


And some perspective...


Note where the proposed development areas is. (It's in the "ANWR Coastal Plain")


The following pictures are what the Democrats, Liberals and "Greens" show you when they talk about ANWR... and they are right, these are photographs of ANWR.



Isn't ANWR beautiful? Why should we drill here (and destroy) this beautiful place? Well, that's not exactly the truth. Do you remember the map showing the proposed drilling area in the ANWR Coastal Plain? Do the photos above look like a coastal plain to you? What's going on here? The answer is simple. The photos above do NOT show where the plan proposes to drill!

Below is what the proposed exploration area actually looks like in the winter.


And this it what it actually looks like in the summer...




Here are a couple screen shots from GOOGLE EARTH...
(Click these images for larger view)


As you can see(above), the proposed drilling area is a barren wasteland. Oh, and they say that they are concerned about the effect on the local wildlife?

Below is a photo (shot during the summer) of the "depleted wildlife" situation created by drilling around Prudhoe Bay. Do you think the caribou really HATE that drilling?


Here's the same spot during the winter...


Hey, this bear seems to really HATE the pipeline near Prudhoe Bay, which accounts for 17% of U.S. Domestic oil production


Now, why do you think that the Democrats are lying about ANWR? Remember when Al Gore said that the government should work to artificially raise gas prices to $5.00 a gallon? Well, Al Gore and his fellow Democrats have almost reached their goal!

Now that you know that the Democrats have been lying, what are you going to do about it?

Read More......