John Boehner Lies About U.S. Energy Production
In his weekly press conference on Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner said that, “for three years his administration has made every effort to block, delay and restrict new energy production in our country.” In reality, U.S. oil and natural gas production have both increased sharply during Obama’s presidency.
Here’s a transcript of speaker Boehner’s remarks:
You know gas prices are rising and Americans are frustrated with the gap between the President’s words and his actions. The President now says he supports the Republican all-of-the-above energy strategy for our country. But for three years his administration has made every effort to block, delay and restrict new energy production in our country.
He claims that he wants to address rising gas prices, but his policies are actually making matters worse for families and small businesses. And the only recent action the President has taken on energy involved lobbying Senators, personally and successfully, to prevent the construction of the Keystone pipeline.
Yet today, he’s out in Oklahoma trying to take credit for part of the pipeline that doesn’t even require his approval. Now, this is what I’m calling the Obama energy gap. Up here in Canada, and in North Dakota, we’ve got all this oil. And the President is down here in Oklahoma taking credit for part of the pipeline that’s going to go through the normal process. It’s already gotten its approvals. And this idea that the President is going to expedite this will have no impact on the construction of this pipeline.
Now let me explain something. It’s not just oil that’s up in Canada. Right now, this year, North Dakota will become the second largest oil producing state in our country. There are three 100 tank trains every day that come out of North Dakota and have to go all the way to the Gulf, because of the lack of this pipeline. And so, it’s Canadian oil, it’s North Dakotan oil, that needs to get down to our refineries in the Gulf.
So the President can take credit for having nothing to do with the bottom half of this pipeline. The fact is, there’s only one permit that needs his approval because it crosses our national boundaries. And that’s the Keystone decision on the upper half of this. Remember we have 165,000 miles of pipeline that operate safely in our country that operate successfully every day. The Congress earlier this year passed a pipeline safety bill, to increase the safety standards on this 165,000 miles of pipeline.
The President should listen to the American people and allow the Keystone pipeline to go forward. There’s a big gap between what the President promises and what he talks about, and the actions he’s taking, and I think honest hard working taxpayers deserve actions that match the words.
