During his nonsensical press conference today, President Bush argued that the best way to help the struggling economy and the staggering price of gas was to either start drilling immediately in ANWR or to get him a magic wand.
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Somehow if you mention ANWR it means you don’t care about the environment. Well, I’m hoping now people, when they say “ANWR,” means you don’t care about the gasoline prices that people are paying.
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I think that if there was a magic wand, and say, okay, drop price, I’d do that.
The sad reality is that this President has done nothing over the past 8 years to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, leaving us beholden to the skyrocketing prices — which are due in large part to the instability we have created in the Middle East. It’s a truly vicious circle.
Imagine if we had invested a fraction of what we spent in Iraq on sustainable energy. Gasoline could be well on it’s way to being a relic of the past instead of one of the primary causes of the current recession. Considering both Bush and Cheney’s extensive ties to the oil industry, I guess this shouldn’t come as a big surprise.
Full transcript below the fold:
Q Mr. President, you have spoken today about opening ANWR for drilling and also refineries. But these are clearly long-term solutions to the problem of rising gas prices. What can you tell Americans about what your administration is doing in the short term? And secondly, have you been briefed on tomorrow’s GDP numbers, and are you concerned —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I haven’t been.
Q Okay — and are you concerned that they will show us to officially be in a recession?
THE PRESIDENT: I think they’ll show that we’re — it’s a very slow economy. I can’t guess what the number will be, and I haven’t been shown, truly.
And by the way, opening up ANWR is not long term, it’s intermediate term. But it sends a clear signal, is what it does. It sends a clear signal to the markets that the United States is not going to restrict exploration; the United States is going to encourage exploration.
And in the meantime we have done, increasing CAFTA, for example. But the market is going to do as much for encouraging conservation as anything else is now. And so I firmly believe that — you know, if there was a magic wand to wave, I’d be waving it, of course. I strongly believe it’s in our interest that we reduce gas prices, gasoline prices. I mean, it would be like a major tax cut for people. And —
Q But what —
THE PRESIDENT: Let me finish, please, Sheryl. Strike one on the exclusive. (Laughter.) Excuse me, strike two. (Laughter.)
That — you made me lose my train of thought, of course — maybe that’s what you were attempting to do. No, I think that if there was a magic wand, and say, okay, drop price, I’d do that. And so part of this is to make — set the psychology right that says to the world, we’re not going to become more beholden on your oil, we’re going to open up and be aggressive and have an aggressive energy policy. Secondly, we’re going to send the signal we’re going to be building new refineries.
But there is no magic wand to wave right now. It took us a while to get to this fix. That’s why I told you that if Congress had responded — matter of fact, Congress did pass ANWR in the late 1900s — 1990s — and the 1900s — (laughter) — 1990s. But it didn’t go forward. And it’s my considered judgment, given the technological advances, to say this is — we’ll destroy the environment is just — I don’t think it’s an accurate statement.
And so I think it’s very important, Sheryl, for Congress. The other thing Congress can do, if you want to send a good signal during these uncertain times, is make the tax cuts permanent, is to let people — send the signal that people are going to be able to keep their money. And I think that will help the psychology of the country.
Filed Under: Environment, George W. Bush
Tags: ANWR, Energy Policy
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That’s right…you tell ‘em Chimpy. We’re ‘murikuns…and it’s our God-given right to pay $1.99 a gallon for gas until the end of time.
How about some investment in mass transit?
Screw Big Oil! The stuff’s gonna be so expensive by the end of the century it will literally cost $100 per gallon of gas in the US which says a lot about the rest of the world. Not only this, but the civilization created around petroleum is by nature unsustainable with heavier and heavier population growth and other nations wanting to live like our gluttony. Petroleum-based civilization is going to have one hell of a crash, if we don’r find some cheaper source. Nuclear power would do great for electricity. What about people who have to commute four hours to work in places with little or no public transportation? Such things need a solution, before this whole house crashes down on our heads and we’re buried in the rubble. And that’s just the oil stuff. I’m not even mentioning what the water wars of the future and the Holocene Extinction Event and AGW are gonna do.
The sounds of Washington DC - sirens.
This asshole is the most stupid motherfucker ever shit out.
All the GOP/Chimpy nut huggers who post here , should be deported immediately after being smacked with a shovel handle …………….His definition of the economy as being “very slow” (much like his brain synapse) , is manifestly different in what way compared to the rightful term “recession” ?
He did do something. He danced around like a monkey for his bestest oil buddies in the Middle East.
Was it a magic wand that made us invade Iraq, destabilize the Middle East and make the oil companies rich?
Lets round up these criminals and ship them to the great North West where the trees have been destroyed. Give them orange jumpsuits an ankle bracelet and tents. Let them spend the rest of their miserable existence planting trees. They can do their own cooking, even grow their own food. This would also include the members of the press corpse and their owners. In this way they might begin to repay humanity for their many transgressions. Oh well, it’s a nice fantasy.
Nationalize the fucking oil. I am sick of paying big money to fuck heads that buy Ferrari’s. I need oil to go to work and pay for my kids to survive.
I wish I had a magic wand to wave and make the president go away!
We need Harry Potter with his magic wand to make bush disappear.
Widespread @ 7:
But, but…He’s the first MBA President!
*snark off*
My mom likes to refer to people like Stupor Mundi as “winners of the sperm lottery.” In her career as a fundraiser for charities, she knew a lot of people like this guy- dumb as boxes of rocks, but rich and powerful.
How fucking sick is this. Oil is now the 4th most important commodity after
1.Oxygen
2.Water
3.Food
Why doesn’t the government step over and control the price like they need to.
More divisive bs from the oil man.
Go back to the Carter years, what if we had put into law the cafe standards, where would we be? Sure, it would have hurt but if the average car was getting 40-45+ mpg we would have been a wholle lot better off….now it is GONNA HURT!
Bush has a ranch? What does he raise there?
I knew this jerk was going after ANWR,one of the last pristine areas of Alaska.
Tell Bush that he can drill in ANWR when Exon pays up for their “spill of the century.” Maybe he can take his magic wand to pay for the eco-carniage that happened to the people of St.William Sound when the Exon Valdiz trashed the coast.
By the time any oil would be produced in ANWR,Bush will be long gone.
Bob KASPRZAK hates rethuglicans and wimpocrats @ 8:
Send em to Oregon. We have lot’s of gun nuts here in Oregon.
How can he blame congress for being out of touch with “the peoples of ‘Merica” on the economy when he was questioned about gas reaching $4 a gallon a month ago and he had no idea what the reporter was talking about, he “hadn’t heard that.”
Drilling in Alaska is not the answer.
Bush is lying to the American Peoples faces about the precipice we are teetering on due to Bush Co’s economic and diplomatic malfeasance in the hopes he and his gang can escape to the brown brown grass of Crawford and their other shining hideouts on a hill next January. Then they will deny accountability and repeat “it’s not our problem” over and over and over.
We are constantly being told that if we drill for our own oil the price will come down. But if you look at coal the theory is challenged
source
We have all the coal we want but the price goes up because of the world market….
stevo @ 15:
The American people need to take responsibility for their choice of vehicles. 7,000 pound SUVs and mega-pickups driven at 80+ mph getting 11 mpg have helped to make this situation much worse than it should be. Peak oil, if not already here, is fast approaching. Americans need to get over their addiction to these land barges, or else the shock of astronomical energy prices will devastate an economy with very little room for recovery.
ANWR — Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Oil development threatens the continuation of the Gwich’in traditional way of life, by stressing the Porcupine Caribou herd. This tradition of a caribou based lifestyle goes back many hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
MSNBC
Opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil development would only slightly reduce America’s dependence on imports and would lower oil prices by less than 50 cents a barrel, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Energy Department.
The man is trying to make crimes and criminals appear normal.
John C. Yoo, the former assistant deputy attorney general, and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff
Millions of all people from all parties are united to stop these criminals and traitors.
American Freedom Campaign
To: Conyers
http://salsa.democracyinaction....._KEY=24355
30 years ago Jimmy Carter called for us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil through energy conservation as well as by investing in alternative energy sources. Then Reagan was elected, and short-term greed won out over long-term planning. Think of where we would be today had we worked to conserve energy and invested in solar and wind energy. We wasted 30 years, and the world is a more dangerous place because of it.
Bush has been trying to get at that oil since he took office. He’s running out of time. He has favors to repay. What better way to turn public opinion than hit the American consumer in the pocketbook? This is what happens when you fill the White House with oil executives with an agenda.
Conspiracy? Hell, yes!
Look at the fact that he gave this bs photo-op-for oil at 10:30 am. That says something to me about his hush hush secrecy.Publish the minutes of the Cheney et., al.,energy thugs in Bush`s first term.We`will find out exactly what heinous energy plan they hatched.National Security,my ass.
bush is partially correct about one thing: drilling in anwr would definitely reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
and if people here, on this forum, are totally serious about reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and yet DO NOT want to drill in anwr, better not be driving, or drivers, themselves. or flying. or doing anything that requires oil.
it’s pretty simple: if we continue to drive, we either drill there, or drill here.
or both.
if we stop driving, well…..
This is the colossal idiot that has been running our country for eight years.
God, I hate Bush, but he does make sense. You can cry about the environment and cry about oil dependency, but there must be compromise to solve problems with the way the governmental branches are set up. We live basically in a 2-party democracy. I’m a liberal democrat. I believe in alternative fuel exploration as well as oil exploration. How could a logical person not be for both?
If I were a political cartoonist I imagine my next piece would be to draw shrub and a few of his oil buddies standing over a pristine Alaskan wildlife and laughing while they watch shrub “write in the snow” using a gushing oil well in place of his teeny weeny… well you get it… and what is he writing? Basically “PWNED”.
What an oaf.
The insignificant amount of oil they want to take out of ANWR in comparison to the cost (direct from development) of procuring it (indirectly the damage to the environmental disaster that will be created and left behind) does nothing to help us become independent of foreign countries as to our energy needs, President Asshat Bush.
i don’t think it’s that simple to claim that, had bush and cheney not been in office, that we’d be well on our way to driving hybrids or electric cars.
the democratic party is wholly complicit in the destruction of the planet. the greatest democrat ever (not), bill clinton, was a huge proponent of free trade, neo-liberalism, etc.
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Not to mention how this government as weakened the dollar with it’s deficits and the Federal Reserve cuts, which has allowed oil to become so cheap, thus sending the price skyrocketing further, and caused the food crisis too…but forget about all that, WHAT’S THIS ABOUT HANNA MONTANA BEING NAKED????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
giving Bush the undeserved benefits of the doubt, he’s not entirely responsible for the skyrocketing price of oil and its ripple effect on the economy. Yet he’s hardly the one to have in the problem solver’s chair, either. High oil prices are not “a problem” to him or his core supporters. Just more Free Market Magic.
jwf @ 21:
Not only that, but how much driving they do. A prius driven 30 highway miles will use about as much gasoline as an expedition driven 10 miles. If people would live closer to work, carpool, ride a bike, use mass transit, that would make a huge difference. Peak oil may be here, and if it’s impossible to pump oil out of the ground faster, price controls will just result in a shortage, because there’s less incentive to conserve.
For the same reason, the idea of a federal gas tax holiday is a dumb one. Lowering the price will increase the demand, which will send the price right back up. At the same time, there will be less money available for road maintenance and we’ll see more bridges collapse like 35W in Minneapolis.
Let me at that magic wand, I will make Bush and his bastards disappear off the face of the Earth.
If fact, if you get me a good one I will turn the clock back to at least early November 2000…
and then make them disappear.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise?? It’s (oil) the only thing they truly care about and have been working on since entering politics. All the rest is bullshit.
Someone’s bitter and dreaming of a Dallas retirement.
Bush thinks he is the fairy oil-baron.
Funny how there’s no “conserve” in any conservative.
As if Dubya or Cheney would do anything to stop their Corporate profits?!
I like Pie @ 41:
Victor Ashe and Jim/Jeff Gannon/Guckert would probably agree.
I guess he thinks we are 3 years old. I used this line on my kids when they were whining about something when they were very small. It worked with them… not sure that it works with grown adults who can think, though.
I watched king goerge’s press confernece this morning. All I can say is welcome to what the rest of the G8 pays for gas. Where I live gas is now $1.35 a litre, that converts to $5.10 a US gallon. Yes I do understand the hardship of high gas prices,but as Bob Dylan once sang “the times they are a changing”
I forget who said it but someone once said “a little revolution now and then is a good thing”. I hear and see your politicians taking shots at each other but don’t they need to forget that and work on what they were sent to washington for?
why is the price of gas so high?
so repubes and their oil men can put pressure on the country to relax all the controls that have kept them from raping and pilaging the land for their personal gain. they want no rules for coal, no rules for nukes and no rules for drilling.
and today, yet one more oil company announced record profits.