The Kool-Aid Award goes to the OBM Machine – (Obama / Brown / Montgomery) How stupid do they think voters are! We all knew that the Obama Energy Plan was a fraud!

This E-mail was sent out to Placer County Democrats by the local Sierra Club Chapter

If you are concerned about Sen Obama’s position on offshore drilling, you must read the statement below from the Sierra Club.

The sender wrote the following preface:

Some Obama supporters have been concerned about the Senator’s recent statements concerning offshore oil drilling. Below is a Sierra Club memo to Club staff and volunteers explaining the Senator’s positions on energy. If you think it would be of value to circulate it to your Dem list, please feel free to do so.

To: Field and activists
FR: David Willett and Athan Manuel
RE: Update on offshore drilling and Obama

Last Friday, Senator Obama released a statement concerning proposed legislation from a bipartisan group of Senators that includes opening some areas to off-shore driling. He also made comments to the Palm Beach Post that some have interpreted as going further than the written statement in
support for drilling. Finally, Obama is giving a major speech in Michigan today on his energy policy. Some in the media are attempting to portray a major shift in Obama’s policies, but a closer look reveals that his statements were consistent with his existing policy. The biggest shift Obama is making today is calling for the opening of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—something Nancy Pelosi has been calling for for weeks and which
the Sierra Club has supported.

Key points for reference On Obama’s Energy Plan.

Senator Obama has strong positions and an excellent record on energy and environmental issues. His new plan released today prioritizes efforts that will benefit working families instead of the outdated fossil fuel industries. Like the Sierra Club, Senator Obama supports creating millions of jobs by investing in the cleanest technologies to meet our energy needs and stimulate our economy. Senator Obama’s mix of short and long term measures includes key goals like a windfall profits tax on Big Oil to pay for immediate consumer relief, a comprehensive and science-based plan for tackling global warming, increased fuel economy standards, a renewable energy standard, and more energy efficiency.

Senator McCain’s Energy Policy instead focuses on the wrong priorities. Instead of helping move America off oil, expanding our energy options or investing in a clean energy future that will create jobs our nation desperately needs, John McCain is offering more of the same policies that have devastated our economy but which are demanded by Big Oil who has given McCain more than $2 million. McCain’s plans won’t give consumers relief, but they will mean more profits for the oil companies and a third term for Bush energy policies that have benefitted the wealthy and powerful special interests and left ordinary families behind.

On Drilling:

1. As the Palm Beach Post points out, there was no new position or change in policy in Senator Obama’s statements about the legislative proposal, “Obama has always said that he supports expanded drilling in existing open
areas, which include offshore areas. His campaign figures there are 68 million acres currently open that are not being drilled on by oil companies. He opposes lifting the moratorium on drilling in the outer continental shelf.” In his speech today, Obama said specifically, “We should invest in the technology that can help us recover more from existing oil fields, and speed up the process of recovering oil and gas resources in shale formations in Montana and North Dakota; Texas and Arkansas and in
parts of the West and Central Gulf of Mexico.”

2. While open to drilling in existing areas, Obama actually prioritizes ending Big Oil’s tax breaks, while investing in fuel-effient cars and wind, solar and biofuels. He also states, “I remain skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term or significantly reduce our oil dependence in the long-term, though I do welcome the establishment of a process that will allow us to make future drilling
decisions based on science and fact.”

3. Obama’s energy plan does include some drilling, specifically the 68 million acre “use it or lose it” proposal that has already been outlined in Congress and defeated by Republicans. His speech also discussed increased production in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico where drilling already occurs. And there is also discussion in his plan of production of oil and gas from shale. The Sierra Club Board of Directors has created a task force to develop Sierra Club’s position on fracturing on shale for gas production.

4. As both Barack Obama and T Boone Pickens have said, we can’t drill our way out of this problem. Drilling our coasts would do nothing to reduce gas prices for the average American family—it would only line the coffers of the oil industry, which raked in more than $50 billion in profits in just the past three months alone. More offshore drilling is not a short-term fix. It would take at least a decade to bring new leases into production, and twenty years for them to reach peak production. With less than 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves, the oil would amount to a drop in the bucket on the world market and would have a negligible effect on gas prices, if any at all.

*Statement from Friday available from www.barackobama.com
Chicago, IL – Below is a Statement from Senator Barack Obama on the ‘Gang of Ten Bipartisan Energy Plan’ to Reduce Gas Prices and Break our Addiction to Foreign Oil:

“For too long, partisan gridlock and special interest influence has blocked progress on some of the most urgent challenges facing the American people, and that is especially true when it comes to our energy crisis. That is why I welcome today’s bipartisan effort as an important step in the process of reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and why I look forward to September’s bipartisan energy summit.

“Today’s announcement includes many of the policies I’ve been fighting for during my time in the Senate and over the course of this campaign. It would repeal tax breaks for oil companies so that we can invest billions in fuel-efficient cars, help our automakers re-tool, and make a genuine commitment to renewable sources of energy like wind power, solar power, and the next generation of clean, affordable biofuels.

“Like all compromises, it also includes steps that I haven’t always supported. I remain skeptical that new offshore drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term or significantly reduce our oil dependence in the long-term, though I do welcome the establishment of a process that will allow us to make future drilling decisions based on science and fact.

“But I’ve always believed that finding consensus will be essential to solving our energy crisis, and today’s package represents a good faith effort at a new bipartisan beginning. In the coming days, I’ll be laying out additional steps I believe we must take to bring down gas prices for good and truly free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil.”