Obama: “the American People Aren’t Stupid” (on “Drill, Baby, Drill” Strategy)
Obama absolutely nails the idiocy of “drill, baby, drill” in the video below, as well as the sad state of affairs in politics today — where the Republicans “licking their chops” about rising gas prices.
As we covered last night, drilling more for oil isn’t going to make gas prices fall, and as Obama notes, this has been the “bumper sticker” strategy of the GOP for 30 years (and it obviously hasn’t worked).
Thank you, Obama, for bringing a little bit of needed detail to the issue of rising gas prices and our foreign oil addition.
And, wow, he actually very enthusiastically talks about our need to develop wind and solar energy.
But he’s goes on beyond that, and even goes off script to note how younger generations (such as his daughters’) are so much more aware of the commonsense fact that natural resources are limited and we have to conserve them. In this segment, he also notes the important fact that the U.S. consumes over 20% of the world’s oil reserves but only has 2% of them.
Here’s the first video:
And here’s the text of a key part of this Obama segment via Brad Johnson of Think Progress but edited a bit to make it accurate with the actual words of Obama (and, as much as possible, his emphasis):
I mean, the American people aren’t stupid. They know that’s not a plan – especially since we’re already drilling. That’s a bumper sticker. It’s not a strategy to solve our energy challenge. That’s a strategy to get politicians through an election. You know there are no quick fixes to this problem. You know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices. If we’re going to take control of our energy future, and can start avoiding these annual gas price spikes that happen every year when the economy starts getting better, world demand starts increasing, turmoil in the Middle East or some other parts of the world, if we’re going to avoid being at the mercy of these world events, we’ve got to have a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy – yes, oil and gas, but also wind, and solar, and nuclear, and biofuels, and more. We need to keep developing the technology that allows us to use less oil in our cars and trucks, less energy for our buildings and our plants and our factories. That’s the strategy we’re pursuing, and that’s the only real solution to this challenge.
And here’s the second video, followed by text, edited and added upon, from what Brad Johnson shared on Think Progress:
[A]nybody who tells you that we can drill our way out of this problem doesn’t know what they’re talking about or just isn’t telling you the truth. And, and, and, you know young people especially understand this, because, you know, it’s interesting, when I talk to Malia and Sasha — you guys are so much more aware of, you know, conserving our natural resources and thinking about the planet. The United States consumes more than a fifth of the world’s oil, more than 20% of the world’s oil, just us. We only have 2% of the world’s oil reserves. We consume 20, we’ve got 2. And that means we can’t just rely on fossil fuels…
Great speech.
Obama photo via Justin Sloan
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