Obama's Campaign 2012 Energy Ad

Just last week, Obama's 2012 campaign team released this video:



Now, while there's a lot that I could take issue with in this ad, there is one thing that is simply a blatant lie.

At the tail end of this video, the narrator states: "for the first time in 13 years, our dependence on foreign oil is below 50%". I guess from that statement we're supposed to "derive" two implied facts.

First of all, because the major focus of the ad is on "green technology", there is this implication that wind and solar energy have reduced our dependence on foreign oil. That's a complete distortion. The only thing that wind and solar actually replaces is our dependence on our own domestic coal and natural gas resources. Electricity production from diesel and gasoline is very small and primarily limited to portable and backup generators. Therefore, there is no way that wind and solar are helping to reduce our dependence on imported oil.

Secondly, it's also implied that Obama has somehow increased our domestic oil production. But, that's quite a trick for this President who's only been in office for 3 years. That's because it takes between 5 to 8 years before any newly issued oil leases can start producing oil. All the current increases in domestic oil production have resulted from leases issued during the Bush Administration. Obama, like Clinton, has done everything possible to block drilling and our dependence on Middle East oil. He just blocked the Keystone pipeline. Since the BP oil spill, he seized the opportunity to literally shutdown deep water drilling in the Gulf. His EPA is fighting East Texas drilling over the fate a nearly extinct lizard. It now looks like "fracking" technology may be halted by the EPA because of the pressure that's being exerted by the environmentalists. And, he has blocked any drilling in ANWAR and off the coasts of California and Florida.

One last thing. There is a reason that the narrator can say that "for the first time in 13 years, our dependence on foreign oil is below 50%". Thirteen years ago was the end of the Clinton Administration and the end to another anti-oil presidency. Due to all the blocking efforts of Clinton, he left office with our domestic oil production in decline. It took Bush's two-terms in office (eight years) to rebuild our domestic oil drilling capabilities.