ericadawn16 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ericadawn16) wrote2012-04-04 03:20 pm
ericadawn16) wrote2012-04-04 03:20 pm
Big Oil launches a misleading ad campaign about the President’s energy record
The American Energy Alliance, a Big Oil front group, has launched a false ad in battleground states to mislead Americans about the President’s all-of-the-above energy strategy. The ad falsely claims that President Obama wants to raise the price of gas.
The outrageous claim is representative of Big Oil’s political interests, not the truth. Led by a former lobbyist for the secretive billionaire Koch brothers, the American Energy Alliance (AEA) is dedicated to pushing the oil industry’s agenda and attacking President Obama because his policies conflict with their interests.
President Obama is working to end the $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies that oil companies receive every year. But AEA declared such a move to be “discriminatory” and “outright hostil[e]” to the oil industry, despite the fact that big oil companies saw record profits last year while producing less oil.
The Obama administration has collaborated with automakers including GM, Chrysler, and Ford, who agreed to new fuel economy standards that will nearly double the efficiency of new cars and light trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. AEA called this “government intervention at its worst” and declared that “auto companies should be ashamed of themselves” for helping create and signing on to the agreement that is moving us away from dependence on oil.
What groups like AEA don’t acknowledge is that this president has expanded oil and gas drilling, and decreased our dependence on foreign oil. Instead, these Big Oil billionaires are upset that he is also taking steps to move the country toward a clean energy economy and save consumers at the pump by working to make sure that we are no longer tied to the volatile prices in the global oil market.
Right now, the country’s dependence on foreign oil is at a 16-year low, and both domestic oil and natural gas production have increased each year under President Obama. In fact, domestic production of natural gas is at an all-time high and domestic oil production is at its highest level in eight years. Additionally, the number of oil and gas rigs operating in the U.S. has increased by nearly 30 percent since the President took office. The Obama administration is facilitating the exploration offshore oil and gas and has proposed a plan that will make more than 75 percent of oil and gas resources in the Gulf and Arctic available.
President Obama’s historic investments have also helped increase clean energy production—net electricity from both wind and solar have more than doubled since 2008—and the Obama administration has approved renewable projects on public lands that are expected to power more than one million homes.
And the fuel efficiency standards that AEA argues are “government intervention at its worst?” Those will help reduce oil consumption by 12 billion barrels and will save Americans nearly $8,000 in gas per vehicle by 2025.
These steps reflect an all-of-the-above energy approach that continues to move the country towards energy independence. But because President Obama is seeking to end the billion-dollar taxpayer giveaway to Big Oil, industry-backed groups like AEA will continue to generate these false and misleading attacks.
The outrageous claim is representative of Big Oil’s political interests, not the truth. Led by a former lobbyist for the secretive billionaire Koch brothers, the American Energy Alliance (AEA) is dedicated to pushing the oil industry’s agenda and attacking President Obama because his policies conflict with their interests.
President Obama is working to end the $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies that oil companies receive every year. But AEA declared such a move to be “discriminatory” and “outright hostil[e]” to the oil industry, despite the fact that big oil companies saw record profits last year while producing less oil.
The Obama administration has collaborated with automakers including GM, Chrysler, and Ford, who agreed to new fuel economy standards that will nearly double the efficiency of new cars and light trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. AEA called this “government intervention at its worst” and declared that “auto companies should be ashamed of themselves” for helping create and signing on to the agreement that is moving us away from dependence on oil.
What groups like AEA don’t acknowledge is that this president has expanded oil and gas drilling, and decreased our dependence on foreign oil. Instead, these Big Oil billionaires are upset that he is also taking steps to move the country toward a clean energy economy and save consumers at the pump by working to make sure that we are no longer tied to the volatile prices in the global oil market.
Right now, the country’s dependence on foreign oil is at a 16-year low, and both domestic oil and natural gas production have increased each year under President Obama. In fact, domestic production of natural gas is at an all-time high and domestic oil production is at its highest level in eight years. Additionally, the number of oil and gas rigs operating in the U.S. has increased by nearly 30 percent since the President took office. The Obama administration is facilitating the exploration offshore oil and gas and has proposed a plan that will make more than 75 percent of oil and gas resources in the Gulf and Arctic available.
President Obama’s historic investments have also helped increase clean energy production—net electricity from both wind and solar have more than doubled since 2008—and the Obama administration has approved renewable projects on public lands that are expected to power more than one million homes.
And the fuel efficiency standards that AEA argues are “government intervention at its worst?” Those will help reduce oil consumption by 12 billion barrels and will save Americans nearly $8,000 in gas per vehicle by 2025.
These steps reflect an all-of-the-above energy approach that continues to move the country towards energy independence. But because President Obama is seeking to end the billion-dollar taxpayer giveaway to Big Oil, industry-backed groups like AEA will continue to generate these false and misleading attacks.
no subject
There are right-wingers I debate with on FB now and then, and one of them scoffed when I suggested that one political persuasion in this country distorts the truth (or outright lies) more than the other. I had no way to quantify it, so I let it go. Then PolitiFact put out some comparison pages, like this and this. Regarding Half True as pretty much par for the political course, I came up with these figures:
RNC: 22% True or Mostly True, 44% Mostly False or worse
DNC: 40% True or Mostly True, 29% Mostly False or worse
Barack Obama: 46% True or Mostly True, 29% Mostly False or worse, (includes 1% Pants On Fire)
Mitt Romney: 34% True or Mostly True, 40% Mostly False or worse (includes 11% Pants On Fire)
So yeah, based on these samples, one side really DOES lie more than the other.
no subject
They don't trust PolitiFact because it's run by the Tampa Bay Times, formerly the St. Petersburg Times, which has always been the liberal Tampa paper.
Then, if you point out facts that cannot be explained away so easily, they complain that you can find whatever you want to find if you look hard enough.
You can't rationally deal with people who refuse to think rationally.