[Stormieweather]

Originally Posted by Adak

Obama says he's supported getting more oil, when in fact, he has opposed it in almost every possible way.

He's cut back so much on the drilling in the Alaskan OIL reserve, that the Alaskan pipeline oil is in danger of freezing up - barely enough hot oil flowing through it.

@Happy Monkey:

Is completely joining into that lie, OK with you? I'm not sure whether you're joking or not.

Since gasoline and diesel are close to double what they were under Bush, this IS an important issue for our economy - and immediately for our own fuel, as well as the price of all goods and services that must be transported.

I thought Obama's explanation of the public land leases was perfectly clear. Oil companies had leases on public land but weren't utilizing them. Obama's administration ended them so the land could be used now, not when the oil company felt like it/wanted to make the most profit.

NY Times fact checking:

Oil and gas production on public lands has fluctuated during the Obama administration, but it has increased modestly (about 13 percent for oil and about 6 percent for gas) in the first three years of the Obama presidency, compared with the last three years of the administration of President George W. Bush, according to an analysis from the Energy Information Administration.

The Interior Department produced a report this year showing that drilling permits received and issued by the agency had indeed declined from the last years of the Bush administration to the first years of the Obama administration — but not by half. (In the 2007 fiscal year, the government issued 8,964 permits to drill on public lands; in 2008 the figure was 7,846. The numbers for 2009 and 2010 were 5,306 and 5,237.)

Mr. Obama said that 7,000 drilling permits had been granted but were not being used by oil companies, an accurate figure, according to the Interior Department.

Mr. Obama stated that renewable energy production had doubled during his presidency, which is true, and that oil imports were at their lowest level in 16 years, also accurate. He also said that the boom in natural gas production could produce 600,000 new jobs, a highly optimistic estimate, but he qualified it with the word “potentially.”

NY Time fact checking