(IBD) Lies, Damned Lies, And Obama's Phony Energy Statistics

[Daniel John Sobieski]

Energy Policy: Leases and production are down on federal lands, the EPA is waging war on coal, and as for building enough pipelines to encircle the earth, we'd settle for just one from Canada to the Gulf.

When President Obama, in responding Tuesday to Mitt Romney's chiding about failing to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, claimed that his administration has added enough new oil and gas pipelines to "encircle the Earth and then some," we felt a perfect response from Romney would have been, "You didn't build that."

In fact, energy companies have built some 55,000 miles of pipeline, including one from Canada, mostly requiring only state and local permits, and they have operated with an admirable safety record.

Keystone XL would be just as safe, creating 20,000 jobs up front. But Obama's blockage has been about catering to his environmentalist base, not reducing gas prices or creating jobs.

Keystone XL is part of Romney's plan for North American energy independence. As the Institute for Energy Research points out, Energy Information Administration (EIA) figures released last week reveal that the U.S. buys an average of 869,000 barrels a day of oil from the Venezuela of thuggish President Hugo Chavez.

The Keystone XL Pipeline, if approved, would bring almost that same amount of oil every day from our closest trade partner, Canada, to Gulf Coast refineries — the exact destination of Venezuelan crude.

Obama's pipeline whopper was not his only falsification of the facts Tuesday night.

Romney was exactly right that domestic oil and gas production is up only because of technology the EPA has fought to extract oil and natural gas from shale formations like the Bakken in North Dakota and the Marcellus centered in Pennsylvania.

 

Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/101712-629775-public-lands...